September 2015 Dividend Income

Welcome to my September 2015 Dividend Income report.  These reports are a record of my wealth building strategy in action.

September was a big month as we closed the deal on our first rental property.  We’ve been investing in financial assets for years now and we felt like the time was right to diversify our asset base a little by acquiring a rental property.  I’ve written a few posts about the benefits of owning a profitable rental property and my plan to integrate it into our overall financial plan.

I’m also pleased to report that my children’s education funds, the RESPs, are now fully funded to the point where we get the maximum government match of $500!  This was one of our 2015 annual goals and I’m glad to see that it’s done now.

Monthly Investing Activity

I bought more shares in Fortis (FTS), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) and Bank of Montreal (BMO) this past month.  As I’ve said before, in my DRiP accounts there is no point in trying to time the market – I contribute small amounts on a regular basis, regardless of what is happening in the market and I let compounding and dollar-cost averaging do their work.

I also continued with my TD e-Series Funds automatic investment plan.  Each and every week, I buy these low-cost index funds in my retirement account.

The markets have been all over the place this month and it’s clear that we’re in a pretty big correction.  I’m not really all that concerned though because I’ve been waiting for something like this so I can acquire really cheap dividend stocks.  The Canadian banks are looking really attractive right now…some of them are about 20% off their 52-week highs and yielding anywhere from 4% (TD) to almost 5% (BNS).  With Royal Bank (RY) trading around $71 I’ve been thinking about buying a few hundred shares to boost my Feb, May, Aug and Nov dividend income.

Beyond the banks I’m not seeing lots of opportunities that interest me.  The telcos have held up remarkably well and even the utilities haven’t been beat up all that much.  I don’t invest in mining stocks (except POT) and have stayed away from he carnage in the oil sector.  In fact, the only oil stock worth buying, Suncor (SU), has also held up remarkably well.  So I don’t think it’s a screaming buy.  In fact, I think it could fall a lot further.  When it does, then I’ll scoop up some more.

Dividend Increases

Fortis increased its quarterly dividend by 10.3% to 0.375 cents per share.  Time and time again, I’m constantly being rewarded for my investments in solid dividend growth stocks.  So many of my companies have increased their quarterly payouts this year.  This is why it literally pays to be a dividend investor.

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

September has been a great month with regard to dividend income.  So far this year we have received $5,115.83 in passive dividend income.  Our annual dividend income goal is $7,500 so we are 68% of the way there.  In fact, this month, we nearly hit the $500 mark!  Here are the numbers:

Stocks:

Bank of America (BAC) – $1.65

Canadian National Railway (CNR) – $31.25

Canadian Utilities (CU) – $56.94

Enbridge (ENB) – $4.85

Fortis (FTS) – $20.98

Manulife Financial (MFC) – $29.39

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI) – $4.05

Suncor Energy (SU) – $15.54

Sun Life Financial (SLF) – $14.72

Mutual Funds and ETFs:

iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $53.09

iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $37.12

Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) – $15.28

Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $11.91

TD International Index Fund – e (TDB911) – $180.78

TOTAL = $477.55

Photo by Danilo Rizzuti/freedigitalphotos.net