Dividend Income and Net Worth

Here is a summary of my dividend income and net worth tracked all on one page.  There aren’t a lot of reports here yet (as I just started with detailing this information online), but they are coming.  I now have over 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years worth of data from monthly reports on this page!

The reason I decided to make this information public is two fold.

  1. I would like to retire at 45, and making this data public is an excellent form of motivation and encouragement to continue down this path.
  2. I want to be able to look back in 10 years and remember how I got to where ever I’ll be then.  In essence, I’m creating a journal of the financial road that I’m traveling… and I’m happy to share that journal with you.

Dividend Income

Dividend income is clearly the most critical part of my early retirement plan.  Its all about the dividend income cash flow!

Dividend Income

Since you can only sell your car or house or collection for income once, its imperative to have a steady form of income generated from your investments.   Cash flow from dividend income truly is the make it or break it factor for a happy, and sustained early retirement.  Below is the dividend income being generated from my portfolio.

2022 Dividend Income:

2021 Dividend Income:

2020 Dividend Income:

2019 Dividend Income:

2018 Dividend Income:

2017 Dividend Income:

2016 Dividend Income:

2015 Dividend Income:

Here is the Dividend Portfolio producing this, what has now become, respectable income 😉

Net Worth

There are lots of ways to calculate your net worth.  I use an easy net worth calculation method of adding up all my assets minus all my debts.  I’ve also included anything of value (cars, collections…) to my asset section.  You can see the net worth tracking spreadsheet I use below.

For online services, I use both Mint and Personal Capital for tracking net worth and dividend income.  Both of these services are great (and free!).  Personal Capital clearly has the advantage with regards to investment tracking while Mint is superior for day to day spending and income tracking.

2020 Net Worth:

  • July: $1,234,658.52 (+ $30,107.35 – Dividend cuts suck, but Corona is becoming less of an issue.)
  • June: $1,204,551.71 (+ $17,089.17 – Corona still strangling the market, but moving up a little!)
  • May: $1,187,468.38 (+ $27,733.75 – Market moving up after March lows.)
  • April: $1,159,734.62 (+ $37,245.81 – Things looking up and sold my old home – Mortgage free!)
  • March: $1,122,488.81 (– $86,309.81 – Coronavirus and downsized my home!)
  • February: $1,208,798.62 (– $55.042.69 – Coronavirus)
  • January: $1,263,841.30 (– $8,775.47 – Coronavirus starts and Trump’s impeachment trial.)

2019 Net Worth:

  • December: $1,272,616.77 (+ $16.096.82 – What a year!)
  • November: $1,256,519.95 (+ $16,813.66 – Markets moving up some more.)
  • October: $1,239,706.30 (+ $19,787.30 – Markets still moving up.)
  • September: $1,219,919.23 (+ $16,858.37 – Another rate cut fueled the market.)
  • August: $1,203,060.87 (+ $7,288.04 – China USA trade war continues & POTUS wants another rate cut.) 
  • July: $1,195,772.82 (+ $17,083.50 – Hey, Fed lowered rates… will this head off a recession?)
  • June: $1,178,689.32 (+ $37,012.13 – China trade war what?  The Fed might lower rates.)
  • May: $1,141,677.19 (– $21,257.30 – Looks like the future is now – China, China, China.)
  • April: $1,162,934.49 (+ $15,976.48 – China trade war what?  That’s a future problem.)
  • March: $1,146,958.01 (+ $12,355.80 – Guess it’s going to go on a little longer.)
  • February: $1,134,602.21 (+ $33,829.21 – Market continuing to rise… this can’t go on much longer.)
  • January: $1,100,772.84 (+ $41,555.35 – Govt is open again & China deal may happen.)

