September 2016 Investment Income $1100

Welcome to my September 2016 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 September, hitting 893k.  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 an all time high at 450k!  This is why I think that it really pays to stay invested and not try to time the market.

Well, we managed to get 1 unit rented for September 1st, but the other one needed some work that’s been completed and can now be rented for sometime in October or Nov. 1st at the latest.  Vacancies can be a real killer in the rental business and it showed with this month’s profit on the rental properties coming in at just $282.  I guess I shouldn’t be too broke up about it, after all I did make a profit of almost $300.  Now that the repairs and tenant turnover have worked its way through the system, I expect that the monthly rental income for October will get a nice boost!

While I was pleased to see our net worth rise this month, I’m even happier to see that our overall investment income came in at over $1,000.  As I’ve said before, 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 always KING!

The reason for the weak performance is that I don’t own many companies that pay out their dividend in September and, of course, the weak performance of the rental properties due to some maintenance and tenant turnover.

Monthly Investing Activity

As usual, I’m sticking to the same old boring 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 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 Fortis (FTS), Canadian Utilities (CU), RioCan (REI), Enbridge (ENB), Manulife (MFC), Suncor (SU), and SunLife Financial (SLF).

Since my January dividend income report, I’ve tried to diversify my stocks away from Canadian banks.  Bank dividends make up the majority of my overall dividend income so I want to build out some positions in other industries to reduce risks.  I’ve been building up my positions in Telus (T), Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and some pipeline and utility companies.

The problem is that these shares are trading at or near all-time highs!  So I haven’t been able to bring myself to pile a lot of money into them just yet.  I’m waiting for a big pullback before I invest any serious amount of money.  That said, I did purchase more shares in BCE, Fortis, Enbridge and SunLife Financial in September.

Dividend Raises

Fortis raised its dividend by 6.7% or 2.5 cents per quarter.  This raise will add about $10 to my annual dividends – not much I know, but this is how dividend growth investing works.  These small, incremental increases will help me amass sizeable wealth over the long term.

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

September was a decent month for dividend income.  This month’s dividend income has grown by nearly 72% from that of September 2015 ($477.55).  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 September:

Dividend Stocks

Bank of America (BAC) – $2.54

Canadian National Railway (CNR) – $37.50

Canadian Utilities (CU) – $65.01

Enbridge (ENB) – $5.76

Fortis (FTS) – $33.81

Manulife Financial (MFC) – $32.49

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI) – $4.30

Suncor Energy (SU) – $16.88

Sun Life Financial (SLF) – $17.23

Mutual Funds and ETFs:

iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $55.75

iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $38.82

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) – $22.54

Vanguard Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $18.00

TD e-series International Index Fund – e (TDB911) – $467.60

Total Dividend Income – $818.23

Rental Income

This month, 3 of 4 units were rented and the properties are still cash flowing.  I’ve been busy fixing up 1 unit to have it rented by November 1st.  September’s profit on the rental properties was $282.27.  This was after all expenses and is considerably less than I’m used to but things should get back to normal in the next month.

One reason I decided to invest in rental property is that it offers a decent amount of cash flow relative to the initial investment.  I expect that in the next few months I’ll be able to increase the rental income by about $200/month by fixing up my latest rental purchase.  I’m hoping to average about $1,100/month from my rental properties.

Total Monthly Rental Income = $282.27

This brings the grand total for our September 2016 Investment income to $1,100.50!

I was hoping to rake in at least $1k this month so I’m very happy to have exceeded that by a hundred bucks.  I’m glad that the rental properties are getting sorted out and I expect they’ll be performing much better next month.  I’m also trying to build out my dividend income for March, June, Sep and Dec, so that I’ll at least hit the $1,000 mark from this source.

Our new annual passive income goal is $18,000 and we have so far received $12,197.72.  So we are already 67.8% of the way there.  With 3 months to go I think we’re getting close but a lot will depend on how our rental properties perform.

Overall, both the dividend portfolio and our rental properties are adding a considerable amount to the monthly investment cash flow.  On an annual basis, we manage to get roughly $1,000 / month from both sources.  I’m working very hard these days to increase this amount further.

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