July 2017 Investment Income $1,420

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

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I was pleased to see that our net worth continued to rise in July, coming in at 1.04 Million!  We finally made it to the coveted million-dollar mark.  The increase in net worth had to do with the strong performance of global stock markets.  This brought the value of our financial assets to just over 532k!  This is why I think that it really pays to stay invested and not try to time the market.

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 and all, but unless it’s backed up with some serious cash flow, it doesn’t really mean all that much.  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 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 exchange-traded funds (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.  Well July was one of the better months this year and it had everything to do with the performance of my financial assets.

Monthly Investing Activity

The big move for me this month was buying 200 shares of Suncor Energy (SU).  I figured the oil sector was unloved by investors so I picked up some shares.  So far, this investment has rewarded me with an increase of about 11% plus a dividend yield of about 3.4%.

Other than that, 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).

Dividend Raises

No dividend raises this month to report.

July 2017 Investment Income Report

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

July has been another great month for dividend income, coming in at a solid $1,420!  This month’s dividend income has grown by nearly 24% from that of July 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 July:

Dividend Stocks

Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) – $55.99

Telus (T) – $34.13

KP Tissue Inc. (KPT) – $102.96

RioCan REIT (REI) – $4.49

TransCanada Corporation (TRP) – $22.26

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) – $553.35

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM) – $93.40

Toronto Dominion Bank – $429.00

TransAlta (TA) – $0.75

ETFs and Mutual Funds

iShares S&P TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $55.72

iShares S&P TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $41.15

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) -$14.78

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $11.74

Total Dividend Income – $1,419.72

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 our money working for us.

Our new annual passive income goal is $13,000 and we have so far received $6,723.  So we are  52% of the way there.

Thanks for reading my July 2017 Investment Income report.