Monthly report: December 2019

It's the last time of the year for my monthly dividend report! 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?!

Twelve companies paid me during the last month of the year. Even though it is not a record breaking month, it's still almost 24% better than last years December. The growth is fueled by additional and/or new purchases of UNA, BEP, JNJ and two solid dividend raises from UNP. I actually received my first Johnson & Johnson dividend!!

The two graphs below provide an overview of the whole year and compares it to earlier years. Compared to 2018 I received about 28% more dividends in 2019. Let's see if I can keep this up during the next year!

So finally, let's take a look at the best and worst performers in the last year. Please note that while writing this report, there are two trading days left so things can change slighty.

Top performers were KMI, BBL, JNJ and T with prices increases between 5-10%. The worst performers are UNA, O and AFL. These companies lost about 4 to 5% of their share price in the last month. I am currently contemplating adding to my Uniliver position in the new year. They have recently warned that the targets of 2019 might be missed. This resulted in a drop of the stock price. But I am not too worried about it since I am in it for the long haul.

Thanks for reading!

How was your last month of the year? What is on your watchlist for the new year?

How I Saved € 500 in a few clicks!

Today I will elaborate a little bit about how I was able to save roughly € 500 with a few clicks. It's only applicable for my Dutch readers, but the general principle is interesting nonetheless.

I am the happy owner of a student loan which I collected during my college period. I am obligated to pay it back in 15 years after a grace period of 2 years. Currently I am about halfway. The interesting thing though is that the interest part of this debt is linked to our government bonds and fixed for a period of 5 years. I just started a new period of 5 years for which my interest rate is.... 0,0%!! That's free money in my eyes :-)

The 2nd interesting thing is that we have the option to receive another grace period of 5 years (or multiple grace periods, for a total duration of 5 years). This gives me the option to stop paying back my student loan, and redirect this cash flow to my mortgage for which I have to pay about 2,5% interest. The real interest rate is a little bit lower however, because I get to deduct the interest payed with my income taxes. However, it's still a net saving and if I do this for 5 years straight, I will save about € 500.

Other advantages are that I might be able to receive a better rate when my mortgage period ends in 7 years because I have a better Loan-to-value. And if I die in the coming 5 years, my student loan will be cancelled anyway but my family still has the benefit of a slightly lower mortgage.

The only risk is that the interest rates will go up in 5 years. However, if I spend the money on extra payments for my mortgage I actually reduce the interest rate risk because my morgage has a higher interest rate  and it has to be refinanced in 7 years anyway.

Just some random thoughts about my personal finance situation. I will post later about my goals for 2020 and the results for December 2019.

Do you have student debt? Do you want to get rid of it or would you consider delaying payments in order to boost your dividend income?

Dividend raise: T (+2,0%)

My 2nd dividend raise of 2020! A few days ago AT&T (T) announced a raise in their quarterly dividend from $0,51 to $0,52. This raise adds a whopping € 1,50 to my annual dividend income! It's actually my first dividend raise from T. I expected a penny raise so this is fine.

So far this is my second 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 almost € 2 already. Of course I expect more raises during the rest of 2020. I'll keep you updated!

Dividend raise: Realty Income

My first dividend raise of 2020! A few days ago Realty Income (O) announced a raise in their monthly dividend from $0,227 to $0,2275. This raise adds a whopping € 0,13 to my annual dividend income. Ka-ching!

All jokes aside, Realty Income increases their dividend on more than one occasion each year. Last year they raised the dividend 5 times. This is their first raise in 2020. Hopefully there's more to come next year!

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

Did you like the dividend raise of O? Do you consider selling because of the low dividend growth rate?

Dividend report: November 2019

It's time to give an update of the dividends I received last month. Five companies decided to pay me a dividend for my ownership. Total dividends (after tax) are around €92, which definitely is a big increase compared to last year. November is a solid month but quarter ending months are my big paying months.

You can see the breakdown in the table below. I received nice dividend increases from KMI and DE and my addition of T earlier this year.

As of now, my annual dividend income is roughly € 1.700 before taxes. This is more or less in line with last month.

How was your November? Are you looking forward to December as one of the big paying months?

Recent buy: Brink

In my last monthly report I hinted about a new stock purchase that occured a few weeks ago. I am sorry for not reporting earlier but better late than never I guess!

