Wow, October went by so fast. 2016 has been a blur for me. I cannot believe Christmas decorations are already in stores and that we are almost ready to say goodbye to another year. It’s time for me to share my October Dividends.
In August, I sold some of my biggest gainers and most of the shares I held in one brokerage account. I sold $70,000 worth of stock. This selloff did hurt my dividend income. All’s not lost though. I’m using the cash to sell cash secured puts. You can learn more about those babies over at my other site Options Hunting.
Back to my October dividends. Last October dividends were $359.04. This October dividends were $452.92, an increase of $93.88. This is a year-over-year October dividend increase of 26%. October dividends was the first time, I beat my 2015 monthly dividend income since the selloff.
My October Dividends
I was paid by 8 companies and 2 funds. The largest dividends were paid by Starwood Property Trust (STWD) and Philip Morris (PM). My average daily dividend income totaled $15.23. I just started tracking daily dividend income. I saw Dan over at Passive Income Dude tracking his. I like looking at dividends this way. $15 a day doesn’t seem like much money, but in many parts of the world, I could easily live on this amount. I’m not saying I’m packing up and moving to central India, but it’s nice to know I could live off my current dividends ;-).
October Dividends – Year-Over-Year
The chart below tracks my monthly dividends earned on a year-over-year basis. 2014 numbers are in blue. 2015 numbers are in red. 2016 numbers are orange. As shown October dividend income is up year-over-year. Increases like this probably won’t be consistent until I buy a few more stocks.
October Blogging Updates
My posting cadence slowed this past month. I managed to churn out 8 posts in October. Two factors for the slowdown; I’ve traveled more for work, and my new blog has taken sometime away from this one. In case you missed any, here are the links.
AbbVie Stock Buy
Buying More AT&T Stock
TROW – T. Rowe Price Stock Buy
Wynn Resorts Stock Buy
Blogger Interview With Captain Dividend
September Dividend Income
Blogger Interview with Sure Dividend
I also wrote 18 posts over at Options Hunting. Some posts are tied together. For example, I wrote about a Wynn buy on this site, but since this stock was assigned to me through a cash secured put, there are more posts about this transaction over at Options Hunting. Here are examples of cross site posts.: Gambling on a Wynn Option, WYNN Contract Expiration, Wynn Covered Call. These three posts, cover before and after my Wynn stock buy.
Overall Income
My overall income, dividends plus options premiums came in at an all-time high. In October I earned $456.92 in dividends, plus $2,025.72 in options premiums. My total October income came to $2,482.64.
For full disclosure, I changed the way I was calculating options income. I used to account for profits at the time of contract sale. However, after listening to many an options expert, I’ve changed my accounting of options income. I now account for income as it’s realized. By this I mean, my profit is not booked until an option contract is closed.
I went ahead and restated my income back to the beginning. This of course changed my monthly income totals. Overall, it’s mostly a wash. Some months look better and others worse. I do agree that this is the correct way to track options income.
Regardless of accounting methods, the past two months have been my best options income months. This is because I’ve dedicated a bit more time to the study of options, and I got lucky. Yes, sometimes options do need a little luck. I document every move over at Options Hunting. Go visit if you’d like to learn more about my $2000 plus month.
Thanks to the following for showing me the light ;-).
Catfish Wizard, Stalflare, Passive Income Pursuit, Financial Velociraptor, Easy Dividend, Amber Tree Leaves, and Two Investing.
What was your October dividend income? Do you earn monthly income from real estate, options, or something else?