July 2015 Dividend Income

Welcome to another monthly dividend income post.  My July 2015 dividend income was phenomenal at a whopping $1,032.25!  January, April, July and October are really my “power” months for dividend income because these are the months when my largest holdings pay out.  I didn’t plan it that way.  Ideally you would want a similar monthly dividend income so you could easily budget the monthly expenses.

At home, July has been one of the busiest months of the year so far.  Our new home is finally finished and it looks great!  For the past 3 months we’ve been busily updating our home with a new furnace and A/C, new windows and doors, attic insulation, window coverings, painting, some landscaping etc etc.  I can’t say how happy I am to finally be done with it all.

After digging ourselves into some debt to get these updates done, we’ve finally been able to start paying it off!  Some rebate checks have already come in and I’m waiting on a big one worth about $2,200 to come sometime in August or early September.  I was also very happy to see the savings on my monthly hydro and gas bills and I expect to really see the savings this winter.

My wife is now back to work after her (short) maternity leave and with this additional income we plan on killing off that debt.  It’s very important to pay off the debt because we used our home equity line of credit (HELOC) and I like to use this account to invest in high quality dividend paying stocks so I can deduct the interest expense.

I’ve also been busily writing new content material here on MRTWAF and on my HubPages.  All my hard work is paying off as I get more and more visitors to this website each and every day. Thanks so much to all my supporters out there.  It is you – my readers – that keep me going!  My plan is to keep producing thoughtful and useful financial articles to help others on the path toward achieving financial freedom.

I hope that my monthly net worth updates and dividend income reports can show people how easy it is to build real wealth simply by applying a set of tried and true personal finance principles.  These are the importance of living below your means and, of course, paying yourself first by saving and investing your money.

Monthly Investing Activity

On the investing front I’ve been buying the Canadian banks.  I purchased 25 more shares of TD Bank (TD).  This will add another $51 to my annual dividend income.  I also made some extra cash contributions to buy more Bank of Nova Scotia.  I continued with my longstanding plan to save and invest automatically.  I continue to invest in low-cost index funds in our retirement accounts and I also continue to make automatic share purchases in my DRiP accounts.  I bought more shares in Telus (T), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Bank of Montreal (BMO), TransCanada Corp (TRP).

The great thing 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.  In fact, this month’s dividend income is pretty close to what I invested out of my own pocket!

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

July has been an excellent month with regard to dividend income.  In fact it’s been the best month yet, coming in at a solid $1,032.25!  My monthly dividend income has grown by 230% from July of 2014 ($312.99).  Now 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 raising their dividend payout.  Here is the breakdown on the numbers:

Dividend Stocks

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) – $26.50

Telus (T) – $0.42

KP Tissue Inc. (KPT) – $92.88

RioCan REIT (REI) – $4.02

TransCanada Corporation (TRP) – $12.07

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) – $437.12

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM) – $23.36

Toronto Dominion Bank – $308.55

TransAlta (TA) – $3.08

ETFs and Mutual Funds

iShares S&P TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $58.34

iShares S&P TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $37.71

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) -$16.00

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $12.20

Total = $1,032.25

Image Credit: Image courtesy of pakorn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net