Didn’t realize the last update was nine months ago. The time I used to spend on finance blogging and writing is going to other things these days, hence the lack of updates. I’m still continuing to invest, of course, and have recently updated the blog’s portfolio page.
Below is a quick overview of the dividend income for the July 2021 to March 2022 period:
- July 2021: 193.81EUR
- August 2021: 148.97EUR
- September 2021: 209.84EUR
- October 2021: 283.63EUR
- November 2021: 76.10EUR
- December 2021: 192.88EUR
- January 2022: 184.38EUR
- February 2022: 61.81EUR
- March 2022: 128.70EUR
Within a couple of months, I will be eight years into my DGI investing journey. Some things went as expected, other things turned out different than expected. Some of the more riskier plays in my portfolio delivered extraordinary gains, while several presumably safer investments didn’t do well at all. I’ve also noticed that on average, dividend growth was quite low. Some of the stocks in my portfolio have managed to maintain decent dividend growth, but a lot of companies did not manage to deliver more than low single-digit dividend growth. In fact, several stocks now pay less than five or eight years ago.
In a sense, I’m somewhat financially independent. Should I start dreading my current job, there’s nothing stopping me from calling it quits and take several months (or even years) to find something better. But I’ve also come to realize that the goal of very early retirement is somewhat of a pipe dream.
At least not without making significant compromises. It’s easier when you live extremely frugal, or pack up your bags and go living in a lower-cost of living country like Bulgaria or Thailand. But is that really satisfying? Having to live on a strict budget for the rest of my life, not feeling able to spend money on big-ticket items, and hoping nothing goes wrong, doesn’t seem very appealing.
The truth is that in order to match my salary, without even taking inflation or future raises in to account, I’m probably looking at another 15-20 years of compounding to match it in terms of dividend income. The dividend income does provide alternatives, of course. It will make it easier to transition to a 4/5 or part-time job, which may offer the best of both worlds.
Dividends are Coming 
DAC,
Thanks for the update!
Despite the fact that your other investments had better returns, your dividend income is nothing to sniff at!
I understand your sentiment about full retirement, and sometimes do feel the same. It will however, like you say, make it a lot more feasible to take an easy transition into another job or reduce your work regime drastically, maybe even to 50%.
The things is: you’ve created options for yourself, and that is worth more than all your dividend income combined.
Cheers,
NMW
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