Dividend Investing

I cannot believe it! 2024 was crazy! Market notched 57 record closes on its way to end, with S&P500 up 23.31% and Nasdaq 28%. 2 back to back years of 20+% returns. Who would have thought? Here is my dividend income update for the year 2024 & what I did with my portfolio.

Dividend Income Update 2024

I made 8535.41 USD from my positions in 2024! It came from the following stocks and ETF’s:

This represents 44% increase as compared to last years dividend income update. Here is percentage breakdown of income from different stocks in the portfolio:

I am glad over 33% of dividends this year came from ETF’s (fixed income or equity). I will try and make this an even bigger pie in next year’s dividend income update !

My Buys in 2024

Too many buys to list out. But in addition to adding to my existing stocks like VTI, BND, VXUS, PFE, SBUX, PEP, ARE, TROW, O, here are the new positions I initiated in 2024:

Utilities were down a lot in the beginning of the year which gave me an opportunity to start a position in WEC Energy Group (WEC). They provide electricity and natural gas to multiple states in Midwest. It rarely goes at a 4% yield and I decided to pull the trigger then.

Humana (HUM) is in the business of providing health insurance to seniors mostly in Medicare Advantage section of the industry. It was a bad year for insurers due to multiple issues resulting in 40-45% drop in HUM’s stock price. I initiated a position in them and loaded up throughout the year.

First Industrial (FR) is a REIT that focuses on warehouses and logistics centers. REIT’s have been hammered down over rising rates and I decided to start my position in this.

Zoetis (ZTS) is a spinoff from Pfizer which focuses on animal healthcare. Animal health is a fast growing industry and ZTS is a leader in the industry. Decided to initiate a position when ZTS dropped in 140’s at beginning of 2024.

IBDS/IBDU iShares iBonds 2027/2029 Investment grade ETF’s. I came across these and these seem like a great idea. They are fixed maturity bond etf, that allow you to hold multiple investment grade bonds all of which expire by December of their maturity year. Unlike BND in which the yield and payout keeps changing as the underlying bonds mature and new bonds get added at prevailing yields. I though this product from Blackrock gave a more fixed yield which I know will end at its maturity. At the same time, I can hold multiple bonds in this ETF. Each share is 25$ face value and at maturity you are supposed to get it back (minus any per share impact of any company bonds in etf that defaulted of course) You can read more about it here and here.

My Sells and dividend cuts in 2024

Intel suspended its dividend this year which will impact my dividend income going forward. I need to re-evaluate if I want to keep the position in my portfolio or not, but their trouble seem to be never ending.

I sold out my positions in Phillip Morris(PM), Phillips 66 (PSX), Ally Financial Inc (ALLY) at or close to their highs in 2024. These were all very small positions and I did not see buying more of them to increase my dividend income, so decided to sell them to re-invest elsewhere.

Performance for the year 2024

My overall portfolio ended up at 14.32% for the year which is a big difference as compared to the market returns of 23% from VTI itself. Major laggard in my portfolio was about 20+% of fixed income (bonds, t-bills) that I now hold. Some of it might just be my emergency fund, some I might use in a downturn. Few more stocks contributing to underperformance were INTC, VFC both down about 50% from my cost basis.

Here is a neat timeline of dividends thrown by my DGI portfolio over the last few years which shows compounding of dividend income in action.

Plans for 2025

With my current holdings, I am already looking at 9700$ in 2025 in dividend income. So the stretch goal would be to get to about 11K in dividend income in 2025. I want more of it coming from ETF’s again. Hopefully close to 45% from ETF’s would make it more safe.

Dividends stocks do come with some risk, but with precautions you can avoid the risky one’s and choose the best dividend paying/growing stocks for your portfolio. I prepared a guide where I discuss some key ratios, fundamentals, some important resources to look at while deciding to buy a dividend stock. Also find out how to get free access to Morningstar, Value Line, workaround paywall behind popular news sites like Seeking Alpha etc.  Consider signing up for free instant access to the pdf version of the insights into dividend investing.

2023 was wild! started with bank failures and who would have guessed ended with S&P500 up 25% and Nasdaq 42%. Sandwiched in between were countless calls for a recession which never arrived, thanks to the power of American consumerism. Here is my dividend income update for the year 2023 & what I did with my portfolio.

Dividend Income Update 2023

I made 5945 USD from my positions in 2023! It came from the following stocks and ETF’s:

This represents 18% increase as compared to last years dividend income update. Here is percentage breakdown of income from different stocks in the portfolio.

My goal for the last 2-3 years has been to decrease the percentage of dividends from individual stocks like NATI, MO in each dividend income update. NATI went from 26% to 16% in 2023! NATI also got bought out by Emerson in 2023. This will eliminate my NATI dividends in 2024. That sucks in the long run since those dividends were compounding for me. However I did make a 100% return on my investment.

