(Updated April 17, 2017)

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 and our rental properties. Although we don’t own any now, if we have other sources of passive income in the future (CDs, bonds, etc.) I’ll include them here as well.

Passive income - March, 2017

Dividends
TickerNameAmount
AFLAFLAC Incorporated$210.06
BPBritish Petroleum$464.95
CVXChevron Corporation$336.91
COPConocoPhillips$87.00
JNJJohnson & Johnson$409.42
LMTLockheed Martin Corporation$98.81
MCDMcDonald's Corporation$258.03
MSFTMicrosoft Corporation$62.67
TGTTarget Corporation$355.13
VVisa Inc$129.62
WFCWells Fargo & Co$183.88
VEMAXVanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares$156.89
VEUSXVanguard European Stock Index Fund Admiral Shares$422.88
VIMAXVanguard Mid-Cap Index Fund Admiral Shares$874.43
VSMAXVanguard Small-Cap Index Fund Admiral Shares$684.12
Money Market$18.62
401k$2,199.86
Loyal 3$55.10
IRAs$546.27
Total$7,554.65
Rental Properties
4 properties owned 50%$418.26
4 properties owned 100%$1,183.96
Total$1,602.22
Total passive income - March, 2017
$9,156.87
Annualized income based on last 6 months$59,709.46

Dividend Income

The third month of the quarter is always a big month from a dividend perspective and this month was no different. We had a total of $7,554.65 in dividends between our taxable investments and retirement accounts. About half of this was from our individual stock investments and the other half was from our mutual funds (taxable and tax-deferred).

The mutual fund payouts are not regular nor dependable, so I’m never sure how much income we’ll be receiving or when we’ll be receiving it.

Our 5 largest dividend payers this month were, in order

  1. BP: $464.95
  2. Johnson & Johnson: $409.42
  3. Target: $355.13
  4. Chevron: $336.91
  5. McDonald’s: 258.03

As you can see, oil/energy stocks make up 2 of the top four spots this month. My intention is to eventually diversify away from these stocks, but for now I think they are undervalued and a great investment.

Overall this was a solid month from a dividends perspective.

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.

This was the third month in a row where all the properties are firing on all cylinders. All the properties are occupied and we only had 1 minor maintenance issue on one property.

One thing I haven’t pointed out in past updates but is very relevant when examining our various passive income streams – due to the large number of deductions and depreciation on our properties we haven’t had to pay a single penny in taxes on any of the real estate income since we started acquiring our properties in 2012.

At the current rate, it will be at least another 2-3 years before we have to start paying taxes on this income.

Total rental income: $1,602.22

Total passive income this month

Dividend + rental income = $9,156.87

Annualized passive income based on last 6 months of income = $59,709.46

Note: I calculate the annualized number by adding up the last 6 months of passive income and multiplying by 2. I focus on this number because it smooths out the differences in income from month to month.

This was a solid month. It’s amazing how fast things start going once you get that snowball rolling downhill. The goal is to hit $120,000 in passive income by December, 2021. Our income this month puts us 61.9% of the way there. We’ll need to grow our income by 10.07% per year to hit our goal. I expect to hit this through a combination of dividend raises and additional investment (although I’m not making new investments today given the current market valuation).

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