Dividend raise: Intel (+5%)

It's time for another dividend raise ! Intel (ticker: INTC) decided to send me more money each quarter! They raised their quarterly dividend from $0.315 per share to $0.33 per share. That works out to a raise of $0,06 per share each year, roughly 5% extra. I currently own 63 shares, so that's an extra € 3,50 each year!

I have been a long-term shareholder of Intel. I bought my shares back in July 2013. The dividend growth is not exceptional but with slightly more than 6% per year nothing to sneeze at either.

However, if you look at it from a total return perspective, this investment has been quite amazing! The annual return of the stock price is around 17%. The fact that I received over 29% of my original investment in the form of dividends, adds around 2.5% to the return. Finally I have had some luck with foreign currency exchange rates, so that adds another 3% to the return. In total my return on investment has been 22% per year for almost 7 years!

How has your Intel investment performed over the years? Are you contemplating adding to your Intel position on the backdrop of its recent earnings beat?

Dividend raise: Realty Income (+2,2%)

It's time for the fourth dividend raise of the year! Realty Income (ticker: O) decided to send me more money each month! They raised their monthly dividend to $0.2325 per share. That works out to a raise of $0,06 per share each year. I currently own 25 shares, so that's an extra $1.50 (or € 1,35) each year! Ka-ching!

All jokes aside, Realty Income increases their dividend on more than one occasion each year (twice already this year), so hopefully there's more to come this year! So far I've received four dividend raises which increased my annual dividend income by almost € 6.

Are you satisfied with O's performance?

Dividend raise: Brookfield Renewable Partner (+5,3%)

My 3rd dividend raise of 2020! A few days ago Brookfields Renewable Partners (BEP) announced a raise in their quarterly dividend from $0,515 to $0,5425. For a stock that is yielding 4,7% this is a solid increase of more than 5%. This raise adds a roughly € 2,50 to my annual dividend income! It's actually my first dividend raise from BEP.

So far this is my third dividend raise. Last year I received 21 dividend raises in 2019. These raises combined have added around € 60 to my forward annual dividend income. In 2020 my dividend income has increased by over € 4 already. Of course I expect more raises during the rest of 2020. I'll keep you updated!

Goals for 2020

I recently discussed if I reached my goals for 2019. In this post I will elaborate on my financial goals for 2020. Here goes!

1. Deposits

New money is the fuel to my dividend machine! I've setup two monthly (automatic) payments.

• € 300,- towards my tax free retirement account.
• € 300,- towards my regular investment account.

I will increase my regular deposits toward my investment account to € 300,- per month, so € 3.600,- for this year.

For my tax free retirement account I can can still deposit around € 10.000,- tax free because my employer pension does not fully reach the tax treshold, therefore I am eligible to fund my tax free retirement account with my own money. Last year I deposited around € 1.900,-.  For this year I am setting a goal of € 3.600,- for this year.

Finally I would like to increase my ownership position in the company where I'm employed. I work as a consultant for a midsize consultancy firm specialised in real estate and area development. I currently have a medium stake which I'd like to increase a bit. So therefore I will save another € 1.800,-.

So all in all I want to deposit at least € 9.000,- this year towards my various investments. This is almost 60% more than I deposited last year. However, I think this is achievable!

2. Forward dividend income

Currently my dividend income is around € 1.700,- before tax. With the combination of invested capital, dividend growth en reinvestment of received dividens I am hoping to reach a forward dividend income of € 2.050,- (before taxes). This would mean an increase of 20%.

This it! It's just two simple goals. The first one is actually the most important. The 2nd is mostly a derivative and something I don't have a lot of influence on. I decided to not set another goal, for instance for blogging, as I don't want to feel obliged to write if I don't feel like it. Best of luck to you all in 2020!

Recent Buy: Unilever

Earlier in January I bought 18 shares of Unilever (UNA) for € 51,56 per share. The total amount of money invested is € 928,-. Unilever currently pays an annual dividend of € 1,64 per share so with this purchase my yearly dividend income increases with € 25 after tax. My forward dividend income now is around € 1.710,-.

