FEBRUARY 2023 SUMMARY

 What a completely hectic month.  I spent the past 5 weeks living without a kitchen ond one of two bathrooms as we are going through a very overdue remodel.  

Last month I sowed a picture of the demo.   Now we are about 95% done.  Phew. 

Here's a look

Now we are down to the tile in the 2nd bathroom, refinishing my 103 year old fir floors, and resurfacing the deck. 

This is not cheap.  But thanks to my strong portfolio, I can pay for it and still have a retirement.  

Meanwhile, the dividend still came in like clockwork.  Let's take a dive:

DIVIDEND INCOME

February was a record month again.  (I do not plan on going backwards..)  I received 37 dividends totalling $1,781.95 of passive income.  That's an increase of 18.05% over 2022's $1,509.50   I like that.  Just 3 years ago, I earned $874.83 in dividends.  Over 100% increase in 3 years.  Holy cow.  Persistence pays off.

It's always about reinvesting the dividends, adding a chunk of each paycheck, and getting some great dividend increases.   The regulars, AT&T, OMF, and OHI contributing the biggest amounts.  I use those funds to buy more of ones that are under a cost basis of my $5,000 goal.  

DIVIDEND INCREASES

February dividend increases were fantastic.   

Got 18 increases, adding $197.08 to my annual dividend income.  It averaged out to a 5.48% increase.  Some were huge, like Steel Dynamics increasing their dividend by 25%.  Look it up..

STOCK BUYS

February was a more typical month for my buying process.  Invested all of my dividends, a $1,000 of my own cash, and moved money from savings into the account.   Added $7,986.17 to the account which will increase my annual dividend income by $381.69.   That's a 4.78% yield.   Seems small, but is $31.81 per month.  Keep doing this every month really adds up.  

On a normal month where I only invest dividends and $1K of my own money, I am investing about $3,000 and adding about $110 a month to the income.  Next year I'll be investing at least $3,110 .  But since I do this investing every month, it compounds.  And I'd be investing somewhere around  $4,300 a month.  

And so on and on and on and on.  This is how I went from $36,000 in 2011 to this kind of thing.  

Yes, you can do this.  At whatever level that is comfortable.