I’m back with an update on dividend income after taking a few months off. Life has been absolutely crazy lately and I appreciate everyone’s patience. September was a great dividend income month for me as we surpassed $5,000. In this post, we’ll review my September dividend income totals and share a few observations about the passive income stream.
Why I invest in dividend stocks
I invest in dividend stocks to grow my passive income with dividend income. One day my dividend income will be large enough to cover my monthly expenses and allow us to retire early. That’s why we’re always relentlessly looking for undervalued dividend stocks to buy. To put our hard-earned money to work.
We save a high percentage of our income every month to fuel our dividend stock portfolio. Having a high savings rate is a key pillar of our strategy and helps fuel the fire and push the snowball further down. While we wait to invest our money in the market, it earns high interest on bills. There is NOTHING more important than maximizing EVERY DOLLARS in your savings account.
The primary savings account I use is SoFi – 3.8% APY on all savings accounts (lower for your checking account).
REGISTER FOR A SOFI CHECK & SAVINGS ACCOUNT
Bert’s summary of September dividend income
In May we earned $5,140.66 of dividend income. That’s one Dividend increase of 19% compared to last year. Let’s go, everyone!
Of course, September is the third month of the quarter. That means our September dividend income totals were boosted by payments from mutual funds and ETFs. More than half of our dividend payments came from mutual funds or ETFs.
The catalyst for the major growth in fund payments is our consistent dividend payments to SCHD and maximizing our 401(k) contributions. Every week we buy 30 shares of SCHD in my wife’s account. We’ve amassed over 2,000 shares and a market worth over $60,000. The SCHD position produces huge dividend income every quarter. In September, SCHD paid us $580!
Watch: SCHD PAID US A LARGE DIVIDEND IN THE THIRD QUARTER
401k contributions are also starting to add up. We invest our 401k contributions in S&P 500 funds, spread across multiple accounts. The funds are VIIIX, FXAIX and VSMPX. In total, the three funds paid us $1,853. That means SCHD and our 401ks accounted for almost half of our total dividend income in September. Wow!
Individual stock dividend payments
There was other good news regarding our total dividend income in September. We had a fantastic month with individual stocks paying us a big dividend.
We do not list every individual dividend payment we received during the month. Instead, the following table shows the top 10 dividend payments received in September. In total, the Top 10 accounted for $1,016.74 in dividend income. That represents almost 20% of our monthly dividend income.
The Top 10 shows an interesting concentration in our portfolio. Two stocks dominate, as both my wife and I receive large dividend payments from Johnson & Johnson and T. Rowe Price. Thank goodness Johnson & Johnson stock price has had a strong run in 2025 and we are seeing strong market valuation. Fortunately, we were down one share of Johnson & Johnson per quarter for an extended period of time, while the stock price remained in the mid-$100s. Outside of JNJ and TROW, the biggest risk to our earnings is a potential dividend cut by UPS. We keep a close eye on the stock and monitor it closely to avoid a devastating impact on our dividend income.
Summary
We couldn’t be happier with the strong month of dividend income. We are blessed to have received well over $5,000 in dividend income in a year, let alone a quarter. Slowly but surely, the foundation is being laid for achieving financial freedom. Each month brings in more dividend income and pushes the dividend snowball further down the hill.
How much dividend income did you receive in September? What was your dividend income total in September?
-Bert
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