I purchased 20 additional shares of the company I work for. I work as a real estate and finance consultant for a mid sized management and consulting firm. I like my job very much! It offers me a lot of interesting and challenging projects in the field of real estate and area development. I love solving and optimizing these financial puzzles with Excel spreadsheets but also to be able to give customers quality advice about how to act.

My company has been profitable for at least the last 15 years, even during the big downturn in 2009-2010. The company is fully owned by its employees. There are no outsider shareholders. I really like that, because the interests as shareholders and colleagues are aligned most of the time. Everytime the company performs, everyone profits, whether you are a shareholder or not.

My company has a policy to distribute its earnings based on a theshold for the capitalization rate of at least 30%. Excess funds are distributed as dividends in two payments: a bigger one of 75% just after the financial year has ended and a final payment at the shareholder meeting a few months later.

The valuation of my company is based on a 5.5x multiple of the last three years earnings and the forecast for next year's earnings. Its dividend yield based on last year's dividend is almost 9%. My purchase of 20 additional shares adds roughly € 140 to my annual dividend income (before taxes). This stands at almost € 1.700,-!

As of now this position is about 7% of my portfolio and 16% of my dividend income. My plan is to purchase a lot of new other stocks to further diversify my portfolio. I am able to purchase shares in my company once a year, so hopefully I can purchase another batch next year!

Would you consider purchasing shares in your own company?

Dividend report: October 2019

It's time to give an update of the dividends I received last month. Four companies decided to pay me a dividend for my ownership. Total dividends (after tax) are around €35, which is barely an increase compared to last year. October definitely is a slow month for me.

You can see the breakdown in the table below.

As of now, my annual dividend income is roughly € 1.700 before taxes. This is an increase of €175 compared to last month. This is because of a stock purchase I did not report earlier. I'll come to that in a later post.

I made a new tree chart of my portfolio which shows the weights of my positions but also the price performance during the last month. Green are the best performers, red are the worst. In this case mainly BAX and IBM, and some minor decreases in a few other stocks. Winners are INTC, UNP, TROW, PM, BEP and ACCEL. They all gained about 8 to 12% last month, which is nice for my portfolio value, but not so much for a possible buying oppurtunity.

October is a slow month for me. How was your October? Would you consider purchasing a stock just because it pays in a slow month?

Dividend raise: Omega Healthcare Investors (+1,5%)

Twee weeks ago Omega Healthcare Investors (OHI) announced a raise in their quarterly dividend from $0,66 to $0,67. This raise adds about € 4 to my annual dividend income. Ka-ching!

Their dividend growth stalled for almost two years. Let's see if OHI can start to increase its dividend on a quarterly basis, which they used to do. Hopefully there's more to come!

So far I received 21 dividend raises in 2019. These raises combined have added almost € 60 to my forward annual dividend income. Maybe thare are more raises during the rest of the year. I'll keep you updated!

Did you like the dividend raise of O? Do you consider selling because of the low dividend growth rate?

Recent buy: JNJ

Recently I opened a new position in Johnson & Johnson (ticker: JNJ). I purchased 8 shares for around $ 132 per share. This purchase adds about € 30 to my annual dividend income which now stands at € 1.550.

I opened my position with the following things in mind:

• A solid dividend yield of 3%. Historically, this seems to be a decent entry point. 

• It  has been and still is a great dividend stock. JNJ increased its dividend for almost 60 years. During the last decade the dividend growth hovered around 7% per year.
• The payout ratio of 45% is more than safe.
• The balance sheet of JNJ is solid and the company still is one of the few companies in the world with a triple A credit rating.
• Obviously there are legal issues (J&J must pay $8B in a Risperdal case, but also cases around the U.S. opioid addiction epidemic.). However, this seems to be business as usual for JNJ as they have been in several lawsuits in their long history. Up until now, that has never stopped them from growing their revenues, profits and dividends, so I am not too worried about this now.

I don't expect this purchase to be a "big-hitter" in the sense that it will turn out to be a high growing dividend or share price. I see this purchase as a starter position in my quest to own shares in three dozens of the world's best companies. I believe JNJ is one of them. Depending on the future share price I will add shares on following occasions.

With this quarterly purchase I have completed my buys for this year. I wrote about my goals for 2019 earlier this year.

