I always love reading blogs about other investors’ investment income. Watching other people’s passive income rise is my second favorite thing (the only thing better is watching our passive income rise!)

This report includes income from dividends, bonds, and rental properties.

Dividends  
TickerNameAmount
AFLAFLAC Incorporated$210.06
BPBP plc$473.27
CVXChevron Corporation$340.18
COPConocoPhillips$87.00
HSYHershey's$3.09
JNJJohnson & Johnson$429.89
LMTLockheed Martin Corporation$98.81
MCDMcDonald's Corporation$269.31
MSFTMicrosoft Corporation$72.43
PEPPepsi$10.47
TGTTarget Corporation$358.98
VVisa Inc$129.62
WFCWells Fargo & Co$183.88
VMMXXMoney Market$1.98
VCTXXVanguard California Muni fund$14.98
VEMAXVanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares$561.08
VEUSXVanguard European Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares$1,190.21
VIMAXVanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Admiral Shares$892.81
VSMAXVanguard Small-Cap Index Fund Admiral Shares$424.63
401k$2,877.02
IRAs$539.02
Total$9,168.72
Rental Properties
4 properties owned 50%$439.40
4 properties owned 100%$1,016.31
Total$1,455.71
Total passive income$10,624.43
Annualized passive income based on last 3 months$60,547.15

Dividend & Interest Income

The last month of a quarter is always a big one. All of our mutual funds pay their dividends/distributions on the last day of the month. Our stocks pay more dividends in the last month of a quarter than in the previous two combined.

The largest single dividend payment was $473.27 from BP. The second largest was $429.89 from Johnson & Johnson.

We also picked up significant payments from our mutual funds ($1,190.21 from the European Stock Index) and our retirement accounts.

Right now I’m trying to figure out what to do with this money. I’m reinvesting dividends into the stocks I think are fairly valued or undervalues (Target, BP, Chevron, and Wells Fargo). For all of the rest of the dividend payers I’m just accumulating cash so I’m ready to pounce if/when the market’s finally regains its senses and valuations drop to something more reasonable.

The smaller dividend payers (Microsoft, Hershey’s, and Pepsi) are from my Loyal3 account. As most of you probably know, Loyal3 closed down, so I transferred those shares to my Merrill Lynch brokerage account. I’m not sure if I’ll be selling them, holding them, or adding to them. If I do decide to sell it won’t be until next year – this year I’ll be in the top tax bracket. That means that instead of paying 15% on long-term capital gains I’d be paying 20% + 3.8% Medicare surcharge. I’m happy to wait 6 months to save 8.3% on taxes.

Total dividends received were $9,168.72. That’s fantastic.

Rental income

This category includes net income from the 4 rental properties that my wife and I own, plus 50% of the income from 4 rental properties that we own with my mom. This number does not include appreciation of the properties or the decrease in the mortgage balance (those numbers show up in the net worth report).

This was a solid month for the rental properties. Everybody paid on time and there were no major expenses.

Total rental income: $1,455.71. 

Total passive income this month

Total (dividend + rental) income = $10,624.43

Annualized passive income based on last 10 months of income = $60,547.15

I calculate the annualized income because it smooths out the differences in income from month to month. This is not a prediction for the next 12 months, as it is backward looking rather than forward-looking. However, it’s a good metric to give me a rough idea if we are on track to achieve our saving/investing/income goals for the year. I use 10 months because that’s how long I’ve been tracking and posting my monthly investment income. Starting in August, 2017 I’ll be able to calculate and post my trailing 12-month income.

As you can see, our annualized income has been pretty steady since December, mostly bouncing around $60k. This is because I’ve been

This is only the second time our monthly passive income has exceeded $10,000 (the other was December, 2016).

We are just over 50% of our way to the goal of $120,000/year in passive income. My hope is that I’ll be able to use most of my upcoming commission checks to increase our average monthly income by 50% by this time next year.

How did everybody else do with their passive income this month?