2018 Net Worth:

  • December: $1,058,727.43 (- $39.365.11 – Guess we care again, govt shutdown – worst Dec ever.)
  • November: $1,098,092.54 (+ $27,410.12 – China what?  Guess we don’t care about that anymore.)
  • October: $1,070,682.42 (- $17.426.54 – Market turned around.  Scary October market 😉
  • September: $1,088,108.96 (+ $16,163.13 – Market is continuing to move up.)
  • August: $1,071,945.83 (+ $1,926.08 – Squeaked out a small gain, lots of expenses.)
  • July: $1,070,019.75 (+ $20,959.31 – Paying down mortgages and stock market still moving up.)
  • June: $1,049,060.44 (+ $12,822.65 – Paying down mortgages and stock market moving up.)
  • May: $1,036,237.79 (+ $17,571.79 – Market moving up and taking net worth with it.)
  • April: $1,018,666.15 (+ $3,920.13 – Mortgage repayment driving the gains.)
  • March: $1,014,746.02 (+ $5,376.57 – A solid increase after lasts months decline!)
  • February: $1,09,369.45 (- $5,433.32 – Hospital bills, lots of them!)
  • January: $1,014,802.76 (+ $8,023.98 – Sold the rental property #1)

2017 Net Worth:

  • December: $1,006,778.78 (+ $12,724.01 – I joined the club!)
  • November: $994,054.77 (+ $11,426.35 – Market just keeps moving up)
  • October: $982,628.41 (+ $5,872.34 – Aggressively paying down the mortgages
  • September: $976,756.07 (- $4.82 – Upgrading rental#1 for sale)
  • August: $976,760.89 (– $674.58 – Painted our house – it cost A LOT!)
  • July: $977,435.47 (– $9,141.06 – Rental property #2 got destroyed by Zillow)
  • June: $986,576.53 (+ $29,387.44 – Units in Rental Property #1 building are selling like hot cakes!)
  • May: $957,189.09 (– $44,215.54 – Had my house appraised – YIKES)
  • April: $1,001,404.63 (+ $11,865.88 – Tax refund pushed it over the hump!)
  • March: $989,538.75 (+ $5,085.55 – Over paying mortgages is starting to pay off!)
  • February: $984,453.20 (+ $17,135.58 – This big bull market keeps raging & bringing my net worth up with it!)
  • January: $967,317.63 (+ $2,437.68 – Stock market & my investment accounts keep gaining value!)

2016 Net Worth:

  • December: $964,879.95 (+ $6,471.20 – Big car insurance settlement keeps the month in the green!  Merry Christmas!)
  • November: $953,918.70 (+ $6,471.20 – Investments are on the move… upwards!)
  • October: $947,447.50 (- $3,486.83 – Big home renovation expenses.)
  • September: $950,934.33 (+ $2,253.79 – Turned out alright, next few months are going to be rough. )
  • August: $948,680.54 (- $1,678.92 – She says she really needed it.)
  • July: $950,359.46 (- $10,377.57 – Lots of unexpected expenses this month!!)
  • June: $960,737.04 (+ $43,783.04 – Property values are soaring even higher?!)
  • May: $916,953.23 (+ $35,314.63 – Property values are soaring again?!)
  • April: $881,638.60 (+ $51,045.16 – Spring is here and property values have exploded!)
  • March: $830,593.44 (+ $19,773.74 – Apparently the declines have stopped & turned around)
  • February: $810,819.70 (+ $3,659.12 – Have the declines finally stopped?)
  • January: $807,160.58 (- $11,519.31 – Big drop in the market, real estate prices falling & bills.)

2015 Net Worth:

  • End of 2015: $818,679.89 ( – $6,894.44 – Property values declining, vet bills & Christmas spending)
  • December: $825,574.33 ( – $5,766.29 – Spending too much money)
  • November: $831,340.62 (+ $15,637.14 – Property values up again & the bull market continues)
  • October: $815,703.48 (+ $13,398 – Market moving back up and new car)
  • September: $802,305.48 (– $9,049.89 – Feeling the market drop.)
  • August: $811,355.37 (+ $11,342.16 – Property values really increasing that much?)
  • July: $800,013.2(+ $25,734.45 – unexpected bonus)
  • June: $774,278.76 (first month posting net worth online)

I’ll have some fun charts later once there is more data… 2 points on a graph doesn’t show much of a trend line.  I now have a lot of data here.

Some people reading this will look at the numbers above and think I’m lower middle class and could never afford to retire early, while others will think I’m rich and could retire now.  Please keep in mind the numbers are (kinda) inconsequential.  It doesn’t matter what the actual values are, the important part is the trend line and percentages.  We want our net worth to trend up and increase every month and dividend income to eventually cover 100% of expenses.

Net worth serves as a guidepost of your financial health.  Tracking net worth monthly gamifies finances and adds motivation to get those assets up and liabilities down.

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