FSNUF - My Dividend Stock Portfolio: New April Dividend Record - 99 Holdings With 21 Buys

2023-05-23 09:45:00 ET

Summary

• Markets are racing higher as the earnings season turned out much better than expected.
• Sector rotation into tech stocks has led to a surge in big-tech with Nvidia clearly leading the pack.
• My dividend income in April amounted to a record $755. This represents growth of 23% Y/Y and 21% sequentially.
• Gifted Working Time in 2023: Around 98.8 hours or 12.3 days of active work have been replaced with passive income in 2023, equivalent to more than 2 weeks of work.

Portfolio Changes in April

Investment activity in April was relatively low as markets continued to trade higher and buying opportunities started fading. I mostly just continued with my monthly savings plans and the regular purchases of high-yielding BDCs which so far are performing tremendously well.

Overall net investments totaled around $1,400 with the majority of those purchases targeted towards the financial sector in general and high-yielding BDCs in particular. I was really surprised to see W. P. Carey (WPC) trade below $70 again for no apparent reason given that their most recently reported earnings and investment activity continue to show the highest quality.

Overall, I did manage to add $107 in forward annual dividend income this month which brings YTD added annual dividend income to around $450 already. My goal is to be able to add at least $100 in forward dividend income every month and as things are developing right now this is a very reasonable and realistic target to achieve.

All these purchases break down as follows:

All net purchases in April can be found below:

Dividend Income: What Happened on the Dividend Side?

Dividend income hit a new April record of $755. This represents growth of 54% Y/Y and 21% sequentially. These figures are more than impressive to me but the April 2023 dividend income benefits from one special factor, the big dividend from ZIM Integrated Shipping Services ( ZIM ) which won't be repeated anytime soon in future quarters.

Adjusting my dividend figures for that effect still leaves Y/Y growth of 23% which is more than double my annual goal.

Given no special dividends this month, dividend income from my monthly dividend payers has fallen back below $100 in April but its current baseline of $83 is very strong as well and only going up with every future month.

The dividend income from my top 3 regular dividend payers in April has now reached $190 and the YTD average of $184 is up substantially from the $138 in 2022 which is mainly driven by regular investments in both W. P. Carey and Rithm Capital (RITM).

All this is depicted below:

Here is a chart that shows the development of my net dividend income by month over time between 2015 and 2023. You can see the growth of my dividend income and the average annual dividend for each year:

This chart is my favorite because it illustrates the progression of my dividend income over time and allows me to easily see the average annual dividend for each year.

Next, I have plotted all of the individual dividend payments I have received, coloring them by year and arranging the years side by side instead of horizontally as in previous updates. This visualization allows for a more comprehensive analysis of the distribution of my dividend payments over time.

By plotting the data in this way, we can easily see the distribution of dividend payments across different years and gain insights into the overall growth of my dividend income over time.

This visualization is initially quite cluttered, but it contains a wealth of information. It shows every individual dividend payment I have received since I began my investment journey in 2015, represented as a circle that is colored and sized according to its contribution. The view is organized by month and year, allowing for a more comprehensive analysis of the development of my dividend income over time. For each year and month, a white rectangle indicates the average monthly dividend. The area where dividends fall below the average is filled in dark red, while the area above the average is colored dark green. I greatly prefer this redesigned version of my old "bubbles chart" because it makes it much easier to identify trends and developments in my dividend income. This type of data visualization allows for a detailed examination of the distribution of my dividend payments over time and enables me to more easily identify trends and patterns in my income growth.

Now zooming in on April , we can immediately spot several large circles in different colors amidst a sea of black. The size of each circle and the gap between consecutive circles representing the same stock indicate the magnitude of the change in dividend income compared to previous years.

A standout in this visualization is the dividend from ZIM, which stands out as a clear outlier. Its impact on the monthly dividend view will distort the picture for many years until other positions catch up. Alongside ZIM, we can clearly see the dominance and significance of Altria ( MO ), W. P. Carey, and Rithm Capital. They have a strong presence in the visual representation.