My Buys in 2023

Despite the 18% increase in VTI in 2023, there was lot of volatility in the market due to interest rates. Fed kept raising rates till middle of the year and paused since then. This lead to great buying opportunities in REIT’s, stable dividend stocks.

I initiated a new position in Alexandria Real Estate Equities Inc (ARE). They got beaten down due to interest rates and the office real estate industry they operate in. However they are not any typical office space. They are into offices for biotech companies which have very special requirements.

Started a new position in Charles Schwab Corporation Common Stock (SCHW) after they got beaten down due to the banking crisis in the first half of the year.

Initiated positions in Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund ETF (BND) and Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund ETF (VXUS). I want to have more dividend income coming from ETF’s in future. Buying BND is also a bet on interest rates coming down and it can give me some capital appreciation as well.

Healthcare also had a down year in 2023. I took this opportunity to start positions in Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) & Medtronic PLC (MDT). Both have excellent credit ratings and a very safe dividend. I believe these two can whether any storm and are excellent additions quality wise in my portfolio.

Apart from the new adds I increase my positions in O, VZ, VTI, ORCL throughout the year.

My Sells and dividend cuts in 2023

As mentioned before NATI got acquired which let me to let go off my stake.

I also sold LW, ONL as they were too small a position in my portfolio and contributed for very less dividend.

I faced dividend cuts in VFC and INTC both of which I still hold. INTC went down 50% and has come back in the past year. I still like the brands VFC owns and want to see them succeed in the long term.

Performance for the year 2023

I ended the year at 28.6% as compared to 25.5% for SPY and 42% for Nasdaq. Another year of beating SPY/VTI in the books. Here is a neat timeline of dividends thrown by my DGI portfolio over the last few years which shows compounding of dividend income in action.

Plans for 2024

I will continue to buy more etf’s and want to see them becoming a much bigger part of the next annual dividend income update. Reduce dependance and risk from dividends from individual stocks. Add/increase position sizes in highest quality dividend payers.

Dividends stocks do come with some risk, but with precautions you can avoid the risky one’s and choose the best dividend paying/growing stocks for your portfolio. I prepared a guide where I discuss some key ratios, fundamentals, some important resources to look at while deciding to buy a dividend stock. Also find out how to get free access to Morningstar, Value Line, workaround paywall behind popular news sites like Seeking Alpha etc.  Consider signing up for free instant access to the pdf version of the insights into dividend investing.

Dividend investing for me is a long-term strategy. I like to buy great companies at good value based on historical metrics, dividend safety & future prospects. Hold them for a long time, re-invest dividends and wait for compounding to do its magic. 2022 was a crazy year! S&P500 finished 2022, 19.4 % down. Energy was the one of the top performing sector. Where as the pandemic infused growth of many technology stocks seemed to be fizzing out. I bonds made a gigantic comeback providing up to 7% risk-free annual yields in 2022. Here is my dividend income update for the year 2022 & what I did with my portfolio.

Dividend Income Update 2022

I made 4817 USD from my positions in 2022! It came from the following stocks:

$ 4817 represents another 25% increase in dividend income from 2021. Here is a percentage breakdown of dividends from all stocks in my portfolio.

One of my goals for 2022 was to reduce the reliance on dividends from NATI, T & MO. I was able to bring their contributions down from 45 to 41%. At the same time I was also able to increase my dividends from VTI by almost double the amount in 2021. This helps in lowering the risk on my dividend income.

If you are interested in these graphs and charts, please check out my post on how to create your own google sheet to track your portfolio across multiple accounts and create such graphs and chart.

My Buys in 2022

I bought a lot of stocks in 2022.

I doubled my VTI holdings over the year which should provide me about 580$ in 2023 dividend income update.

EDV (Vanguard Extended Duration ETF): This is a risky pick. Its an etf holding 24 year out US government bonds and treasury bills. At todays prices it provides about a 4% yield. However its price solely trades inversely to interest rates declared by the fed. If the fed rates go up, the price of this etf goes down in order to provide the same interest rate. Look at how its price has come down from 140 to 82 in 2022 on the back of interest rates going to all time highs in last few years. However the inverse is also true, with the FED signaling interest rates to pause and maybe even start dropping in middle of 2023, the price of this etf could start going back up. I will exit this position if it goes 20% down from here, but hold it if it starts going up in 2023.

INTC (Intel Corp): I had started buying this in 2021 and bought way more in 2022 after the carnage in stock price this year. I still think their investments in the business will payoff eventually and I am happy to hold for dividends for the time being.

FIS (Fidelity National Information Services): They are heavily involved with payments industry. They help with accepting payments, banking software and a lot more within the finance industry. Their solutions are sticky and the company has been growing dividend fast. They paused the dividend growth during the pandemic which I think is sign of a prudent leadership. But at a 2.70% starting yield I think it could be a good buy!

