With August’s stock buy of AWP lifting my projected average monthly dividend income to $732.78, I reached a very anticipated goal: A projected average monthly dividend income of $730 per month. Which means 24 dollars every 24 hours. Or, more simply:

$1.00 per hour. Every hour of every day.

This is a major milestone that I’ve been looking forward to achieving for a long time. While $750 per month is still my 2016 goal, achieving $1 per hour has been the 2016 goal that I’ve looked forward to the most. At the start of the year, I set $750 as a target number that I figured would be achievable as long as I stayed the course (for example, not letting my dividend matching program slip or investing in safer but low-yield stocks). Other than being a nice round number, reaching $750 per month also signifies reaching $9000 projected average annual dividend income.

But $730? Now THIS is a special number to me, as it means that my projected average hourly income is $1.00 ($24 x 365 = $8760; $8760 / 12 = $730.00). Every hour puts $1.00 into my pocket, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. For example, here are some of my common activities and how much I get paid doing them while earning $1.00 per hour passively:

• Sleeping for 6 hours: $6.00
• getting ready for work: $0.75
• Driving to the office: $0.75
• Working from 8 to 5: $9.00
• Driving home from the office: $0.83
• Unwinding and having dinner: $1.50
• Mowing the lawn: $1.00
• Watching a 1 hour TV show: $1.00
• Watching a movie: $2.00

One measly buck per hour doesn’t sound very impressive. But a passively earned dollar is better than a wage earned dollar because it…

• Isn’t traded for one’s time (obviously, this is HUGE).
• Doesn’t incur related expenses such as commuting/transportation costs, lunch at the office, buying dress code compliant attire, etc.
• Has no taxes (federal, state) immediately withheld.
• Has no retirement savings withheld (social security, 401(k), etc.).
• Has no “contribution benefit” insurance costs withdrawn (health, dental, vision, AD&D, long-term care, etc.).

In 2013, after nearly 5 years of investing, I was thrilled to have reached the 50 cents per hour milestone. A year later I was thrilled to reach the milestone of 1 cent per minute. Now I’m thrilled reaching the $1.00 per hour milestone. It’s clear that my dividend income snowball’s pace of growth is accelerating. Such is the power of compounding when applied to dividend income investing.

Yes, $1.00 per hour isn’t very much, but it’s certainly an important milestone in my quest for dividend income.

Image Credit: Hana Chramostova (publicdomainpictures.net)