Monthly report: November 2023

November is over! Almost the last month of the year. Crazy! 

The stock market performed rather nice in terms of price appreciation. I had three big winner with more than 20% increases (HASI, BLK, INTC) with HASI even +36%. Some smaller winners like O, MDT, BAX, ASML. I had a few companies with losse of just over 5% like Ahold, Omega Healthcare and Cisco.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them.  They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of about €185 after tax. Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by about 25% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of my new positions in AOS (here) and increased positions in TXN (here and here) and Realty Income (O). Deere also showed steady dividend growth.

In the graph below I've showed my monthly dividend income.

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 10.500.

How was your November? What is your watchlist?

Monthly report: October 2023

October is already a few weeks over, but I didn't have the time to report my dividend income. In had a few small winners, like AOS (+5%) but nothing really big. I had a lot more losers this month like BAX , TROW, HASI, TXN, BMY and MDT (all more than a 10% loss).

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of about € 180 after tax. Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by more than 50% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of new or additional purchases in HASI, Realty Income, MDT and MPW (even though MPW cut its dividend earlier this year). Dividend growth for my other holdings are somewhat muted.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2023. The line for 2023 is continuously above that of 2022. And by a big margin! I've take some serious steps.

Currently my annual dividend income is around over € 10.400.

How was your October? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: Realty Income (O)

On October 23th I purchased an additional 25 shares in Realty Income (O). My first purchase was back in January 2018. I purchased 25 additional shares back in October 2022. I also bought a batch of 25 shares two months ago. 

I purchased shares about 12% cheaper than last time. Shares currently yield about 6,2% so I decided to strengthen my position further.

This purchase increases my annual dividend income with about $ 77.

Monthly report: September 2023

September is over! We're already starting the last quarter of 2023. September was not so nice in terms of stock price development . I had some big losers in the REIT-sector (especially MPW with -25%) but generally a broad decrease in my portfolio. Biggest winners were Shell and Exxon (+4 to +5%), probably because of rising oil prices.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of just over €470 after tax. 16 companies paid me dividends. The dividend income decreased by about 10% compared to last year including the FX-effect. This decrease has a few reasons:

• Dividend cuts from Intel and BHP.
• Closed positions in BIP and BEP.

Without these events my "regular" dividend income grew nicely. This is mainly the result of additional purchases in  Ahold (here), TROW (here), Aflac (here) UNP (here and more recently here) and O (here, and an additional purchase last month which I did not publish). Throw in some nice dividend increases from Shell and some smaller raises from other companies and this is the result.

So all in all a decent month!

In the graph above I've showed my monthly dividend income. You can see last year's high dividend payments (in June as well) but the underlying trend is still up.

How was your September? What is your watchlist for the next month?

Monthly report: August 2023

August is over! We're almost done with the summer. In my portfolio I had just one (big) winner (CSCO +9%), and some smaller winners. I had more losers though. Especially MPW (-27%) comes to mind because of its dividend cut, but also other companies like CMI, HASI, BAX and O lost between 8-13%.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them.  They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of about €170 after tax. Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by about 50% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of my new positions in ASML (here, here and here), TXN (here, here and here), APD (here) and an increased position in Realty Income (here). Deere also showed steady dividend growth.

In the graph below I've showed my monthly dividend income.

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 10.600.

How was your August? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: Realty Income (O)

On August 30th I purchased an additional 25 shares in Realty Income (O). My first purchase was back in January 2018. I purchased 25 additional shares back in October 2022. 

I purchased shares about 7% cheaper than last time. Shares currently yield about 5,4% so I decided to strengthen my position in this dividend aristocrat. Since my first purchase the dividend has grown on average about 3% per year. It's not really mindblowing, but together with its higher starting yield the returns are solid.

This purchase increases my annual dividend income with about $ 77.

