November 2018 Summary

The last month of autumn was a remarkable month. Our baby-daughter is growing well and giving us a lot of joy. She smiled for the first time and is doing it more often now which is amazing to see!

There were also some changes in the investing front. I finally managed to open an account with a new broker (Interactive Brokers) which has better commissions and dividend tax policies than my previous one. It should help me optimize my investments and boost my dividend income due to lower taxes. At the moment, most of my investments are still at my old broker but I am planning to move them over gradually.

Without further ado, let’s have a look at the numbers for November!

Dividend Income

I received dividend from 4 great companies this month:

Second month of the quarter is the biggest in terms of dividend income with my current portfolio composition. It may not look much compared to other bloggers in the community but I am happy nevertheless to see the progress each month. It feels good to see that your money is working for you.

As always, I like to imagine what I could buy if I wanted to spend those dividends. I started making a budget and counting where our family spends money each month so it is easier to see what part of our expenses each individual payer could cover:

  • $6.65 from AT&T would cover 20% of our Internet+TV bill;
  • $4.52 form Procter & Gamble is 11% of what we spent on diapers (actually produced by PG) for our baby this month;
  • $6.05 from Starbucks would fully cover what we spent for takeaway coffee this month or 17% of our overall “Eating out” expenses;
  • $2.47 from Realty Income would cover 0.4% of our monthly rent.

I like to perform this exercise because it gives me motivation to keep saving and investing. Hopefully, one day dividends will be able to cover at least some of our expenses each month.

Year-on-Year Comparison

Let’s see how dividend income compares to November of last year:

Almost 50% growth is what I like to see. Of course, this is mainly due to very low base and the single purchase of SBUX earlier this year contributed to most of the growth.

What I like to do is to compare the growth rate to annual inflation. If I excluded the additional purchase of SBUX, the increase would have been 3% which is in line with the most recent inflation data in Lithuania (2.9%).

This is how my dividend income progress looks like since the beginning of 2016 when I started recording it:

Purchases and Portfolio Contributions

During November I contributed €600 to my investments account.

I used these and previous savings to initiate one purchase this month. I bought 8 shares of Illinois Tool Works (ITW) for $134.37/share (+$1.00 commissions) for a total of $1075.96. You may read more about this purchase here.

This month I also added €20 to my P2P lending portfolio.

Dividend Increases

None of my companies declared dividend increases this month so nothing to report here, unfortunately.

December should include at least a couple of companies with good news, so hopefully this section will not be empty in my next monthly report πŸ™‚

P2P Lending Income

This month I received €7.46 in interest from P2P lending which is pretty much the same as last month. My loans portfolio currently consists of 57 loans for a total value of €664.78.

Summary

In total (after converting to EUR) I received €24.86 from passive income. This brings my total for 2018 to €236.74 which is very close to my goal of €240 that I set to myself at the beginning of the year. The goal looked optimistic when I started the year, so I am really happy to see that I am set to achieve it! πŸ™‚

 

How was your month? Are you sharing any of the dividend payers this month? Are you set to achieve your annual goals with one month left? Don’t hesitate to leave your comments below and thanks for reading!

29 thoughts on “November 2018 Summary

    1. Hi TLTI,
      Thanks for the encouragement! Let’s try to build something from those foundations πŸ™‚

  1. Hi BI. Same with the firsk smile here πŸ™‚ On the income side similar to your just little bit more income 33$ or so. waiting for my birthday present (another buy) at end of December. Thinking about CSCO mostly. Too bad its still up. If only if would reach 40$ or so πŸ™‚

    1. Hi P2035,
      I think we are going to experience a lot of similar things with our babies πŸ™‚
      Nice income for you, I will have to catch-up πŸ™‚
      I think I will also buy something before the year ends. I haven’t decided what it is going to be yet but I have a few candidates. As you know, CSCO is one of the best investments for me at the moment, hopefully you will be able to get them at good price! Looking forward to see what you are going to purchase πŸ™‚

  2. Hi BI, we share two names this month: T and SBUX. Your passive stream is developing nicely. We are all at a different chapter towards our goals. But the most important thing is that we are progressing. And almost 50% gain is nothing else than a great progress. Congrats.
    Cheers
    Alex

  3. Happy to hear your daughter is doing well!

    It’s really interesting to see the comparison of dividend income and related expenses. I think I would copy your idea if I wasn’t so lazy at tracking my expenses! ITW is on my watchlist and hopefully I can add it to my portfolio next year.

  4. Hey DD,
    Thanks for the nice words!
    Tracking my expenses is new to me as well, I am only tracking them for 2 months and I like it so far. Since it’s only two months, I cannot say that I will consistently track them going forward but so far it seems to help to save more.

