January 2020 Dividend Income: We Must Protect This House

2020 is off and running.  A month has already come and gone, but that just means it's time to log the dividends of the past month.  Let's get to it.

Iron Mountain (IRM): $1.93   Up $0.06 from last quarter due to DRIP and a dividend increase.
Pepsi (PEP): $0.96   Same as last time
Franklin Resources (BEN): $1.91  Up $0.60 due to a dividend increase and DRIP
AGNC: $0.17  Same as last time
Bed, Bath, and Beyond (BBBY): $0.69  Up a penny due to DRIP
Realty Income (O): $0.71   Same as last month 
Armanino Foods (AMNF): $0.28  Same as last quarter


This brings the sub-total up to $6.65.  It's up $0.68 from last quarter, but down compared to last year.

The 401K threw in $0.46, which is down 4 cents from last quarter, but up $0.30 from last year.

This brings the grand dividend total to $7.11, up $0.64 from last quarter, but down when looking at the YOY numbers.  That is largely due to the Best Buy fluke.

Speaking of, I've got good news for those who have been flummoxed by the randomness of that particular payer. Whilst visiting family for the holidays, I went rummaging through some old papers and found a way to get my Best Buy account sorted out.  So now, they have my current residential info and I set that dividend to reinvest.  As such, not only will the pay schedule normalize going forward, but we'll also be seeing a bit more momentum added to the dividend snowball. I am going to miss those checks, but I can change it back (and even do a DRIP/payment split apparently, which is kind of cool) later on down the line.

Interest payments clocked in at $3.05, which is down from December.  I chalk this up to the fact that I have started moving money from my online savings account into the IRA's.  It's a lateral move, at face value, but given the way compounding works, it actually results in a small step back, as you can see.  The way I figure, the Roth is giving me tax free growth and the deposits in the traditional IRA are going to give me a bigger tax return (I'm still working on the 2019 contributions at this point), so I think this strategy will work out to my benefit in the long term.

No buys this month.  I said that investing was going to be light early on and it proved true here.  I'm viewing the IRA contributions as my "moves" for the month.  I was able to increase my 401K contribution, though.  My employer had originally set the limit an associate could contribute to 10% of their income, which is what I was doing, but this year they upped the contribution limit to 30%...which I can't do...yet.  My brain fought itself pretty hard on this one.  There was a lengthy internal back and forth of

   "Do it!"
   "Can't"
   "Do it!"
   "Can't!"
   "DOO IIIT!!!"
   "CAAAANN'T!!!"



Ultimately, I didn't, though it is a goal for me to get myself to the point where I can.  As of now, it's at 11%, a small increase, but I am at least taking advantage of the bigger window.

Overall, this wasn't a shabby way to start off the new year.  There was decent growth due to DRIP, as well as a few dividend increases.  It may not have been a blow out and there were some decreased numbers peppered throughout, but pieces are being moved into place so that, going forward, things can progress much more effectively.

           


                             "stock dividend" by CreditDebitPro is licensed under CC BY 2.0 















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