No April Fools’: How I made nearly $9,000 in Dividends

April 2024 was a huge dividend month for me.

While that is worth celebrating, what really deserves celebrating is what the power of investing regularly and often with growing amounts of money over time, can mean for your life.

In April, I set off on a 5-month travel adventure. While I’m still working remotely (for now), the power of investing and proverbial “F-you money“, means that I was able to ask for and get the opportunity to work remotely. While my employer is may not be a fan of this arrangement as much as I am, I made it clear that this was not so much an ask as a need of mine (of course in a very polite professional collegial way).

So what did I get up to in April?

Given that I wasn’t simply taking a two-week vacation and did not need to rush to get to my destination, I opted for a leisurely transatlantic cruise to Europe (final destination 30 minutes outside Rome in Civitavecchia).

The cruise departed Florida on April 7th and I arrived on April 19th with an aborted stop in Gibraltar, United Kingdom, Alicante in Spain, and finally just outside Rome – you can take a 1/2 hour train ride to Rome from the port.

The cruise was onboard Norwegian and I do have to say they lived up to their reputation on food/cuisine. Their staff was absolutely delightful too.

While the ship wasn’t my favourite and is unique as the only ship of its kind in its fleet (the ship has weird room configurations particularly with respect to the toilet and shower layout, in addition to the fact that you can’t walk around the ship on a walking path and in order to sit inside and view the ocean, you have to be in a restaurant to do so), that didn’t deter from a wonderful time on board.

Being on the water for much of this trip, afforded the opportunity to make some good friends and ones I know I will keep going forward. I highly recommend it as a way to get to Europe if you’re not in a rush. In fact, I’m already booked for a 2025 sailing from Seattle to Tokyo.

After landing in Rome, I spent a quick day in Rome and had dinner at one of my favourite restaurants I always visit while in Rome, and then visited friends in Switzerland, before heading to Milan where I stationed myself for a few weeks in advance of my solo cycling adventure through parts of Austria, Slovenia, and Italy.

April 2024 Dividend Income

Now to the money stuff. My April 2024 dividend total is $8,583.75.

This means that in April:

• I earned $286.13 every day from dividends.
• I earned $51.09 per hour from dividends (assuming a 9-5pm job).
• I earned $11.92 every hour of every day of the month from dividends.
• My top 3 dividend earners this month were in the financial and telecom sectors and were 46% of my monthly dividend total:
  1. Bank of Nova Scotia – ($1,422.25) – 17%
  2. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce – ($1,322.96) – 15%
  3. BCE Inc. – ($1,196.66) – 14%

• My stock market purchases totalled $6,149.15
• I added $1,297.50 of new money this month to buy more stocks and index funds
• I earned $53.15 in interest income this month

Other Income Sources

Not included in my Dividend total for April, is interest income. I did not make any money from my Toronto rental as I listed it for sale in March and sold it that month (the property closed in May so that income will be part of my May 2024 post). My Mexican vacation rental didn’t rent in April though it picked back up in May with just over half the month booked.

1. Interest: $53.15

Adding all sources of income for April 2024 (dividends and interest but not including income from my day job), my gross income for the month was $8,636.90 (excluding income from my day job).

Dividend Categorical Breakdown: $8,583.75

Consumer

1. Coca-Cola Company – $16.42
2. Alimentation Couche Tard Inc. – $27.32
3. Altria Group Inc – $93.29
4. PARK LAWN CORPORATION – $5.13

Telecoms

1. Telus – $618.30
2. BCE Inc. – $1,196.66

Bonds

1. ZCS-BMO Short Corp Bond – $7.89
2. ZFL-BMO Long Federal Bond ETF – $164.68

Index/ETFs

1. ZEA-BMO MSCI EAFE Index ETF – $248.22
2. XSH – IShares Core CDN Short ETF – $4.95
3. BMO LADDERED PREFERRED SHARE INDEX ETF – $4.95

Energy

1. Canadian Natural Resources – $530.35
2. Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp – $349.40
3. TC ENERGY CORP – $514.56
4. CAPITAL POWER CORPORATION – $286.14

Financial

1. First National Financial – $126.58
2. BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA – $1,422.25
3. CANADIAN IMPERIAL BANK OF COMMERCE – $1,322.96
4. TORONTO-DOMINION BANK – $1,121.94

REITs

1. CI First Asset Canadian REIT ETF – $6.35
2. XRE-iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF – $8.87
3. RIOCAN REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST – $74.46
4. CT Reit – $21.33
5. Artis REIT – $8.10
6. SMARTCENTRES REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST – $122.10
7. Choice Properties REIT – $25.84
8. Morguard Real Estate Investment Trust – $10.18
9. Canadian APT Pptys Reit – $24.17
10. H&R Real Est Inv TR – $7.50
11. Northwest Healthcare Prop REIT – $7.44
12. Primaris REIT – $2.59

Healthcare

1. Medical Facilities Corp – $87.91

How does April 2024 compare to April 2023?

Below is My April 2023 Dividend update where I earned $6,634.14. Compared to April 2024, that’s an almost additional $2,000 in dividends ($1,949.61 to be exact). That’s a 25.6% increase year over year. Not bad at all. I’ll take it! With a paid off mortgage, that’s not an insignificant amount of new money that will continue to compound going forward.

Dividend Update: April 2023

Stuff I love

Thank you for reading this far. Below is a list of stuff I love. The list does contain paid referral links.

WealthSimple Trade: Trade stocks at no cost / zero commission. Great if you want to buy a small amount of shares in companies on a regular basis.

Questrade: A solid platform for investors looking to purchase individual stocks and ETFs. Fees are low to purchase stock compared to higher fees traditionally found to purchase shares through traditional big bank platforms and ETF purchases are free. My referral code: 815820681448330

Addy: This platform enables investors who don’t want the hassle of being a landlord and/or who can’t afford pricey residential real estate, to gain access to real estate investing for as little as a $25 annual membership (something Addy recently added to their platform in terms of an upfront membership fee – note there are properties you can access without paying the membership fee but you’ll have access to fewer properties to invest in). Click my referral link.

Wealthica: A secure way to track all your investments and progress in one place, including net worth, dividend, distribution (from Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITS) for example), and interest income, etc. They also produce handy visuals so you track your financial independence goals in a visual way. (I use Wealthica everyday and I highly recommend it for my Canadian friends/readers. Use my promo code: WDDividendDaddy10 and get 10% off the yearly premium subscription).

Simplii Financial: Tired of paying monthly fees for chequing accounts and paper cheques but still want easy access to bank machines at no cost? Simplii Financial allows unlimited bank machine transactions at CIBC bank machines and no cost banking.