2017 Q4 / December Dividend Update

December is here and its time for my final 2017 quarterly dividend update. Cannot believe 2017 is almost over. My portfolio is composed of vanguard ETFs which pay dividends on a quarterly basis.

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2017 Q4 dividends:

For third quarter in a row, my dividends hit the three figure mark. I have mentioned that I wanted to sustain this trend and it seems like I have successfully sustained it for three quarters. My estimated dividend for 2018 Q1 is already above the three figure mark. In my 2017Q3 update I mentioned a new goal of 200$ in dividend in a single quarter. Mission accomplished. I received $228.07 in dividends, with a 406.71% increase in my dividends as compared to 2016Q4. 2016Q4 was my first quarter of sustained investing.

Dividend Increases

Expected: Estimation based on the dividends given out in 2016 Q4
Actual: Actual dividend I received in 2017 Q4
I call this as organic increase in dividends. Massive disappointment in this front. Whereas 2017Q3 had some massive organic increases, 2017Q4 was all down. The only exception being my Ex-US ETF. My Ex-US ETF had a 38.56% increase in dividends. The worst was from my S&P 500 ETF with a drop of -8.64%. Fortunately given my asset allocation and healthy increase in Ex-US dividends I was still able to get a 9.15% overall organic increase in dividends.

Portfolio:

S&P 500 ETF (VOO) is about 38.43% of my portfolio and continues to be the major component of my portfolio (down from the highs of 50%). Ex-US stocks account for 31.45% of my portfolio. The rest is made up of dividend achievers, value and high yield stocks. My expense ratio is 0.102%.

I have been rapidly growing my value stocks position. The idea is to increase exposure to financial stocks, with the increasing interest rates I believe the financial sector will do well. It also helps to diversify my portfolio as I am heavily into technology sector (Thanks to VOO).

2016 Q4 dividends

2017 Q3 dividends