1. Quarter 1: AT&T
2. Quarter 2: Unilever
3. Quarter 3: Brookfield Renewable Partners
4. Quarter 4: Johnson & Johson

Finally, I will buy additional shares in the company where I work. I can buy shares once per year and I submitted a form to double my current position from around € 1.500 to € 3.000. This will add roughtly € 140 to my annual dividend income stream. I will write about this in a future post!

I hope I can increase the frequency of purchases next year (or increase the size of my purchases). I am still enthusiastic about my dividend growth portfolio and am motivated to keep working hard to fuel its growth.

What companies have you bought lately? Are you looking to invest JNJ at its current price?

Dividend report: September 2019

It's time to give an update of the dividends I received last month. Twelve companies decided to pay me a dividend for my ownership. Total dividends (after tax) are around €191, which is an increase of 25% compared to last year. The growth was fueled by solid dividend increases from BBL and UNP (raise 1 and raise 2), an addition to my existing position in Unilever earlier this year and my newest purchase of BEP.

You can see the breakdown in the table below.

It's the same message all over again. It's been my best September so far! I expect to hit my first $200 month next year (maybe in March, else in September). As of now, my annual dividend income hovers around € 1.525 before taxes. This is in line with last month. I expect to do another purchase in the coming days with fresh capital and received dividends combined.


I made a new tree chart of my portfolio which shows the weights of my positions but also the price performance during the last month. Green are the best performers, red are the worst. In this case UNA, KO, BAX and PM are red but they only decreased about 1 or 2% last month, so nothing bad. INTC, DE, RDS and IBM gained about 8 to 11%, that's nice!

September seems to be the month with a lot of dividend payers. How was your September?

New milestone: portfolio value of € 40.000!

This month I reached a new milestone with my dividend growth portfolio! It has nothing to do with dividends however. My portfolio reached a value of € 40.000,-. Since my last €10k milestone back in May 2018, I reached this new high in just 16 months.

The extra € 10.000,- has different sources, namely deposits, dividend and capital gains. The breakdown is as follows:

• 22% deposits
• 18% dividends
• 60% capital gains

The distribution is changing with each € 10k increment. Deposits make up less of the breakdown, whereas dividens and capital gains take up a higher percentage.

Let's see when the next milestone is due. Up to € 50k!

Dividend raise: Realty Income

Last week Realty Income (O) announced a raise in their monthly dividend from $0,2265 to $0,2270. This raise adds a whopping € 0,14 to my annual dividend income. Ka-ching!

All jokes aside, Realty Income increases their dividend on more than one occasion each year. This is actually its 5th raise this year. Hopefully there's more to come this year!

So far I received 20 dividend raises in 2019. These raises combined have added around € 56 to my forward annual dividend income. Of course I expect more raises during the rest of the year. I'll keep you updated!

Did you like the dividend raise of O? Do you consider selling because of the low dividend growth rate?

Dividend raise: Philip Morris (+3%)

Earlier this week Philip Morris (ticker: PM) raised its quarterly dividend from $1,14 to $1,17. This is a raise of almost 3%. It adds about € 2 to my annual dividend income (before taxes). 

Since my purchase of PM shares back in 2013, I've received six dividend raises. The compounded annual dividend growth rate of 3,7% is not exactly what I expected. Let's hope the dividend growth picks up, maybe after a merger with Altria. Who knows.

This year I've received 19 dividend raises that added over € 55 to my annual dividend income so far.

Are you a shareholder of PM? And what do you think about its dividend raise?

Brookfield Renewable Partners: Have Your Cake And Eat It Too

Brookfield Renewable Partners L.P. (BEP) is a globally diversified, multitechnology, owner and operator of renewable power assets. In my last article I wrote about ESG investing and whether Ecolab could be an addition to my portfolio. In this article I’ll take a dive into Brookfield Renewable Partners.

Business model
The business model of BEP is actually rather simple. They acquire and develop renewable power assets and businesses (mainly hydro, solar and wind), finance these assets with a mix of debt (investment grade basis) and equity and optimize cash flow and value utilizing their operating expertise. BEP locks in stable cash flows via long-term (usually 20-year), inflation-adjusted power purchase agreements (PPAs). These contracts are mostly entered into with utilities, distribution companies, and industrial users. Most of these counterparties have investment-grade credit ratings, and the weighted average remaining contract is for 16 years.