Monthly report: July 2023

July is over! In had a few big winners, like UNP (+13%), TROW (+9%) and some others (like IBM, BLK, MPW). A pretty broad set of companies and industries performed nicely. MRK was my biggest loser with -7%.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of more than € 180 after tax. Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by more than 125% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of new or additional purchases in MPW (here and here), HASI (here) MDT (here) and Realty Income (here). Dividend growth for my other holdings are somewhat muted.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2023 (which obviously is just the first four months of the year). But the start is great, mainly due to the month of janary! I've take some serious steps.

Currently my annual dividend income is around over € 10.300.

How was your July? What is your watchlist?

Monthly report: June 2023

June is over! We're halfway 2023. June was a rather nice month in terms of stock price development (but not if you want to purchase new shares I guess). I had some big winners in the industrial sector like CMI (+18%), DE (+15%) and AOS (+11%), but also MPW performed lovely (+13%) after its decline earlier this year. Biggest loser was ASML with -2% so nothing I can't handle :-)

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of almost €330 after tax. 14 companies paid me dividends. The dividend income decreased by a lot compared to last year. This decrease has two reasons:

• A deferred dividend from my employer Brink in order to fund the acquisition of another company.
• No special dividend/spin-off from BHP. Last year I received shares of Woodside Energy Group as part of the merger of their oil and gas business with BHP. I recorded this as a special dividend from BHP.

Without these two events my "regular" dividend income grew with about 13%. This is mainly the result of additional purchases in TROW (here), Aflac (here) UNP (here and more recently here), CMI, JNJ (here) and O (here). Compared to last year I also had a new position in BLK (here and here). I already announced that for this quarter Intels dividend will be reduced due to a dividend cut. That's a shame of course, but sometimes that happens.

So all in all a fine month! I've used the dividend from Unilever and Shell to drip additional shares in both companies. I expect to use my available cash position to invest later in August.

In the graph above I've showed my monthly dividend income. You can see last year's high dividend payments but the underlying trend is still up.

How was your June? What is your watchlist?

Monthly report: May 2023

May is over! We're almost half way 2023 already! The stock market had a positive month because inflation worries are reduced, interest rate hikes have stopped and debt ceiling issues seemed to have been solved. In any case, I am not worried about all these things. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower (or higher) prices.

In my portfolio I had a few big losers, like BAX/HASI: (-15%), XOM/CMI -11-12%) and MDT/AFL/AOS/PM/DE (-9%), but I also had some winners, like ASML (+17%), OHI (+11%) and CSCO/TXN (+4-5%).

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. 

They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of more than €170 after tax. Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by more than 65% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of my new position in ASML (here, here and here), TXN (here, here and here), APD (here and here) and an increased position in Realty Income (here).

In the graph below I've showed my monthly dividend income. 

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 13.050.

How was your May? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: UNP

Three weeks ago I purchased 10 additional shares of Union Pacific. UNP operates North America's premier railroad franchise, covering 23 states in the western two-thirds of the United States.

My first purchase was back in May 2015. The stock price was about $108 and yielded 2,0% at the time. During the last year I purchased additional shares on two other occasions. Back in October 2022 10 shares and earlier this year 5 shares. The yield on these last purchases was around 2,4 tot 2,7%. For this recent purchase I paid $196 per share which puts the yield at 2,6%.

Over the 8 years I've had UNP in my portfolio the dividend on my original purchase has grown at more than 11% per year. Dividend growth is lumpy with years of 20% dividend growth and years with just 5%. I am more than pleased with the results of UNP. My total return for this position is just under 10%, so that includes dividend and stock price appreciation. UNP currently is my biggest equity position at 4,5% of my portfolio. Only the investment in my (own) employers company is bigger.

For now I guess my position in UNP seems full. This purchase adds about $50 to my forward annual dividend income.

Recent buy: AOS

This is a rather late post to mention the fact that I have opened a position in AOS. Back in February I bought 25 shares for about $66 per share. A few years ago I wrote an article on Seeking Alpha about the company and its growth prospects in China and India.

The current yield is rather low (about 1,8%) but so is the payout ratio (about 35%). The dividend has grown about 18% per year in the last 10 years. But it seems to be slowing down somewhat in the last 5 years but still a respectable rate of 13% per year.

