Bert's December Dividend Income Summary – Over $8,000 in Passive Income – Dividend Diplomats

December closed out 2024, and we went out with a BANG!  December dividend income summaries are always our favorite because of the large mutual fund and ETF distributions.  This December, we earned over $8,000 in dividend income!  In this article, we will detail our December dividend income in detail.

Why I Invest in Dividend Stocks

I invest in dividend stocks to grow a my passive income with dividend income. One day, my dividend income will be large enough to cover my monthly expenses and allow us to retire early. That is why we are always relentlessly searching for undervalued dividend stocks to buy. To put our hard earned cash to work.

We save a high percentage of our income each month, to help fuel our dividend stock portfolio. Having a high savings rate is a key pillar of our strategy and helps fuel the fire and push the snowball further down hill. While we are waiting to invest our money in the market, it is earning a high interest rate in accounts. There is NOTHING more critical than maximizing EVERY DOLLAR in your savings account.

READ: How To Maximize Your Cash – 4 Simple Methods! 

The 3 primary savings accounts I use are:

1. 1. SoFi – 4.3% APY on all savings accounts (lower for your checking account). The race for deposits is INTENSE! Banks and credit unions are offering great savings rates.
   2. Capital One 360 Savings – 3.80% APY – We use Capital One for our checking and savings account.

Read: Interest Rates on High Yield Savings Accounts Are SOARING!

In December 2024, we received $8,126.29 in dividend income! This was an 18% increase compared to last year.

We are pumped up to receive over $8,000 in dividend income in one month. Heck, each dollar was earned without lifting a finger. How cool is that?  What really excites us though is to see the growth and progress over the last 5 years.

The following chart shows our annual December dividend income. 2021 was an anomaly. For those that may not remember, that was the one year with insane market gains.  Our mutual funds and ETFs rewarded us handsomely with strong capital gains distributions.  That didn’t hold in subsequent years. The true growth in progress for our family can bee seen from 2022 to 2024.  We went from receiving ~$5,000 in December 2022 to over $8,000 in December 2024.

Individual Dividend Payments

The devil is always in the details, of course. In this section, we will review our December dividend income in two separate ways.  First, we will review the allocation of payments received from funds vs. individual stocks.  Then, we will review the individual distributions received and provide any observations our income.

Funds vs. Stocks Allocation

December always has the highest allocation of fund payments due to the capital gains distributions (as we’ve mentioned several times already).  Thus, it is not surprising that nearly three quarters of our dividend income came from mutual funds and ETFs. The largest of the payments came from my wife’s retirement account (VINIX). Still, receiving nearly $2,200 in dividend payments from individual stocks gets us excited.  We have worked very hard to build our individual stock portfolio over the years.  The fruits of our labor is starting to pay off.  Guess what?  It is not stopping here. We are going to keep pushing EVEN HARDER in 2025.

Individual Dividend Payments Received

The following tables show the individual dividend payments we received from mutual funds, ETFs, and individual stocks.  The largest payment, as discussed in the last section, was in my wife’s retirement account. She received a $3,915 dividend payment from VINIX.  HOLY FREAKING COW!

VINIX was not the only shocking dividend payment we received.  Nor was it the only dividend stock that we wanted to highlight in today’s article.  Here are a few observations about our dividend income summary.

Observation #1: SCHD is Flexing Its Muscles

We have been buying SCHD in my wife’s taxable brokerage account for the last year and a half.  Since June, we have increased our Monday purchase amounts from 15 shares (stock split adjusted) to 18-19 shares.  Adding $500 per week to SCHD is really starting to make its impact.

Why? Our SCHD dividend payment in December was $292. Annualized, we are on track to receive $1,200 every single year from everyone’s favorite dividend ETF.  Are we planning on stopping our strategy?  Not a chance.  We are planning on continuing our ETF strategy until we hit the next major milestone.

Observation #2: Johnson & Johnson is Still the King

We built our Johnson & Johnson positions to 100 shares in each of our portfolio several years ago.  JNJ still remains the top paying individual dividend stock in December. Combined, we received $320 from the Dividend King.  That is at least 2.25 shares via DRIP at Johnson & Johnson’s lower price.

It excites me having large dividend payments and is something I want to start striving for in 2025.  Rather than have a lot of positions that pay small dividends, it is time to clean up our portfolio and consolidate positions to simplify our portfolios and receive larger, more meaningful payments from our holdings.

Observation #3: Should I Consolidate Energy Positions?

In the spirit of portfolio cleanup, I’m considering consolidating my energy positions.  I have a lot of average positions.  The following dividend stocks paid between $30 and $53 in quarterly dividend income: Consolidated Edison (ED), Dominion Energy (D), First Energy (FE), and AEP (AEP).

Do I need 3 electric utilities?  No.  Do I need 4 individual utility companies that are overlapping?  Probably not?  So why not look to consolidate the positions and invest in my favorite of the group?  That will definitely be on my mind in Q1 2025.

Summary: December Dividend Income

What a fun month of dividend income.  I can’t complain about receiving over $8,000 in December dividend income.  However, now is not the time to settle. Now is not the time to get complacent.  If anything, I want to push even harder to get this number to $10,000 in December dividend income.  We have been blessed and fortunate to get to this position and I am so pumped to continue sharing our results with the community. Thank you all for your motivation over the years!

What was your December dividend income total?  Did you receive the majority of your income from stocks or funds?

Bert