Well, I just have to highlight this.  Recently, I provided my Dividend Income Report for June.  In that report, I noted that my forward annual dividend was $1033.67.  That was the first time it crossed the $1000 mark.  That’s a BIG accomplishment for this small investor.  Such a big deal in fact that I decided to devote recognition of that milestone to its own blog post.  Let’s take a closer look as to why this milestone matters.

The Past

I started this blog in November 2016.  But, I didn’t really start blogging in earnest until March or so of 2017.  Still, when I started, my forward annual dividend income was a whopping $30.13!!!  That number started it all.  So much so that it represents the logo of the blog.

But $30.13 is a small number.  When I started, a friend of mine didn’t think anyone would be interested in a blog with such small numbers.  I even tried explaining the concept of dividend growth investing to my mom.  But, I could tell I wasn’t winning her over when I showed her the pennies and dollars I was making on the companies I owned. Of course, I knew the number would rise, but wasn’t sure how long it would take.

Well, almost a year later, in November 2017, I wrote a blog post entitled, $600 Annual Dividend Income Milestone Reached.  $600 in a year isn’t enough to make me retire, but it’s certainly much higher than the $30.13 a year I started this blog with.

The Present

Now, I’ve crossed the 4-digit mark and currently have over $1000 in forward annual dividends.  I’m super excited.  All I did was set up my accounts once, where money gets moved from my checking account to my brokerage.  Then, with the power of automation, I invest in dividend stocks on a monthly basis.

If the price is high, I invest.  If the price is low, I invest. I do so on a set schedule.  In other words, I practice dollar cost averaging. I actually don’t care what the market is doing on a day-to-day basis because I’m invested for the long term.

Sometimes I might get a bonus from work.  I usually put some of that money into my dividend portfolio.  The same thing goes with any tax refund I get.  I always try to invest when I can, except the occasional spending spree that causes me to be broke.

But, I’m very happy about crossing this threshold.  No, I still can’t retire.  But, I’ve come a very long way from making $30.13 a year.

The Future

As impressive as this milestone is, I’m still only at the very beginning of my journey towards FIRE or Financial Independence, Early Retirement.  I learned about that concept this year and wrote about it in January in my post entitled, Savings Rate:  The Secret To Early Retirement.

I think it’s important to have mini goals along the way.  Retirement for me is still about 15 years away. So, rather than having one big goal of retirement, I’ll have small goals I to try to meet that will help get me to my destination.  As I work towards achieving those goals, I will take a minute, every now and again, to recognize those milestones I reach along the way.

In the short term, my next milestone is $1500.  I figure having a milestone every $500 is not too bad.  Eventually, when the dividend snowball starts to pick up, I will up to the milestones to $1000 increment.  Although the milestones will be recognized at the $500 mark, I set the meter to $2000 as my next target to achieve.

Currently, the portfolio is around $30,000.  I can’t wait until it reaches $50,000 and then crosses the $100,000 mark.  I don’t usually blog about the size of the portfolio, only the size of the dividends.  But those are also going to be milestones I blog about.

Conclusion

There you have it.  $1000 in forward annual dividends.  That’s enough money to buy me a new laptop.  But, no frivolous spending any time soon.  I’m going to let the power of compounding take effect.

The great thing about the dividend growth strategy is that it’s a simple but effective strategy for beginning investors such as myself.  I crossed an important milestone.  Now, onto the next!

Have you reached any milestone recently?  What are your thoughts?  Let me know by commenting below.

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