Happy Holidays! Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas shopping season is getting into full swing, with cash registers ringing across the land in celebration of holiday sales. For stock holders of dividend paying stocks, Christmas morning comes every month and/or quarter. Dividend payouts, no matter how small, are better than an ugly sweater or tie.

Let’s do the numbers for November and see how it went:

AWP $ 3.50*
BGY $ 49.00*
CHW $ 10.50
CLM $ 70.29*
CIK $ 22.00*
DHY $ 42.00
DMF $ 15.75
DSM $ 22.83
EHI $ 35.61
EXG $121.95
HHY $ 37.50
HTR $ 38.00
NCV $ 45.50
OIA $ 4.10
PFN $ 36.00
VFL $ 19.50
TOTAL $574.03

Ooops! I was rather premature in my October posting declaring that I’m out of the $500’s of monthly dividend income. I have some stocks that pay out dividends quarterly, so that gives a nice boost. Unfortunately, the timing of those quarterly payouts means that some months have no quarterly payout at all, leaving only monthly dividend income. November was one of those months. I won’t completely escape the $500’s until my regular monthly dividend income becomes $600 or more. But with each buy of stocks that pay out monthly, I get closer to that goal.

While November may feel slightly disappointing, I feel better about it when I think about my November 2014 dividend payouts. That month’s dividend payouts totaled $491.56, which makes this November 2015 dividends 16.78% higher than the previous November. That’s a bit lower than the approximately 20% annual growth rate of my total dividend income, but it’s still pretty good. And when I think about it, I have never had a November paycheck income be 16% greater than the previous November’s paycheck income (assuming the job hasn’t changed). And finally one last, small point: I didn’t trade my time for that $574.03 this month. Yeah!!

November may have been an unremarkable month, but I have a feeling that December will prove to be unusually good. Check back in 30 days and see if December’s numbers justify my optimism.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)