I already owned 50 shares, so as of now I own 68 shares. The main reasons for my purchase are:

• Unilever currently seems fairly valued (P/E of 15x) after their dip in December because of a profit warning.
• Unilever is a long-term, stable company which has performed nicely since I am an owner (since July 2013).
• I want to increase my Euro-denominated positions to reduce the impact of forex-changes on my portfolio.
• I've mentioned these reasons earlier on my blog.

With my monthly deposits and dividend income I expect to do another purchase in three months.

What do you think of my purchase of Unilever? Are you currently looking to open (or add) a position in Unilever?

Review 2019: How Did My Dividend Growth Portfolio Perform?

In this post I will take a closer look at my portfolio performance during 2019. It's been a formidable year in terms of price appreciation, that's probably not a big suprise.

26% rate of return

First, let's take a look at the rate of return of my portfolio. I started the year with a portfolio value of roughly € 31.400. During the year I deposited around € 3.800,- which consisted of about € 2.200,- in my regular brokerage account and almost € 1.600,- in my employer stock program. The ending value of my portfolio is € 43.500,-. The rate of return when taking into account the timing of my deposits during the year, is about 26%.

I've made some benchmark calculations using national and global total return stock indices (VWRL, AEXGR and SWTSX). These alternatives would have returned about 25 to 29% last year. This is without taking into account the costs for these alternatives. So all in all I am doing just fine with my dividend growth portfolio, especially because my portfolio has a beta of around 0,7x so it supposedly is less volatile than a broad index.

28% more dividends received

During 2019 I received about € 1.340,- in dividends after taxes. Note: I can reclaim the 15% dividend tax with my yearly tax return. This amount is 28% higher than last year!

37% higher forward dividend income

I started last year with a forward dividend income of € 1.225,- (before taxes). Currently my dividend growth portfolio is expected to generate about € 1.680,-. This is an increase of 37% which is totally awesome and definitely bodes well for next year.

So all in all it was a solid great year! The downside is that stocks are becoming more expensive to purchase. In a few days I'll provide an update about my first purchase this year.

How was your 2019? Are you satisfied?

Goal Review of 2019: How Did I Do It?

Last year I wrote about my goals for 2019. This post will describe whether I reached these goals or nog. In short, my goals were as follows:

1. Deposit at least € 4.000,-

• € 1.800,- regular investment account
• € 1.400,- tax free retirement account
• € 800,- employer stock program

New deposits are the fuel to my dividend growth machine. So how did I do it?

• I deposited just over € 2.200,- in my regular brokerage account. So pass!
• I deposited just over € 1.900,- in my tax free retirement account. Another pass!
• I purchased € 1565,- worth of stock certificates in my employer stock program. You can read about it here. Three passes!

All in all I deposited about € 5.700,- which is more than expected. A halfyear pay raise at my job definitely helped to advance on these goals.

2. Annual forward dividend income of € 1.400,-
I wanted to reach a annual forward dividend income of € 1.400,- (before tax). Currently the meter says about € 1.700,- (slightly rounded upwards). So this one is a beat as well! There are two major reasons.

1. I deposited more money into my regular brokerage account; and
2. I now add my employer stock dividend to my annual forward dividend income.

Even without the last reason I still would have reached my goals, albeit with a much smaller margin.

3. Four quarterly buys
Another pass!

1. Quarter 1: AT&T
2. Quarter 2: Unilever
3. Quarter 3: Brookfield Renewable Partners
4. Quarter 4: Johnson & Johson
5. Bonus buy in Quarter 4: Brink

4. Regular blogging

Finally I wanted to blog more regularly about my dividend portfolio and my progress. I had about 50 blog posts this year. The majority were minor updates about dividend raises but I am satisfied nonetheless. It keeps me motivated in order to reach my goals. For me, that's the most important reason of blogging.

All in all it was a solid year. In a next post I will provide an overview of my goals for next year. Thanks for reading!

How was your 2019? Did you reach all your goals?