My dividend growth has been solid this year.

YTD through July, I’m up 26%. That’s mainly due to two things; dividend increases, and improving yields on bonds and money market funds.

It’s not a bad year to be an investor. That’s true when it comes to portfolio size and dividend growth too!

Another big part of it, of course, is continued investment. Dividends don’t grow on trees and while compound interest helps, so does putting more money into the market.

That’s exactly what I’ve been doing all year and that combined with better yields shows results!

Even my smaller months are all above $100 now which is great news. I think that’ll be case going forward too. I’m well on my way to taking those months to $200 and higher! Maybe that’ll be one of the goals for next year.

The fact that the stock market has continued to go up helps these off-months as bonds pay monthly. My asset allocation calls for a small weighing to bonds and I’ve been buying a few shares here and there as stock market prices rise and bonds fall behind. That only serves to support these non quarter ending months like July and August.

July saw a 149% increase y/y and while I’m not expecting as much in August, it’s awesome to see such growth.

On top of that, we’re now into September, one of my four big months so I’m eager to see those dividends start to flow in soon!

Last year’s August came in at $101.60 so let’s see where we are this year.

August Dividends

August sees another nice bump with a total that comes in at $184.68!

That’s an 81.7% bump over last year. That’s what yield growth and buying additional shares will do for you!

This is pretty much all money market and bond payments as I only have one stock paying in August, Apple.

This continues to show the power of compounding combined with additional investment dollars flowing in each month.

This $184.68 reinvestment at my average portfolio yield will improve my annual income by $4.25 going forward. Not a ton but more than 0 is always good!

Steve, my dividend employee earned $1.11/hr this month. That brings his annual hourly rate down to $3.29/hr. It’s not quite minimum wage but we still have two huge months ahead of us.

It’s also possible that Steve might be at $1/hr each month going forward but we’ll see if that’s the case after my results in October and November, the last two remaining small months.

Related : My dividend employee Steve

Overall, this is another great month and I can really tell I’m on a roll here. The dividend growth is starting to pick up and each month is getting better and better.

These bigger months are also great because that money re-invested is doing more work for me in the future.

This month brings my total for the year to $4382.14. That’s 28.4% higher than this time last year. That’s some awesome growth!

You can see the progression since I started tracking this below.