2020 Q1 Dividends - $430.58

The markets have been in turmoil and I have seen my investments drop by 20%. My standard reply to market volatility has been that I don’t care because I invest in index funds and I am here for the long run. But, to be honest a 20% drop in my holdings has definitely scared the hell out of me. Additionally, a few dividend cuts might be in the offing and I hope it won’t have a major impact on the index fund dividends.

I got off AGNC in 2020 Q1. AGNC was my very first investments when I started looking at dividend investing. The yield was obviously a huge draw. I believe my cost basis was around 30$ and the stock tanked right after that to around 18$. It’s been floating between 16-18$ in the last few years. I diligently kept reinvesting my dividends and finally broke even in 2020. Now that I was green, I wondered if I should hold it a little longer? I am no longer the person who chases yield. Thankfully I sold in Q1 before the huge fall. The last time I noticed the stock is now trading at around 11-12$ with a yield of 20%!

Thanks to market volatility I was able to scoop up some index funds at deep discounts. This seemed to have bumped up the overall yield of my portfolio. In terms of dividends I raked in $430.58 in Q1. This is an all-time high for Q1 and very close to the entire dividends I got in 2017.
15% of the income is from my non-taxable account and the rest from my taxable account. Given the current volatility I have not contributed to my IRA account in 2020 and as such the growth is purely based on dividend reinvestment from last year. Compared to 2019 Q1, there is a 60% increase in dividends.

The total passive for 2020 stands at $597.35. I was able to side hustle successfully and secured $136.49 from it. Google Adsense has dipped a lot, presumably because I have not been too active on this blog. Completed a few covered calls early this year to generate option income. I doubt if there will be any additional options related activity this year.

A new source of passive income has been Fundrise. I always wanted to own rental properties, but I really don’t have the time or leverage to be a landlord. Fundrise provides a straightforward way to own rental properties without the pain associated with it. In addition, it also provides geographical diversification, my current portfolio consists of about 30 units spanning east/west and includes commercial rentals as well. Dividends continue to be the main contributor to my passive income stream.