I hope the new year is treating you and your investments well. After December’s steep drop (-20% from its 2018 high point!) of my dividend investing portfolio, January has proved that the stomach-churning turmoil of December was largely a correction and the market has clawed its way back up. At the end of January, my portfolio’s value is only down 6% from its 2018 high point. That’s not bad at all, and I sleep much better knowing it isn’t 2008-2009 all over again. Whew!

Well, let’s do the numbers and see how I fared in January:

AWP $ 55.00
AWP $ 55.00
BGY $ 33.80*
CHW $ 21.00*
CIK $ 22.50*
CLM $ 41.06
CODI $144.00
DHY $ 35.00
DMF $ 10.50
DSM $ 19.25
EAD $ 9.68
EDF $ 45.00*
EXG $ 92.40*
NCV $ 45.50
NRZ $160.00
OIA $ 4.10
PFN $ 36.00
PNNT $ 81.00
RA $ 69.85
USA $ 24.00
VFL $ 15.00
ZTR $ 33.90
TOTAL $1053.54

* Includes Return of Capital

Wow! I had my third $1000+ month! Sweeeeeet! It’s awesome to see that, despite the market turmoil during the past three months, the dividend income snowball just keeps rolling along and is slowly growing. Thanks to stock buys in the 4th quarter (AWP, NRZ, USA) and AWP’s overdue payout from December, January’s dividend income set a new high for me and was a little bit closer to reaching the $1100 milestone.!

Still, January wasn’t all peaches and cream. Just as I feared, dividend cuts struck during this first quarter of the new year. Early this month USA announced a 1 cent per share dividend cut, reducing it to 15 cents per share (-6.25% or -$2.75 per quarter). EAD also announced a dividend cut taking effect in March, reducing its monthly dividend from 6.10 cents per share to 5.979 cents per share (-1.98% or -$0.19 per month). CLM slashed its monthly dividend from 23.65 cents per share to 20.53 cents (-13.2% or -$6.24 per month). And finally, EXG slashed its monthly dividend from 7.6 cents per share to 6.16 cents (-18.9% or -$21.6 per month). These cuts will certainly hurt a bit, as my projected monthly dividend income will fall 3.17% from $906.69 to $877.94. Ouch!

Overall, January was a very good month. My portfolio’s value recovered quite a bit from the hammering it endured throughout December. Thanks to 4th quarter stock buys and AWP’s overdue dividend payout, January got a little boost. Finally, January saw a few somewhat painful dividend cuts that will affect future dividend income. It is, as I’ve often said, a four steps forward and one step back process.

Image Credit: jarmoluk (pixabay.com)