December 2018 Passive Income $2335

Welcome to my December 2018 Passive Income report.  This report helps me track all of my investment income from dividend stocks, index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).  I’ve also added a new section for my Blog Income.  My goal is to one day be able to live off this income or at least have a significant portion of my living expenses covered by it.

Over the years, I’ve found that when I track my dividend income, it tends to grow.  Maybe its because I’m focused on growing those dividends that I’m constantly scheming up ways to make more money (or save more money), so that it can be put to good use by investing it in great dividend paying companies.  This approach has served me well and this year my family is on track to earning $14k in passive dividend income.

Think about it.  That’s $14k that we don’t have to get up in the morning to work for.  We just go on living our lives and all the while, each and every month, we receive cold hard cash in the form of dividends from our investments.  Right now we re-invest these dividends to buy more shares in our favorite companies so that the dividend income continues to grow over time.  But one day, we will be using that dividend income to finance an early retirement.

Our net worth has barely moved at all this year. We are now at $1.084 Million!  Our financial assets are at $600k. We’re at essentially the same place we were 1 year ago! Home Renovations and the stock market crash are the cause of the drop. I’m pretty bummed out that we made virtually no progress at all.

But I feel like we’re poised for a big recovery. Sure our NW hasn’t budged but our home renovations are now complete. So we won’t be pouring money into our house. Also, I was investing hard into this crash so I think any turnaround in the market will give a nice boost to the NW.

More important than NW is our passive income. We made over $14k in dividend income last year and I fully expect to earn $17k this year. Income from my website was just under $6k. I hope to double this number this year. I’m also looking to buy a rental property if the market goes bust. So I’m hoping that 2019 will be a great year for our finances and investing.

Please note: this post contains affiliate links.  As an affiliate, this blog may receive a small commission for sign ups to Bluehost, Borrowell, Tangerine and Questrade.

Net Worth vs Investment Income

There’s no question that hitting the million dollar mark is an important milestone on the road to financial freedom.  But like I said before, net worth is great, but without some serious cash flow, it doesn’t really mean all that much…it’s just a number.  After all, my net worth rises and falls primarily due to fluctuations in the stock and real estate markets.  For me, what’s really important is that my investments keep paying me cold hard cash each and every month.  That’s where my sense of financial security comes from, not whether I can sell something for more than I paid for it last week, or a month ago.

Streams of Passive Income are Key to Financial Independence

The one major thing I learned during the last recession was that, while my net worth may fall, the bulk of my dividend income remains the same.  That’s why I think building streams of alternative forms of income, whether it’s from a rental property, dividend stocks or even an online source like starting a blog, is key to achieving financial freedom.  Once you start hitting $1k/month, you basically have about half of your monthly expenses paid for by passive investment income.  What’s even better is that I’ve found that after a few years, the income really starts to take off.

Benefits of Passive Income

I once read somewhere that millionaires have about 7 different sources of income, which is a big reason why they’re rich.  If they lose 1 source it’s not the end of the world for them because the other 6 still provide financial security.  On the other hand, the rest of us are almost completely dependent on 1 source: our Jobs!

This is something that I’m working hard to change for my family and is why I invest as much as I can.  In these income reports  I try to be as transparent as possible to show you where my investment income comes from.  These reports simply show my investing approach and what has worked (and sometimes not worked) for me.  I’m by no means a financial expert but I am very pleased with my results to date.

I hope these reports inspire all of you to start saving and investing your money for a healthier financial future.  Now you may think that you need a lot of money to start investing, but the reality is that you can get started with as little as $25 a month!  So what are you waiting for?

How You Can Build Passive Sources of Income

Some of you may be wondering how YOU can start investing and building up streams of passive income.  First, just let me say that investing is NOT rocket science, but I DO recommend reading as much as you possibly can.  Check out my MUST READ page for some useful articles.  You can also see my Top 10 Favorite Personal Finance Books List.

