Owning stocks from my Master Stock List, I’m generating passive dividend income from my Vanguard taxable account.
Each month, I contribute dollars to my Vanguard money market account and wait for it to build enough cash to purchase a dividend stock(s). Now that Vanguard has free stock trades, I’ll likely start building smaller positions in quality companies. In Q1 of each year, I also receive annual bonuses that will go to the purchase of dividend stocks too.
Goal
Generate over $15,000 in forward annual stock dividend income by 6/30/25.
Updated Income
Q2 was a little rough for dividend investors. It’s my understanding that over 300+ companies (so far) have suspended or cut their dividend so far. I suspect more will come as Q2 earnings are announced plus an expected increase in COVID-19 cases. States are starting to shut things down again as hot spots pop up.
The biggest disappointment for me was Royal Dutch Shell. Not only has that stock dropped significantly but they actually cut their dividend (by 66%) for the first time since WWII. Think about that for a moment … WWII! That’s no cut for 75 years. What was once considered untouchable has been touched.
Though it dropped our income by several hundred dollars per year it could have been worse. Think of all the UK folks who are loaded up on that stock and now have to live off substantially lower income. Just another reason to make sure you are diversified so that moments like this don’t affect your standard of living.
Not only did Royal Dutch Shell cut their dividend but so did Molson Coors, who actually suspended it for the rest of 2020. In Q1, I had forecasted $5,704 of dividends over the next 12 months. After Q2, that has dropped to $4,994. I’m also expecting Wells Fargo to cut their dividend any day now too so that will drop the income more.
Q2 has really forced me to refine my approach. In May I wrote Master Stock List Revisited that helped weed out some weaker companies. Plus, I just finished Next Level Thinking to help add structure to the portfolio so that I don’t take on too much risk.
Summary
Moving forward, I will become much more patient. My focus will be on quality and I’m collecting cash until quality goes on sale. At the moment, I’m reinvesting dividends and will likely do so until I receive $10,000-$12,000 per year in dividend income.
Looking 12 months out from today (July 2020 – June 2021), I’m expecting to receive $4,994 in forward dividend income. This is assuming I make no changes to my current stock portfolio. This leaves me $10,006 short of my $15,000 dividend income goal (by June 2025) but I’m happy with my progress and I’ve got to time to close the gap.
Thanks for reading!
Mr. TLR