March has been a pivotal month for me in terms of my cash flow.  For much of the month, I relied on my credit card to make everyday purchases.  I would use the credit card and then pay it off a few days later.  I would then use it some more and then pay it off.  It got to the point where, towards the end of the month, I had to pay about $500 on my credit card just to bring it back down to $0.  Well, I didn’t have that $500.  I was upset that I used $500 out of my tax return to pay off my credit card.  However, I got my tax return the same day I got paid from work.  I had so much money, I didn’t know what to do with it.  That feeling of euphoria quickly dissipated, however.  It’s only been a couple of days and all that money is just gone!  Gone I tell you.  Gone!  I’ll share more in a later post about what I did with my tax refund. Hint, my Dividend portfolio was impacted.  But that’s not why you’re here is it?  You’re here to find out how much dividends I earned in March.  Well, keep on reading to find out.

Dividend Income

In March, I received a total of $72.93 in dividends broken down as follows:

This is a respectable amount although slightly less than February.  Also, this is the first time I’m getting dividends from Emerson Electric (EMR).  I do like the fact that I’m getting dividends from 7 companies.  Very exciting.  That’s part of the benefit of having 16 stocks in my portfolio.  I don’t think I’ll go over owning 25 stocks anytime soon because that gets difficult to manage, but I like the progress I’ve made so far.  I still haven’t crossed the three digit mark but I’m hoping that will happen this year.

Because I didn’t start tracking my dividends until April of last year, I am not able to make an annual comparison.  However, that ends with my next dividend income report!!!  To celebrate, I’m going to change the way I present this information, starting with this post. Let me know if you like the table layout above.  For future posts, I will add a graph.  I just figured out how to do that.  Feel free to leave any suggestions regarding this issue in the comments below.

The Dividend Tracker has been updated accordingly.

Forward Annual Dividends

At the time of this writing, my forward annual dividends is $802.46.  I’m super happy that I crossed the $800 mark for the first time!!!  This is in part due to the increase in dividends from several of my holdings including ABBV. I can’t wait to cross over the 4 digit mark.

I did not purchase any additional stocks in March.

Conclusion

March seemed like a strong month for dividend income.  I wish I had last year to compare it to, but there’s no use crying over spilt milk.  My spending was a little bit out of control in March and so I’m hoping that April will bring a necessary calm and stability back to my life.  Anyway, the tax refund rebuilt my financial house, and I’m back on track with much of my financial plan for 2018, so thank you IRS.

How was your dividend income in March?  How do you suggest I present the dividend income information?

Let me know your thoughts by commenting below.

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