At the end of 2019 I had set a goal for myself of $6500 in dividend income for 2020. That would represent an increase of 50% on the $4334 I earned in dividend income in 2019. In hindsight, that was a very lofty goal. Furthermore, the uncertainty of markets due to the Covid pandemic did not help.
So how did I do?
At the end of last quarter I had amassed a total of $4071.79 in dividend income for the year. That is just $262 shy of my total for the entire year of 2019. So crushing last year’s total was not a problem.
But how close did I come to my goal of a 50% increase or $6500 total?
Lets check out the results….
October 2020
| Stock Symbol | Dividend Income |
| VTI | $58.21 |
| STX | $26.00 |
| DIA | $46.51 |
| SPY | $68.76 |
| TOTAL | $199.48 |
November 2020
| Stock Symbol | Dividend Income |
| T | $197.91 |
| VZ | $52.84 |
| DIA | $9.33 |
| COST | $647.75 |
| TOTAL | $907.89 |
December 2020
| Stock Symbol | Dividend Income |
| INTC | $11.55 |
| XOM | $90.51 |
| IBM | $175.81 |
| WBA | $23.98 |
| DIA | $52.14 |
| VYM | $159.30 |
| KHC | $36.57 |
| VTI | $67.77 |
| TOTAL | $617.63 |
Total for Q4 = $1725.00
$1725.00 was my total dividend income for the 4th quarter of 2020. In quarter 1 I earned $1292.68 in dividend income and in quarter 2 $1462.26 and quarter 3 was $1316.85 bringing my 2020 total to $5796.79.
My total increase was only $703 short of my massive goal of a 50% increase over last year. I did however increase my total dividend earnings by 34%. No small feat and nothing to be ashamed of in my opinion.
So in the end I smashed last years total but fell short short of my goal of $6500 for 2020.
Now its time to set a goal for next year…..
So 50% proved to be a bigger challenge than I was ready for and the resulting 34% increase was rather easy. How about another 50% increase? That would make my 2021 total a nice round number $8700. That’s $3000 more than what I earned this year.
Yeah I know, I’m nuts but a wise man once said if you reach for the sun and miss you can reach the stars, or something like that.
So my dividend income goal for 2021 is officially going to be $7000 or $2175 per quarter on average.
Just to give you nerds more info and stats to research, I am going to post here my current holdings in dividend stocks. How many shares I currently own and what their current yield is.
| Stock Symbol | Shares Owned | Dividend | Yield |
| DIA | 80 | $0.65 | 1.98% |
| SPY | 52 | $1.34 | 1.54% |
| VYM | 197 | $0.71 | 3.13% |
| VTI | 152 | $0.67 | 1.49% |
| IBM | 146 | $1.63 | 5.18% |
| T | 388 | $0.52 | 6.80% |
| VZ | 56 | $0.63 | 4.15% |
| WBA | 125 | $0.47 | 4.52% |
| INTC | 100 | $0.33 | 2.61% |
| XOM | 106 | $0.87 | 8.09% |
| STX | 41 | $0.67 | 4.06% |
| COST | 953 | $0.70 | .75% |
And here is an article I wrote titled Living off dividends in retirement
Wishing you all a much better 2021!!
Thanks for reading
~Earl