Here is the dividend income report for September, 2020.
The monthly dividend income came out to $1836.64. The yearly income total for 2020 through the end of the month was $6659.02.
The income for September, 2019 was $2112.65, and the yearly income for 2019 through the end of September was $6485.69.
I am starting to question whether or not indexing, or dividend growth investing (DGI) or any other buy-and-hold philosophy is going to work out over the next few years. Granted, many people say that these are the most important times to stick with buy and hold. But things are not working out too well.
I have been engaged in DGI for about ten years. Maybe that is not enough time for the magic of compounding to happen, but the pace of my income growth is making me wonder if I will have enough money when I am old. Between COVID and interest rate repression, my bond income has decreased a lot. From April until October, the dividend per share for BND has gone from 19 cents a share to just over 15; here are the amounts from April to October: 0.1905, 0.1739, 0.1687, 0.1624, 0.1587, 0.1531, 0.1503. RLI paid a whopping 7 cents more than it did three months ago. This is not the stuff that affluence is made of. I thought interest rates would have gone up five years ago. They keep going lower. One of the effects is people play more games with money. Some people blame the central banks for the way people react to low interest rates. You can blame central banks for the rates, but not peoples’ reaction.
Nevertheless, I am thinking about doing some things that run counter to indexing, DGI, and buy-and-hold in general. Like putting all my money in bonds in the A and B months and the beginning of the C month, and putting it into stock ETFs during the second half of the C month. Or putting a lot of it in covered call funds.
In other news, RWR is still above where I sold it. I am starting to think a market correction is like “the storm”, or the second coming of Christ: Always predicted, but never seems to arrive. (Granted, market corrections are a known historical phenomenon and not something only believed by crazy people who are too stupid to focus their anger on something productive.)
Here is a table with the year-to-date amounts, the monthly amounts, and the three- and twelve-month moving averages for each September from 2011 through 2020:
| Month | YTD | Amount | 3MMA | 12MMA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-09 | $6659.02 | $1836.64 | $750.42 | $887.30 |
| 2019-09 | $6485.69 | $2112.65 | $744.85 | $831.74 |
| 2018-09 | $3476.52 | $506.44 | $430.49 | $518.06 |
| 2017-09 | $4796.80 | $775.50 | $562.76 | $551.05 |
| 2016-09 | $4260.70 | $720.86 | $505.47 | $499.02 |
| 2015-09 | $3744.49 | $659.59 | $443.06 | $432.46 |
| 2014-09 | $2993.02 | $536.75 | $353.04 | $335.39 |
| 2013-09 | $2374.05 | $395.65 | $293.78 | $294.44 |
| 2012-09 | $2425.78 | $315.21 | $283.66 | $283.00 |
| 2011-09 | $2121.78 | $243.26 | $256.81 | $233.01 |
Here are the securities and the income amounts for September, 2020:
- Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $149.94
- Vanguard Total Bond Market ETF: $38.41
- Vanguard Total International Bond ETF: $10.14
- Vanguard Utilities ETF: $192.58
- RLI Corp: $24.80
- SPDR S&P Dividend ETF: $711.50
- SPDR S&P Global Dividend ETF: $709.27
Big Jim is trying to keep up with all the changes.
Image from Wikimedia, assumed allowed under Fair Use. Painting of angel by Guariento di Arpo (1310-1370).
