Oh yeah, it’s everybody’s favorite time of the month, my dividend extravaganza!

Last month, dividends were making it rain up in this beeyotch!

Well ok, maybe I’m not at a Hurricane Harvey level of dividend rainfall (What!? Too soon?), but all my dividends get reinvested. All my side-hustle money gets invested. Almost all the money I save from my job gets invested. You get the point, I am focused on increasing my wealth through all the channels at my disposal and dividends are a two-way street. I buy companies that pay them and in return, they give me a check for being an owner.

Dividends big or small, they all bring a smile to my face. They are not pennies or dollars stacking up in my accounts, but little bits of freedom. Each and every one contributes toward my goal of financial independence. I won’t turn my nose down on a bit of freedom, would you? I don’t think you would!

So be happy for what you receive, because there is someone out there that is getting less than you. I am content with what I receive, but working towards something greater is only human. Just make sure it is a worthy goal.

I have big dreams and I plan to get there by stacking a bunch of small victories on top of each other to achieve them. Dividends are one part of the plan, but not the main focus.

I still invest heavily in stocks that pay no dividend but are growing nicely. You can always buy into the dividend later if you have enough gains from owning growth companies. So I balance my portfolio between the two.

Motif Investing = $16.82

Firstly, my IRA with Motif Investing (sign up for a free 3-month trial of Motif BLUE – I also get a free month when you sign up) brought a combined dividend total of $16.82. I won’t list each stock individually as I have just a few shares or fraction of a share with a bunch of different companies thanks to their ‘basket of stocks’ way of doing business.

If you don’t know, with Motif Investing you can purchase up to 30 stocks in a ‘basket’ for $9.95. It’s a unique idea and I wanted to try it when they first came out.

Of note though, of that amount, $8.25 was from just one company, TK.

Teekay Corporation is the parent company to three daughter companies, one of which I own (TNK). The daughter’s each specialize in different areas of oil and LNG transportation. It is a sector that is cyclical and at the low. However, things appear to be looking up for the TK family now!

TGP is the LNG transporter. The shining star of the family.

TNK is the middle child, overlooked due to the market cycle being at its low. It should rebound very well from current prices when the current cycle reverses.

TOO is the problem. Fortunately, it has taken on a partner and basically restructured.

TK gets a big piece of all this action. Right now the dividend per share is just 6 cents as it had to go defensive to weather the downturn. It used to dish out 32 cents/qtr. Expect it to be back at that rate or higher by the end of 2018.

Based on the current price of $9/share, once it starts paying a 32 cent dividend the yield will be about 14%. Of course, it won’t be at the current price when that happens. So I loaded up on a decent amount of shares. I am up about 22% on my position and collecting a current 2.5% dividend while I wait.

Not too bad all things considered.

Robinhood Brokerage $80.93

STAG Industrial, Inc. (STAG) = $1.88

This is a monthly payer, so expect to see them every month. This company focuses on secondary, underserved, markets for its warehouse locations. It is a well-run company, but quite expensive at the current price and as such I would not recommend buying this company now. I have a much lower cost basis and it pays monthly, so I will hold.

Omega Healthcare Investors, Inc. (OHI) = $55.04 

Yes, I have a LARGE position with Omega. To the dividend tune of a combined $119.04. I used to have just my brokerage position, but I picked up 100 shares in the Roth IRA this year. I told myself that I would sell my brokerage holdings, but I never did. I don’t focus on the dividends, but an 8% yield is just so juicy…

Still, it is not tax efficient to have them in my brokerage. I will sell when OHI reaches $34/share and buy something else with that money. RGR is interesting at the moment. As a side note, I was able to DRIP 4 shares into my Roth last month. Quite nice to see those ‘free’ shares hit my account.

Teekay Tankers (TNK) = $24.00

I already talked about this stock family earlier, but I will add that TNK has a minimum dividend distribution policy of 3 cents/share. It is currently at $1.40, so that makes it an 8.5% yield. I have been paid 12 cents per share before. If the oil transport cycles upward and they pay 12 cents again, you will have a yield on cost of 34%!

If not, you get the current rate of 8.5% and the knowledge that the parent company has its back. To me, that is worth a speculative position.

Sirius XM Holdings (SIRI) = $0.01

This penny is from one of the shares that Robinhood gave me for spreading the word. I love this penny! I have named it Pendrogo, and he sits in a position of honor at my desk.

The Great Pendrogo, from the holdings of Sirius.

Roth IRA $70.44

Celanese Corporation (CE) = $6.44

This is a dividend growing company that nobody ever talks about. It is in the major chemicals/materials sector and is doing quite well. I sold it recently. Why? Well, I needed to free up some cash to get into a few junior lithium miners and this company was raided by EU antitrust regulators recently. So it has a potential downside if the regulators find any wrong doing.

I was sitting on a ~$10/share profit, which went into lithium juniors GALXF and NMKEF. It is a good move so far, GALXF is up 11% and the other is up 7%.

As stated previously (OHI) = $64.00

But this money is tax-free REIT income, yeah baby!

To recap:

Motif investing Traditional IRA = $16.82 (+12.2% from the previous month)

Robinhood Brokerage = $80.93 (+394% from the previous month)

Roth IRA = $70.44 (+123% from the previous month)

For a grand amount of $168.19! (+250% from the previous month)

That is my money making little money babies! And me watching them?…

Whatever, I am all for it. I tell all my investments to be fruitful and multiply.

It amounts to receiving $5.43 per day! I could buy lunch with this sorta dough, but I won’t because if I reinvest it I will have even more in the future!

To recap, in July I earned a total of $48.02. This means August represents 250% more dividend than last month! Of course, without OHI’s heavy dividend I would have received $49.15. It appears that about $50 is a good baseline amount for me.

This was month #2 of dividend tracking. If you want to check out the first month, click here. 

Once I have more data I will have to start making fancy-dandy graphs for you guys.

Until then, keep hustling, saving, and stacking.

How are your dividends coming along? Should I go full-force into DGI investing? Let me hear from you down in a comment below.