When it comes to the dividends for 2023, I notice mostly orange circles at the top of the scale, which is exactly what I want to see. These big orange circles represent a rising dividend income, and my goal is to have as many of them as possible at the top of the chart.

Overall, my aim is to observe numerous large orange circles positioned at the highest point on the scale. This signifies a positive trend of increasing dividend income, which is precisely what I'm striving for.

Another way to express the monthly dividend income is in terms of Gifted Working Time (GWT). Assuming an average hourly rate of $32.34 for 2023, my GWT and annual net dividends have been as follows:

• 2018: 121 hours GWT, $3,000 in annual net dividends
• 2019: 142 hours GWT, $3,600 in annual net dividends
• 2020: 152 hours GWT, $3,800 in annual net dividends
• 2021: 180 hours GWT, $5,050 in annual net dividends
• 2022: 229 hours GWT, $6,400 in annual net dividends
• 2023: Targeting at least 216 hours GWT, $7,000 in annual net dividends

I expect overall GWT to decrease in 2023 due to higher calculated hourly rates, as I project a 10% increase in the hourly rate due to inflation.

The overall target for the year with $7,000 in annual net dividends is very conservative but I expect that I will have to take out some risk from my portfolio as mentioned above. Also, the stronger Euro (I am receiving dividends in EUR and then converting those to USD at current exchange rates for these updates) will have adverse impact. Still, as the year unfolds I expect to be able to pass that target and potentially even reach my next milestone of $8,000 as well. By the end of April 2023 my realized dividend income has exceeded my expectations by several dimensions with YTD net dividend growth coming in at a sizzling and unsustainable 41% Y/Y. That growth will certainly come down as the year unfolds but given I am only targeting a low single-digit growth rate, it is already clear that barring a major disaster I will easily achieve a double-digit growth rate in dividend income which is fantastic.

Across the years, my YTD Dividend Race has been as follows:

• 2018: Disappointing
• 2019: Phenomenal, benefiting from a low baseline in the prior year
• 2020: Fairly disappointing
• 2021: Phenomenal
• 2022: Much better than expected fueled by the very weak euro
• 2023: Targeting a conservative low single-digit growth rate (the more likely scenario is now a 10-15% increase in dividend income, possibly even 20%+)

I have updated the YTD Dividend Race chart to show the development of YTD dividend income on a daily basis, allowing us to see that most of my dividend income is generated mid-month and towards the end of the month. The chart also breaks down the development by month for the current year, making it easy to identify significant jumps in income.

Expressed in GWT, it presents itself as follows:

What this shows is as follows:

1. All time (blue area) - Around 1,034 hours, or 129 days, of active work have been replaced with passive income since the start of my dividend journey. Assuming a five-day workweek, this translates into 25 weeks of vacation funded via dividends.
2. Full-year 2023 (green bars) - Around 98.8 hours, or 12.3 days, of active work have been replaced with passive income in 2023 already, which is almost two-and-a-half full-time work weeks funded with dividends.
3. Highlighted in pink is the accumulated YTD total at the end of the current reporting month ( April ).

This visualization allows us to see the overall impact of my dividend income on the amount of active work I am able to replace with passive income. It also enables us to see the progress made year-to-date, as well as the accumulated total at the end of the current reporting month.

Upcoming May Dividends

Contrary to April, May features significantly fewer dividend payers but among them are the big annual dividends from German companies as well as the still sizable dividend from AT&T (T). Beyond that dividend payments are overall concentrated in the first half of the month with only 1 meaningful dividend payment from the Royal Bank of Canada (RY) expected in the second half of November.

The snapshot below is taken from my free-for-all released Dividend Calendar (make sure to follow instructions in the video) and shows my expected dividend payments in April.

At the end of April, my dividend portfolio is composed as follows:

For further details see: