January is over, and I am so glad to see it gone. Having lived here in the Portland metro area for 18 years, I’ve noticed that we get a good snowing every four years or so. So, as expected, the weather got pretty ugly during the middle of the month with an abundance of snow the likes of which the region hasn’t seen since 2012. And winter isn’t over yet, with some snow and freezing rain expected late this week. Like many here in the Pacific Northwest, the snow is fun at first, but by the third day everybody wishes it would just go away.

A good way to counter the cold is the warm feelings that dividend income provides every month. Let’s do the numbers and see how well January went:

AWP $ 45.00
BGY $ 38.00*
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.00*
CLM $ 44.43*
CODI $108.00
DHY $ 40.25
DMF $ 12.30
DSM $ 22.83
EAD $ 10.88
EDF $ 45.00*
EHI $ 32.00
EXG $121.95*
NCV $ 45.50
OIA $ 4.30
PFN $ 36.00
PNNT $ 84.00
RA $ 69.85
RSO $ 7.50
VFL $ 16.50
TOTAL $827.29

* Includes Return of Capital

$827.29? Nice! January marks my third $800+ month in the past 12 months, and I’m sure the next 12 months will see $800+ months with increasing frequency. I’m optimistic that I will have a $900+ month some time this year, but we will see what happens as the year unfolds.

Not entirely unexpected when starting a new year, a dividend cut affected January’s total dividend income. CLM cut its dividend from $0.2837 to $0.2326, which is an 18.01% cut or $9.76 drop in my monthly CLM payout. This cut reduces CLM’s dividend yield from 9.53% to 7.81% <sigh>.  CLM’s dividend hasn’t fallen to the point where I’m willing to sell it off, but it’s certainly getting closer to that point (5% is where I draw the line). If CLM’s dividend cutting trend continues, I will probably sell it off in 2018 or 2019.

Overall, January may not have been a good month for weather and resulting higher utility bills, but it was a very good month for dividend income. 🙂

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)