MDT (Medtronic PLC): They are a massive company in healthcare space. Medical devices is a sticky business. Doctors tend to stick with what has worked so far and are hesitant to recommend something new. a starting yield of 3.5% and dividend raises in high single digits was something I could not refuse.

O (Realty Income): Well STOR Corp(STOR) got bought out this year. So I ended up moving some of those funds to O. Still on the lookout to buy another REIT so that my REIT bucket stays full.

ORCL (Oracle Corporation) : Oracle got left behind on the cloud infrastructure and transformation business by AWS, Microsoft and Google. But off late they are growing their cloud related revenues fast. I know their ERP business is sticky and they have a lot of enterprise clients who will be looking to move to the cloud in coming years. That is a lot of new avenues to sell a lot more cloud products to them. Oracle is not very reliable in growing dividends year over year. But they do a lot of buybacks which help make you a bigger owner in the company.

VTI (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund ETF) : I had been buying very less VTI in 2021 at all time highs. But 2022 gave me a lot of opportunity to add to my VTI position. As you know I am big believer in index investing.

VFC (VF Corp): VF Corp has grown dividends for 48 years. They have been having issues with inventory, debt in 2022. This has resulted in their stock price cratering to unimaginable levels. However I still like Vans, Timberland, The North Face. These are very highly reputable brands and I think VFC can still get out of this in next couple of years.

My Sells in 2022

I kept rotation on my portfolio to a minimum. The only sells I had were due to buyouts. MNR and STOR were two REIT’s that got bought out. I moved these funds to stocks in my existing portfolio mentioned above.

Performance for the year 2022

Overall I ended the year at 13% loss as compared to loss of 19% in VTI and 18.17% loss in S&P 500. I am still pretty happy with the dividend income growth as well as the performance of the portfolio.

Here is a neat timeline of dividends thrown by my DGI portfolio over the last few years which shows compounding of dividend income in action.

Plans for 2023

My first goal is same as last year’s dividend income update, reduce the percentage of dividends from NATI, MO & T by buying more of other reliable dividend stocks. Another goal of mine is to increase the total dividends by 25% in 2023. I am also planning on consistently buying more VTI. As I have said before index investing is really my favorite type of investing and it also gives dividends.

Dividends stocks do come with some risk, but with precautions you can avoid the risky one’s and choose the best dividend paying/growing stocks for your portfolio. I prepared a guide where I discuss some key ratios, fundamentals, some important resources to look at while deciding to buy a dividend stock. Also find out how to get free access to Morningstar, Value Line, workaround paywall behind popular news sites like Seeking Alpha etc.  Consider signing up for free instant access to the pdf version of the insights into dividend investing.

Dividend investing for me is a long-term strategy. I like to buy great companies at good value based on historical metrics, dividend safety & future prospects. Hold them for a long time, re-invest dividends and wait for compounding to do its magic. I am a bit late at this update. 2021 year end was a pretty busy time for me personally and professionally. Here is my dividend income update for the year 2021 & what I did with my portfolio.

Dividend Income Update 2021

I made 3829 USD from my positions in 2020! It came from the following stocks:

This represents a 24% increase in dividends from 2020. Here is a percentage breakdown of dividends from all stocks in my portfolio.

One of my aims last year end was to reduce my reliance on dividend from NATI, MO & T. However, I am still getting over 45% of the total dividends from these 3 companies at end of 2021. I will have to work hard on reducing this in 2022.

If you are interested in these graphs and charts, please check out my post on how to create your own google sheet to track your portfolio across multiple accounts and create such graphs and chart.

My Buys in 2021

2021 was a pretty crazy year. Many stocks were at all time highs. We saw crazy evaluations for companies making no profit whatsoever. I did not initiate any new positions this year. All I did during the year was adding to my existing positions when I saw value.

My Sells in 2021

Nothing. Nada. This is exactly how I like it. No rotations, no sells. Just holding long term.

Performance for the year 2021

Overall I ended the year at 19% gain as compared to 25% in VTI and 26% in S&P 500. This cancels out my outperformance over the last couple of years. I am still pretty happy with the dividend income growth as well as the performance of the portfolio.

Here is a neat timeline of dividends thrown by my DGI portfolio over the last few years which shows compounding of dividend income in action.

Plans for 2022

My first goal is to reduce the percentage of dividends from NATI, MO & T by buying more of other reliable dividend stocks. Another goal of mine is to increase the total dividends by another 25% in 2022. I am also planning on consistently buying more VTI. As I have said before index investing is really my favorite type of investing and it also gives dividends.