This purchase will add about $30 to my forward annual dividend income.

 

Monthly report: April 2023

April is over! For almost three so this update is rather late, but I guess I was a bit busy.

April was a rather slow month. More than enough macro-economic news but the stock market didn't really react to it in a big way. We'll see what happens in the coming months. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

In my portfolio I had a few winners, like BAX (+18%), MDT (+14%) and MRK (+7%), but I also had some losers, mainly in the chip sector like TXN and CSCO (-10%), INTC and ASML (-7-8%). Deere also lost about 8%.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of almost € 300 after tax. Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by more than 125% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of an additional purchases in Ahold Delhaize (here), MPW (here and here), MDT (here) and Realty Income (here). Dividend growth for my other holdings are somewhat muted.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2023 (which obviously is just the first four months of the year). But the start is great, mainly due to the month of janary! What is awesome to see is that the income from last month is higher than my annual income from last year. I've take some serious steps.

Currently my annual dividend income is just over € 13.000.

How was your April? What is your watchlist?

Monthly report: March 2023

March is over! Already the 3rd month of a new year.  March was a hectic month with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of almost €390 after tax. 14 companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by over 15% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of additional purchases in TROW (here), Intel (here), Aflac (here) UNP (here), CMI, JNJ (here) and O (here). Compared to last year I also had a new position in BLK (here and here). I lost my dividend income from BEP and BIP (here). For the next quarter ending month (June) Intel's dividend will be reduced due to a dividend cut. That's a shame of course, but sometimes that happens. 

So all in all a rather good month! I've used the dividend from Unilever and Shell to drip additional shares in both companies. I expect to use my available cash position to invest later in April.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2023 (which obviously is just the first three months of the year). But the start is great!

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 12.900.

How was your March? What is your watchlist?

Monthly report: February 2023

February is over! Already the 2nd month of a new year.  Just like January, February was also a hectic month with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

In my portfolio I had a few big losers, like MPW (-14%), HASI (-17%), Intel/BAX (-14%) and BLK (-10%) but I also had some smaller winners, like AD and Shell (+9%).

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of more than €160 after tax. Eight companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by just over 47% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of my new position in ASML (here, here and here), TXN (here, here and here), APD (here and here) and an increases position in Realty Income (here).

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2023 (which obviously is just the first two months of the year). But the start is great!

Currently my annual dividend income is around € 13.050. I still have to report a dividend cut from Intel and some other dividend raises.

How was your February? What is your watchlist?

Recent buy: MPW

 Last week I added to an existing holding. On February 16th 6 I purchased another 100 shares of MPW for about $ 13 per share. This new purchase adds almost $ 116 to my annual forward dividend income. I first bought shares in MPW about 6 months ago for $14 per share.

They had some (serious) operator troubles but seem to be handling it. Last week MPW announced that it has agreed to lease its entire Utah hospital portfolio to Catholic Health Initiatives Colorado, a wholly owned subsidiary of CommonSpirit Health (“CommonSpirit”), subsequent to CHIC’s pending acquisition of the Utah hospital business currently operated by Steward Health Care System (“Steward”). Centura Health (“Centura”) will manage the facilities for CHIC. The expected transaction will further MPT’s long-term efforts to improve portfolio diversification by property type, geography and, in this case, operator.

We'll see how this all works out, but I am doubling down on this high-yielder. A lot of people also suggested OHI needed to cut its high dividend, but it's been paying it for years now!

Monthly report: January 2023

January is over! Already the first month of a new year. Last year around this time COVID finally reached family. This year however is a lot less hectic, thankfully. 

January was a good start of year with regards to the stock market. There were some serious up- and down days but I am not worried about that. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

In my portfolio I had a few losers, like BAX (-10%) and JNJ (-8%), but I also had some big winners like ASML (+17%), BHP (+14%), MPW (+12%) and V (+11%). All things considered my portfolio increased about 3%.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of almost € 6.000 after tax. For sure my biggest month ever! Nine companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by almost 600% compared to last year. This increase is mainly the result of an additional purchases in Brink (my employer), MPW (here), MDT (here) and Realty Income (here). Dividend growth for my other holdings are somewhat muted.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2023 (which obviously is just the first month of the year). But the start is great! What is awesome to see is that the income from last month is higher than my annual income from last year. I've take some serious steps.

