Sitting at the half way mark for 2021 I updated my map of how my dividend income compares to the median household income for each state in the U.S. This is a fun little exercise I like to do to see how my passive income is measuring up.
All the baseline household income is from Census Bureau data and adjusted for inflation. While the annual income I use is my current forward dividend income.
| % of Median Income | 2020 | 2021 |
| 80% & higher | 5 | 7 |
| 65% to 79% | 17 | 23 |
| 50% to 64% | 25 | 18 |
| less than 50% | 4 | 2 |
In the 80% & higher category I improved by 2 states as I welcome West Virginia and North Carolina into the 80+% club.
In the cellar dwellers, I went from 4 to 2 states as the states of Washington and New Hampshire moved out of the less than 50% category. This leaves just Massachusetts and Maryland as the last two cellar dwellers.
My largest improvement was the 65% to 79% category as 6 states moved up one spot on my list.
The only issue I have with the current data set is the numbers were adjusted for average 2020 inflation rate and as we all know inflation has been much higher the last few months. It will be real interesting when I revisit this 6 months from now and readjust for 2021 inflation.
Simple Dividend Growth 
using the data from hud would be more up to date and accurate. good luck!
LikeLike
Thank you Dave, HUD/ACS data source was more up to date. Problem I had using simple inflation adjustments it did not account for migration between states and local economy changes and will use the data source for the next update. Based on that data my 80+% club goes up by 1 (Oklahoma) but the two bottom dwellers remain the same. I haven’t run the numbers on the other ranges yet but sure the mix will be different.
LikeLike
That’s really impressive to see your dividend income alone being almost as high as the median incomes in several states. We’re still a long ways from that but we’re working on it day by day!
LikeLike
Thanks JC, I’ve been on the savings road for so long its nice to start seeing a light at the end.
LikeLike
More green on the screen! I’m years off from being able to do this exercise but its neat too see your progress mapped out instead of just % increases.
LikeLike
A little at a time is all you can do. You have been so steady with your investments and the YoY growth has been fantastic, definitely on your way to blowing past my numbers when you hit my age.
LikeLike