April 2017 Investment Income $1850

Welcome to my April 2017 investment income report.  This report helps me track all of my investment income from rental properties, dividend stocks, index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

I was pleased to see that our net worth continued to rise in April, hitting 988k. The increase in net worth had to do with the strong performance of global stock markets and the fact that we sold our rental properties.  This brought the value of our financial assets to an all time high at just over 573k!  This is why I think that it really pays to stay invested and not try to time the market.

While I was pleased to see our net worth rise this month, I’m even more pleased to see that our monthly investment income continues to stay above the 1k mark.  In my opinion, having a high net worth is great and all, but unless it’s backed up with some solid investment cash flow it’s not really all that impressive.  To my mind, cash-flow is KING!

Monthly Investing Activity

For the most part, I’m sticking to the same old investment plan.  I continue to buy up blue-chip Canadian dividend stocks and keep making extra cash purchases in my DRiP account to buy more shares of great dividend-paying companies.  I like to save and invest automatically because it’s a proven strategy for building long term wealth.  In addition to the stock purchases, I’m also investing in low-cost index funds in our retirement accounts.

One of the great things about being a dividend investor is that all of my dividend income is automatically re-invested.  Every month this income buys more shares in my favorite companies that will, in turn, produce even more monthly income for me.  This is how compounding works and is why it’s such a powerful force…what Einstein called the “Eighth Wonder of the World”!

This month, reinvested dividend income bought more shares in Bell Canada (BCE), Telus (T), KP Tissue (KPT), the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), TransCanada Corp (TRP), CIBC (CM), TD Bank (TD) and RioCan (REI).

My January 2016 dividend income report made me realize that the majority of my dividend income comes from Canadian banks.  While I love the banks, I recognize the need to diversify a bit more.  So I focused on building up my positions in Telus (T), BCE (BCE) and my pipelines and utilities.  I also wanted to raise some cash so I sold the bulk of my TD shares.  I hope that I get an opportunity to buy them back at a lower price sometime this year.

Dividend Raises

No dividend raises this month to report.

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

April has been another great month for dividend income.  This month’s dividend income has grown by nearly 61% from that of April 2016 ($1148).  As always, a large part of that increase came from investing my own personal savings, while the remainder was due to the regular reinvestment of my dividend income and from companies periodically raising their dividend payout.

Here is the breakdown of the numbers for April:

Dividend Stocks

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) – $577.74

Telus (T) – $29.71

KP Tissue Inc. (KPT) – $101.88

RioCan REIT (REI) – $4.43

TransCanada Corporation (TRP) – $22.03

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) – $543.17

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM) – $29.56

Toronto Dominion Bank – $425.40

TransAlta (TA) – $0.75

ETFs and Mutual Funds

iShares S&P TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $52.19

iShares S&P TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $38.87

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) -$13.33

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $10.97

Total Dividend Income – $1850.03

I still can’t believe that our financial investments are paying us that much income!  After years of saving and investing, I’m finally seeing the fruits of my effort and I’m happy to finally have my money working for me.

Our new annual passive income goal is $13,000 and we have so far received $3898.  So we are  30% of the way there.

Thanks for reading my April 2017 Investment Income report.

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