After 35 years of clocking in and out of work and religiously saving at least 10% annually in my 401K every year, my countdown to financial independence is in sight. Each month is a step closer and let’s look at how this past month is getting me there.
For the month of December I made $5753.31; an increase of 7.51% versus this time last year and since this is December I can also report my annual dividend income overall increased 10.2%.
In December I received 4 dividend raises from AMGN, AVGO, PFE & WM. Together this will add an additional $52.48 to my annual income going forward. However, the PFE raise of 2.5% was too low for my liking and I sold the entire position and reinvested it into SCHD (note PFE is a component of SCHD) which added an additional $102.98 to my forward dividend income.
Speaking of SCHD this is a good lead into my weekly buy and sell reports. Some regular readers may have noticed I stopped reporting my weekly activity and its for a simple reason. Back in June I recognized that dividend ETFs, specifically SCHD, became too cheap to ignore and I started a position. By September I realized an ETF was the most practical method for me to buy into a down market. Since that time, most of my buys have been and still are SCHD. As such my weekly reporting became repetitive (bought SCHD, bought SCHD, and so on). Until I stop buying SCHD I saw no use in the same boring posts every week that I bought SCHD.
On the home front my wife & I had been so focused on resolving family issues we lost track of time and Christmas seemed to appear out of nowhere. We were so distracted neither of us felt in the holiday spirit. This all changed however once family started to arrive at our house to celebrate. Even though it was bitterly cold that Christmas morning (14F / -10C) all the issues and problems just melted away as we exchanged stories and laughed all the while enjoying the warmth a woodburning stove, good food and drink. We even hit a point where my children and nieces found a stash of old pictures and when we investigated what they were laughing about there was some pics of me from the 80’s. The running joke of the night was that I was an extra in the Netflix series Stranger Things.
Here is one of the pics they had and that is me on the left with my younger brother. I still remember the day that photo was taken. I gave my brother an old pair of my hockey skates and he was trying them out on the ice.
Enough of me droning on, here are the metrics we love to see.
| Date | Symbol | Company | Amount |
| 12/1/22 | ALE | ALLETE INC | $171.21 |
| 12/1/22 | CMI | CUMMINS INC | $45.07 |
| 12/1/22 | DIVO | AMPLIFY ETF TR CWP ENHANCED DIV | $114.78 |
| 12/1/22 | PNW | PINNACLE WEST CAPITAL CORP | $220.15 |
| 12/1/22 | PSX | PHILLIPS 66 | $29.46 |
| 12/1/22 | SJM | SMUCKER J M CO | $19.80 |
| 12/1/22 | UPS | UNITED PARCEL SERVICE INC | $358.39 |
| 12/5/22 | ENB | ENBRIDGE INC | $246.48 |
| 12/5/22 | PFE | PFIZER INC | $243.02 |
| 12/6/22 | JNJ | JOHNSON &JOHNSON | $201.66 |
| 12/6/22 | SO | SOUTHERN CO | $71.50 |
| 12/8/22 | AMGN | AMGEN INC | $11.94 |
| 12/8/22 | DFS | DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICES | $15.79 |
| 12/8/22 | MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP | $75.44 |
| 12/8/22 | VLO | VALERO ENERGY CORP | $35.28 |
| 12/9/22 | SNA | SNAP-ON INC | $39.24 |
| 12/12/22 | CVX | CHEVRON CORP | $23.96 |
| 12/12/22 | IBM | INTERNATIONAL BUS MACH CORP | $158.87 |
| 12/12/22 | MMM | 3M CO | $63.12 |
| 12/12/22 | SCHD | SCHWAB US DIVIDEND EQUITY ETF | $129.63 |
| 12/12/22 | WBA | WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE INC | $72.65 |
| 12/13/22 | UL | UNILEVER PLC SPON ADR | $55.21 |
| 12/15/22 | AVA | AVISTA CORP | $150.98 |
| 12/15/22 | EPR | EPR PROPERTIES | $85.49 |
| 12/15/22 | FAF | FIRST AMERICAN FINANCIAL CORP | $169.77 |
| 12/15/22 | GM | GENERAL MTRS CO | $13.55 |
| 12/15/22 | NWL | NEWELL BRANDS INC | $25.56 |
| 12/15/22 | O | REALTY INCOME CORP | $1.46 |
| 12/15/22 | OGN | ORGANON &CO | $6.37 |
| 12/15/22 | PRU | PRUDENTIAL FINANCIAL INC | $533.20 |
| 12/15/22 | QCOM | QUALCOMM INC | $177.49 |
| 12/16/22 | BHB | BAR HARBOR BANKSHARES | $56.25 |
| 12/16/22 | BP | BP PLC SPONSORED ADR | $9.45 |
| 12/16/22 | DUK | DUKE ENERGY CORP | $70.07 |
| 12/16/22 | R | RYDER SYSTEM INC | $59.25 |
| 12/16/22 | WM | WASTE MANAGEMENT INC | $46.92 |
| 12/20/22 | CMP | COMPASS MINERALS INTERNATIONAL INC | $28.65 |
| 12/20/22 | PSEC | PROSPECT CAP | $98.13 |
| 12/29/22 | ARCC | ARES CAPITAL CORP | $625.16 |
| 12/29/22 | NUSI | ETF SER SOLUTIONS NATIONWIDE NASDQ | $15.53 |
| 12/29/22 | TROW | PRICE T ROWE GROUPS | $25.68 |
| 12/30/22 | AVGO | BROADCOM INC COM | $9.61 |
| 12/30/22 | BEP | BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE PARTNERS | $280.59 |
| 12/30/22 | BEPC | BROOKFIELD RENEWABLE CORP | $70.08 |
| 12/30/22 | CTO | CTO RLTY GROWTH INC | $88.27 |
| 12/30/22 | KHC | KRAFT HEINZ CO | $9.92 |
| 12/30/22 | LMT | LOCKHEED MARTIN CORP | $28.01 |
| 12/30/22 | NEWT | NEWTEK BUSINESS SVCS CORP | $578.85 |
| 12/30/22 | M1 Finance | M1 DIVIDEND GROWTH ACCOUNT | $86.37 |
Simple Dividend Growth 