Read the rest of this article on Seeking Alpha!

Dividend report: August 2019

It's time to give an update of the dividends I received last month. Five companies decided to pay me a dividend for my ownership. Total dividends (after tax) are around € 91, which is an increase of 30% compared to last year. The growth was fueled by solid dividend increases from KMI and DE and a new position in T. 

You can see the breakdown in the table below.

Omega Healthcare is still in the process of improving their financial performance and making arrangements with some of their biggest tenants. Despite these issues the stoch price has risen about 10% in the last month and is nearing its highest price ever. I am contemplating reducing my position since it is almost 10% of my portfolio.

It's been my best August so far! As of now, my annual dividend income hovers around € 1.525 before taxes. This is a slight increase from last months € 1.485. This is because of the change in exchange rate (USD.EUR).

How was your month?

Dividend raise: Billiton (+24%)

Last week Billiton (ticker: BBL) raised its semi-annual dividend. The 2nd payment was $1.26 per share last year and is raised to $1.56. This is a hefty raise of 24% and adds roughly € 7,50 to my annual dividend income (before taxes).

Billiton has a somewhat odd dividend history since my purchase back in 2013. They slashed the dividend back in 2016 but raised it during the last years back to the level of 2015. And on top of that in 2019 they declared a special dividend worth about one year of dividends. Even though it has been a rocky road, I am glad I didn't sell my investment back in 2016 for $20 a share. BBL is now priced at about $50 per share. So there might be a lesson here to not automatically sell after a dividend cut!

This year I've received 18 dividend raises that added about € 55 to my annual dividend income so far.

Are you a shareholder of BBL? And what do you think about its dividend prospects?

ESG Investing: The Case of Ecolab

Ecolab Inc. (ECL), headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, is an American global provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services to the food, energy, healthcare, industrial and hospitality markets.

Lately, I've been tracking companies that rank higher on various ESG guidelines. ESG refers to the three central factors in measuring the sustainability and ethical impact of an investment in a company or business: Environmental, Social and Governance. For instance, Ecolab is the 2nd biggest position (after Microsoft) in the MSCI USA ESG Select Index. This index is optimized to be sector diversified, targeting companies with high ESG ratings in each sector.

The question is whether these criteria could help to better determine the future financial performance of companies and the potential return for its investors. Let's take a look at Ecolab and discuss whether it can be a good addition to your portfolio at current prices.

Read this article at Seeking Alpha

Dividend raise: Union Pacific (+10%)

Three weeks ago Union Pacific (UNP) declared a $0.97/share quarterly dividend, which is a 10% increase from its prior quarterly dividend of $0.88. Since I own 15 share of UNP this raise adds about € 5 to my forward annual dividend income. This is a really solid dividend increase in my book, and it's its second raise this year!

I purchased my shares about 4 years ago for $108 a piece. Currently they are worth around $162, so that's roughly an 11% annual rate of return, based just on the price appreciation alone.

In the past years I've received about 10% of my original purchase price in dividends. The dividend has grown from $0,55 per share (quarterly) to its current level of $0,97 per share. That's an awesome growth rate of 14% each year. At this pace the dividend is expected to double in value about every six years! I am really content to have added this company to my portfolio a few years ago.
So far this year I've received 17 dividend raises which added almost $50 to my annual income stream.

What do you think the dividend raise by UNP? Do you consider adding shares to your portfolio at its current price?

Dividend report: July 2019

It's time to give an update of the dividends I received last month. Five companies decided to pay me a dividend for my ownership. Total dividends (after tax) are around € 72, which is an increase of more than 35% compared to last year. The growth was fueled by a bigger dividend from my own employer Brink. Last year I doubled my position to 20 shares, hence the bigger payout. I expect to purchase another batch after the summer. Other dividend increases have been rather muted (O, KO). BAX has grown a lot relatively, but it's a rather small position. PM raised its dividend a quarter early last year. I expect them to raise their dividend next quarter.

You can see the breakdown in the table below.

It's been my best July so far!

As of now, my annual dividend income hovers around € 1.485 before taxes. This is a solid increase from last months € 1.425. Most of this increase is due to my new position in BEP.

In terms of cumulative dividend income I am about 30% ahead compared to last year. Let's keep rocking!

How was your month?