April dividend update – small dividend months

I’m back from my vacation to Nashville which was super fun. Now I’m relaxed and ready to take a look at the dividends I got in April. These small dividend months are still important even if they’re small. I think my dividend employee Steve is taking a little vacation as well after working hard for dividends in March.

The excitement of the large March update winds down in April as we get back to our regularly scheduled tiny payments.

My bond fund is the only thing that pays monthly. I only have one stock that pays outside the quarterly payout cycle so most of my money is in those quarter ending months.

I did recently add a bit more money into my bond funds as bonds became slightly under represented in my asset allocation. That will help these small dividend months be slightly less tinier.

I did get some good news today as one of my core holdings Apple raised their dividend to .63 per quarter. That’s another ~10% raise which was nice to see. I don’t own a ton of shares but most large-caps index funds do have a decent chunk of Apple as well so the quarterly payments there will get a tiny bump as well!

Let’s take a look at how I did in April and where I am in 2017 YTD.

April dividends totaled to $67.36. That’s a big drop from last month but that’s expected with my portfolio composition. The payouts were almost entirely tax-advantaged due to my bond mutual fund. They also included about $10 in taxable payouts for that fund that usually pays out in March but lagged a few days this year.

That brings the total for 2017 to $1453.32! That’s a good deal below my 2017 goal of at least $8000. However, I still have two quarters and December to go which will bring that total up quite a bit.

Steve’s hourly wage was $7.50/hr last month and that drops to $.40/hr this month. What a lazy bum!

The 40 cents per hour this month brings his yearly hourly wage down to $2.18/hr. That’s still a decent amount of money to bring in on the side while I exist. Thanks Steve!

Apple pays out next month so May will be slightly higher but I’m already excited for June which will be the next big month. One of my bigger holdings, United HealthGroup(UNH) announced a dividend increase for the June payout in 2016 and I’m hoping for another one this year!

That’s it for this month. How were you April dividends?

April Total : $67.36
2017 Total : $1453.32
Portfolio monthly hourly wage : $0.40/hr
Portfolio annual hourly wage : $2.18/hr