Dividends stocks do come with some risk, but with precautions you can avoid the risky one’s and choose the best dividend paying/growing stocks for your portfolio. I prepared a guide where I discuss some key ratios, fundamentals, some important resources to look at while deciding to buy a dividend stock. Also find out how to get free access to Morningstar, Value Line, workaround paywall behind popular news sites like Seeking Alpha etc.  Consider signing up for free instant access to the pdf version of the insights into dividend investing.

Dividend investing for me is a long-term strategy. I like to buy great companies at good value based on historical metrics,  dividend safety & future prospects. Hold them for a long time, re-invest dividends and wait for compounding to do its magic. 2020 was a crazy year! Market saw a 33% drop in March. Followed by a rally which saw S&P 500 return 18% for the year 2020. We saw so many stocks double or triple in space of 9 months! It is very difficult to keep on your dividends path when you see high growth/speculative stocks triple in 9 months. Here is my dividend income update for the year 2020 & what I did with my portfolio.

Dividend Income Update 2020

I made 3085 USD from my positions in 2020! It came from the following stocks:

This represents a 46% increase in dividends from 2019. Here is a percentage breakdown of dividends from all stocks in my portfolio.

As you can see, 3 stocks (NATI, T & MO) made up about 45% of my dividends in 2020. Even when I did my 2019 dividend income update, these 3 stocks did make about 45-47% of dividends that year. I have had the goal to bring down this percentage, however good value at various times throughout the year forced me to keep buying some of these stocks and so the percentage of their contributions remains the same.

If you are interested in these graphs and charts, please check out my post on how to create your own google sheet to track your portfolio across multiple accounts and create such graphs and chart.

My Buys in 2020

As I mentioned earlier it is very difficult to keep on your path when you see stocks doubling or tripling in a 9 month period. You always want to jump on the bandwagon in such cases but resisting is very hard. Keeping this in mind, I only bought INTC (Intel), MNR (Monmouth Real Estate) & HON (Honeywell) as new positions during the year. All were bought at good valuations as compared to their history. I wish to keep adding to these companies in future & I have no doubt they will help me grow my dividend portfolio.

Apart from the new positions, I kept adding new money to most of my existing positions through out the year except for TGT, QCOM, XOM, PEP, LW & BLK. All stocks did have dividends reinvested into them.

I also had the opportunity to keep adding to my VTI position which was a goal of mine at beginning of 2020.

My Sells in 2020

I sold out of GIS & TROW early in the year. They were relatively small positions in my portfolio & I wanted to focus on higher dividend growth rate companies and wanted to focus on lesser positions.

Apart from this, I also sold a bit of NATI, KTB to reduce position sizes whenever they got bigger than what I want them to be.

Dividend Cuts/Suspensions

Pandemic created havoc on people & businesses through most of 2020. It is natural to expect some of the companies to cut their dividends and come under a lot of un-natural stress. It doesn’t mean we cut those companies from our portfolio. I did have Disney Inc. (DIS) & KTB (Kontoor Brands) who cut their dividends in 2020. But I held on to both of them. Bought more of them at various price points. I am happy to report that both have more than doubled from my lowest purchase point during the year. KTB even brought back its dividend albeit at a lower level.

Not only this, but I also started selling covered calls for income on my KTB position which helped me make about 130$ on my position despite them paying dividends for only 2 quarters in 2020.

Performance for the year 2020

I ended the year at 22% as compared 18% from S&P 500 across my roth and traditional brokerage accounts. I did have a few non dividend income paying stocks that also helped me to beat S&P in those accounts. But point is by being consistent, having less rotation, mostly buying and holding & investing in great quality dividend paying companies it is possible to come out ahead and also create a good income stream.
Here is a neat timeline of dividends thrown by my DGI portfolio over the last few years which shows compounding of dividend income in action.

Plans for 2021

Buy more dividend growth stocks in our roth accounts. Currently, I get 45% dividends from 3 stocks in my portfolio. I will try to increase my existing positions in some holdings. I am also planning on consistently buying more VTI. As I have said before index investing is really my favorite type of investing and it also gives dividends. I also plan to start creating such reports only annually instead of a quarterly cadence before. I want to focus more on bringing quality content to this blog. Have more articles on investing philosophy, concepts and less on just stock ideas or my portfolio details. Hoping this becomes more useful to you in the long run.

Dividends stocks do come with some risk, but with precautions you can avoid the risky one’s and choose the best dividend paying/growing stocks for your portfolio. I prepared a guide where I discuss some key ratios, fundamentals, some important resources to look at while deciding to buy a dividend stock. Also find out how to get free access to Morningstar, Value Line, workaround paywall behind popular news sites like Seeking Alpha etc.  Consider signing up for free instant access to the pdf version of the insights into dividend investing.

How was 2020 for your portfolio? Please let me know in the comments.