If you’re hell bent and determined to start investing your money in dividend stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) right now, check out my step by step guide on How to Open a Questrade Account.  If you’re a bit hesitant to start buying stocks or ETFs through an online discount broker like Questrade, then you may want to try an online bank like Tangerine.  They offer a range of accounts (RRSP, TFSA) and a whole menu of Tangerine Investment Funds at reasonable prices.

Now on to my monthly cash flow from investments.

Monthly Investing Activity

I made 1 big purchase this month in addition to my usual monthly investment purchases. I bought 53 shares of BMO. I just can’t stop buying up bank stocks. Their businesses and dividend income is just too good to pass up.

While I’ve been busier than ever these past few months, I’m still investing automatically every month.  The best part is that my dividend income continues to grow each quarter which is a good thing.  Also, a lot of these dividend stocks have fallen in price which means their yields are higher.  For instance one of my largest holdings is Scotiabank (BNS).  It now yields about 4.80%.  Enbridge (ENB) is yielding 6.50% and TransCanada Pipeline (TRP) is yielding 5.50%.  I plan to keep buying these stocks and continue to watch those dividends grow.

I also 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.  These purchases amounted to about $1.6k in total.

As I said before, 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 favourite 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 Suncor (SU), Fortis (FTS), Enbridge (ENB), Canadian Utilities (CU), Manulife (MFC) and Sun Life Financial (SLF).

I’ve also sent a lot more money to my DRIP accounts to buy my favorite Canadian dividend stocks: Telus (T), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Fortis (FTS), Manulife (MFC), Sun Life Financial (SLF) and Bell Canada (BCE).

Dividend Raises

This month, Bank of Montreal raised its dividend by 4 cents a quarter or 4.16%. Overall, it’s been a fantastic year for dividend raises.

December 2018 Passive Income Report

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

December was a pretty strong month for dividend income coming in at a solid $1814.00!  This month’s dividend income has decreased by about $600 from last because I sold some of my mutual funds.

Here is the breakdown of the numbers for my December 2018 Passive Income:

Dividend Stocks

Bank of America (BAC) – $5.06

Canadian Utilities (CU) – $82.59

Enbridge (ENB) – $210.86

Fortis (FTS) – $129.71

Manulife Financial (MFC) – $48.50

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI) – $4.70

Suncor Energy (SU) – $22.41

Sun Life Financial (SLF) – $36.61

Mutual Funds and ETFs:

iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $52.92

iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $43.82

TD Canadian Bond Index – e (TDB909) – $8.34

TD International Index Fund – e (TDB911) – $273.98

TD European Index Fund – e (TDB906) – $41.71

TD US Index Fund -e (TDB902) – $513.18

TD Canadian Index Fund – e (TDB900) – $339.61

Total Dividend Income – $1,814.00

It’s great to see that we are above $1800 this month!  After years of saving and investing, I’m slowly starting to see the fruits of my effort and I’m happy to finally have my money working for me.

Blog Income: $521.49

I’ve included my blog income as I’ve had a number of readers ask about its profitability.  Blog income is never a sure thing.  In fact, it’s all over the place.  This month’s income is a combination of Adsense and affiliate sales.  I’ve been doing pretty good with my affiliate sales through Share Results.  If you’re a blogger and want to promote financial or some other products that you use, check out the link below:

Join the Share Results Affiliate Network Today!

While I’m not living off of my blog income, it does help my cash flow for buying dividend stocks. For those of you interested in building solid long term wealth, it’s crucial to find ways to make more money so you can use it to make investments. Starting a website has never been easier and with a little time and effort you too can start earning online income. Check out my Step by Step Guide on how to make a website.  

I’ve been investing thousands each month in high quality dividend stocks.  Without my blog income I wouldn’t be able to invest as much.  I think you guys get the idea here.  Generate more income to invest and you’ll really kick-start the power of compounded returns.  If you want to achieve financial freedom, you gotta do some side hustling to get there.

My family’s new annual passive income goal for dividends was $14,000 and we have so far received $14,079.35!  So we beat it by a small margin!

Thanks for reading my December 2018 Passive Income Report and remember that if you Invest Early and Stay With It for the long haul, then you’ll see these kinds of results too!

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