  5. Hello BI,
    great month! Congratulation to your transfer to Interactive Brokers and especially to your daughter’s smile πŸ™‚
    What P2P platforms do you use?
    On your recomendation, I started researching GOSAVY. Nice platform with usable secondary market but I noticed lack of new loans and autoinvest did not catch any loan yet. I am not sure why.
    There is not much coverage on international forums, most of the information is in some weird language πŸ™‚
    But thank you for mentioning, it could be another diversification for my P2P portfolio.

    Druss

    1. Hi Druss,
      Thanks for visiting and the nice words!
      Yes, I am using Savy and that weird language you see is probably Lithuanian πŸ™‚ I see your point in lack of new loans, sometimes my money sits in account for a week or more before it gets invested. I guess there are too many investors and too little loans but it is enough with my small portfolio at the moment πŸ™‚ I think it’s a small platform compared to international ones, so I guess that’s the reason for lack of coverage in international forums πŸ™‚

  6. We share all four holdings this month, and you’re turning in some solid numbers! It is important not to get caught up in comparing numbers to others, as we are all on our own unique journey and that should not take away from the accomplishments you have achieved. You’re doing great and that growth is a testament to that!

    It is great seeing you close in on that annual goal as well. Beyond all of the numbers, what you said at the opening is the most important of all and that is the joy that your daughter is bringing! Thanks for sharing.

    1. Hi DivvyDad,
      Thanks a lot for your kind words! Seeing other investors bringing in bigger dividend amounts doesn’t make me feel sad, it brings motivation. I know that it’s a long journey and I am actually enjoying it. Being part of this great community is one of the factors πŸ™‚

    1. Hey Rob,
      Thanks for visiting!
      It looks like our portfolios are quite different! I can see that you received dividends from quite a few companies but I guess you are focusing more on Canadian ones πŸ™‚

  7. Great to read things are going in the right direction for you and that you are very close to reaching your passive income goal! But as far as November is concerned, I guess nothing can beat your baby’s first smile πŸ™‚
    Regarding P2P, have you ever considered Mintos? That’s a Riga based platform. I’ve recently added them to my portfolio.

    1. Hey Marc,
      Thanks for visiting!
      I heard about Mintos but haven’t considered them yet. For now, I feel that I have enough exposure to P2P lending using the current platform. My plan is to keep up to 10% of my portfolio in this type of investment. I guess it won’t hurt to check Mintos platform, though, so I may give it a go πŸ™‚ I think you have an article on your blog about it, I will take a look πŸ™‚

      1. Sounds good! I just started with P2P lending and Mintos is the first platform I am investing on. I do want to use other platforms as well, just to spread the risk. But I think it is wise not to have too much money in one particular asset class. Your 10% sounds like a good number. I am still much lower than that but will expand over the next months.

  8. The progress looks great, BI. That ITW purchase should kick in dividends at the beginning of 2019, getting you off to a terrific start in the new year. Nice!
    Love the outstanding YoY growth, too. Hard not to like that.
    I share all stocks except T with you for November.
    Looks like 2018 will end up being an outstanding year for you, with solid portfolio growth, and wonderful growth of the family. Take care.

    1. Hi ED,
      Thanks a lot for the kind words! 2018 will definitely be remembered as a great year! Anyway, I can’t wait what the 2019 will bring, I am sure that it will only get better from here, as it always does πŸ™‚

  9. Hey BI!

    Seems like your are well on your way to reach your year target. And with almost 50% growth you are doing all the right things!

    We share all companies except Sbux. I didn’t board the Starbucks train like (what felt like) 90% of the DGI community. In hindsight it would have payed off wel.

    Oh well, live and learn. Enjoy all your first times with your new baby. Mine also smiled for the first time as well πŸ™‚

    1. Hi Mr. Robot,
      Thanks for the encouragement! Even though you didn’t buy SBUX, I am sure that you bought something else at that time, so it’s hard to have them all. There are quite a few companies I would like to have but didn’t use the opportunity when there was one πŸ™‚

  10. Congrats on the nearly 50% YoY increase BI. By the way, I love the way you do the comparisons. It puts things into perspective, and I agree that it provides excellent motivation going forward. I hope we both finish the year strong!

    1. Hi DP,
      Thanks for the comment! The last month of the year is not the greatest for my portfolio, unlike for most pf the investors. But let’s wait and see how much progress we can make and it will feel good to reflect back on the year πŸ™‚

    1. Hey Doug,
      Thanks for the comment! I can see that you also posted your dividend income for November and it looks amazing! Let’s continue to grow our income from dividends! πŸ™‚

  11. Excellent month Broke Investor! I love it and it is cool how you show how each company’s dividend covers the relevant expense. You have a really low cable/internet bill. I’m pretty jealous haha Your growth and progress are impressive and this was a really fun article to read. Keep at it and keep the hustling alive πŸ™‚

    Bert

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