2018 Q4 / (October – December) Dividend Report

As I mentioned in my Q3 update I have switched jobs and I no longer have the time for stock picking. Luckily investing in index ETFs does not require too much time. We have started renting again, after much deliberation we decided to sell our home. I had to expend some of my investment money for moving expenses, repairs and closing costs. In addition, for a period of time we were paying rent and mortgage. Considering these additional expenses I was unable to hit my investment goals for Q4.

Moving on the numbers, I got $424.07 in dividends in my taxable account. This is a new record for a single quarter. My Roth IRA continues to grow slowly. I received $210.39 in dividends in my Roth IRA (Thanks to Vanguard Wellington). VWELX pays a huge distribution in Q4. This distribution contains dividends, short-term and long-term capital gains.

In terms of contributions my international ETF (VXUS) was the top pick contributing 34.52% of the dividends. The US dividends are spread equally between my value fund and S&P 500 fund. A new entrant in Q4 is Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG). VIG contributed 4.05% of my dividends and will most likely contribute a lot more in the future.

In between the expenses and investing I did not have any large cash positions. This is reflected in a below par interest income from my money market account.

I received $634.46 in dividends in 2018 Q4.

As compared to 2017 Q4, I had a healthy 178.19% increase in dividends. The surprise package is my Roth IRA. Thanks to the Wellington fund, my Roth IRA contributed 1/3 of the dividends in Q4 and was very close to the taxable dividends I got in 2017 Q4.

My international ETF (VXUS) was again the black sheep in terms of dividend increases. It was the only ETF with a dividend decreases. But, I am not too concerned about quarters as on a yearly basis my portfolio tends to have strong dividend growth. On an average I had a 1.775% increase (organic) in dividends.

My portfolio is all red. All my funds have taken a hit. Whereas this has provided me buying opportunities, it also means I lost a portion of my net worth. This loss is of course unrealized and I don’t plan on selling anytime soon. As long as the dividends keep coming in I am not too worried.

With my job change side hustles have taken a huge hit. I do not have a sizeable side hustle income to report in Q4. Overall, 2018 has been a great year for passive income. Dividends are but one source of my passive income. In addition I generate additional income through Vitality, credit card (cash back), Swagbucks, TopCashBack and raise. I categorize my (Roth) IRA dividends as a separate source as I do not have immediate access to it. As of September 2018, I received $3,217.12 in passive income. Side hustles lead the way and accounts for 45.566% of my passive income. A new entrant to my passive income strategy is options income. I sell covered calls on my long term ETF positions to rake in additional interest income. As of now it is a very small portion of my passive income (1.64%).

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