June is now over, so a third of summer is effectively gone and the first half of 2016 is now over. The past month was fairly quiet, so there’s not much to really say. But there is one item of note: The end of June marks my 16th anniversary at my current employer. Let that sink in for a minute: Six. Teen. Years. During my current job, I have had 4 supervisors, gone through 3 desktop operating system (Windows NT, XP, 7), survived two recessions, and done a LOT of writing.

But ever since the concept of passive income became part of my reality, my perspective on work in general and my job in particular has changed. I think anybody who has earned their first passive dollar would agree that passive income really does open one’s mind to what’s possible when money does not need to come from indentured time. When the chains that bind time and money start to weaken, one gains a sense of empowerment and personal freedom that you just don’t get from a job.

So how did I do in June? Well, let’s do the numbers and see the results:

AWP $ 3.50*
BGY $ 49.00*
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.00*
CLM $ 54.19*
DHY $ 40.25
DMF $ 12.30
DSM $ 22.83
EDF $ 27.00*
EHI $ 38.50
EXG $121.95*
HHY $ 30.00
HQL $ 37.00
HTR $ 38.00
??? $ 1.05**
NCV $ 45.50
OIA $ 4.10
PFN $ 36.00
VFL $ 18.00
TOTAL $622.17

While $622.17 is nothing to complain about (there’s never much to complain about passive income), it does makes June my lowest dividend earning month since November’s $574.03. Ugh!

This drab performance is, unfortunately, due to four dividend cuts (cue the sad music). HQL cut its quarterly dividend from 48 cents per share to 37 cents, an approximately 33% cut. Ouch! But this was not unexpected for June, and I adjusted my projected average monthly dividend income to account for this when I learned about the cut over two months ago. The other three dividend cuts in June were not expected, with DHY cutting its monthly dividend slightly from 2.4 cents to 2.3 cents, HHY slashing its monthly dividend by 20% from 7.5 cents to 6.0 cents, and DMF trimmed its monthly dividend from 4.5 cents to 4.1 cents. The DHY and DMF cuts were barely perceptible nicks, but the HQL and HHY cuts were certainly felt. Thanks to the three unexpected dividend cuts, my projected average monthly dividend income is now $708.88. This will probably cost me a month in reaching my 2016 goal of $750.00, but I should still be able to achieve that goal by the end of the year.

The other bit of news is the effects of the UK’s June 23rd Brexit vote, which sent shockwaves across the world’s markets. But my portfolio almost completely recovered from this event a week later. Too bad I didn’t have any cash available to make some buys when the market panic was at its worst…

The end of June also means the end of Q2 2016. So how does Q2 2016 stack up against Q2 2015? The total dividend income for April-June 2015 was $1827.42. For those same months in 2016, total dividend income was $2024.42. That’s a 10.78% increase, which isn’t bad but certainly not as good as the Q1 2015 to Q1 2016 increase of 19.4%. Why such a difference? When I look at the numbers a little more closely, I see that February’s 2015’s dividend income was noticeably less than the month immediately before and after it. The first two months of 2016 were very good. So when you have a damn good Q1 2016 and weak Q1 2015, then of course the year-to-year comparison will show really strong growth. But when comparing two mediocre quarters, I think a more accurate picture of growth appears.

In closing, June was an okay month, with some dividend cuts having a modest impact. But with other stocks’ quarterly payouts coming due in July and August, I anticipate that this summer’s dividend income will be quite good.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)