Currently my annual dividend income is just over € 13.000. I still have to report some recent dividend raises and an addition to my portfolio. A hint: it is one of the winners from last month.

How was your January? What is your watchlist?

Recent buys (TXN, TROW, UNP & HASI) and sells (BEP & BIP)

During the last two weeks I made various moves because of a new tax rule. As a result of U.S. Internal Revenue Regulations taking effect 1 January 2023, new withholding charges will be applied to sales proceeds from certain Publicly Traded Partnerships ("PTPs”) held by investors who are not U.S. taxpayers. The amount of withholding is 10% of sale or distribution proceeds.  This means 10% of the amount of funds that would settle resulting from any transaction or distribution, not just 10% on any calculated profit. I had two positions which are affected by this new regulations. I decided to sell my position in BEP and BIP even though I added a few times during the last year.

• I sold 200 shares of BEP for about $ 26 per share. I 'lost' $256 in dividend income (before tax).
• I sold 150 shares of BIP for about $ 32 per share. I 'lost' $216 in dividend income (before tax).

I used the proceeds to add to three existing holdings and open one new position.

• On January 6 I purchased another 10 shares of Texas Instruments for $176 per share. The current dividend yield is around 2,8%. This purchase adds about $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On January 6 I purchased another 10 shares of T. Rowe Price (TROW) for $113 per share. The dividend yield at the moment of purchase was around 3,3%. This purchase also adds about $ 50 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On January 6 I purchased another 5 shares of Union Pacific (UNP) for about $213 per share. The dividend yield at the moment of purchase was around 2,4%. This purchase adds about $ 25 to my annual forward dividend income. 
• On November 29 I opened a new position in Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure. I purchased 130 shares for about $31 per share. The dividend yield at the moment of purchase was around 4,8%. This new purchase adds about $ 195 to my annual forward dividend income. 

Summary

Because of my sells in BIP and BEP I lost around $470 in dividend income. I used the proceeds to add to three existing holdings and open 1 new position. I gained about $320 in dividenc income. That sets me back a little but but I still have some cash laying around for 1 or 2 new purchases this month. My current annual dividend income is around € 11.300. 

Monthly report: December 2022

2022 is over! The final month of the year brought me some nice dividends even though the markets were volatile. I've got a few companies with declines of around 10-15% (ASML, INTC, TROW, BMY, MPW). The rest of my stocks are down less, and only O remained stable. In the end it's all about the dividend income. Since I am not a seller of stocks at this point in my life, I don't really care about lower prices.

Let's see how many companies sent me a dividend check for my ownership. These checks are the results of decisions I made earlier in life, sometimes years ago, where I decided to purchase shares in these companies. Nowaydays I still collect these checks but I have to do absolutely nothing to receive them. They just get deposited in my brokerage account, no questions asked. Isn't that great?!

A total of about € 330 after tax! Fourteen companies paid me dividends. The dividend income increased by about 45% compared to last year. Most of the growth is due to new purchases, but also because of dividend raises. New purchases in Blackrock (here and here), TROW (here), Intel (here), JNJ (here), UNP (here) Realty Income (here) and some nice dividend raises (UNP, AFL, TROW) really propelled my dividend income. 

The sale of BEP and BIP had a negative impact on my dividend income. I had to sell these positions because of a new tax rule which would have cost me 10% of my total proceeds when I decided to sell the position anytime after January 1 2023. That really bothered me because I had the feeling my portfolio was doing awesome and I liked the renewable energy space BEP operated in and had added shares a few times in the last year.

The graph below shows my monthly dividend income during the last years.

In the graph below I've showed my cumulative dividend income for 2022. I was ahead of last year since the start of this year. I expect the same will happen this year :-)

Currently my annual dividend income is about € 11.300 (before tax)

How was your December? What is your watchlist?