The third month of the year is over which means I get to do another dividend income post. I just love writing these! It took me well over a year to pluck up the courage to open a stocks and shares ISA and get started, but I am so glad I did.
I love logging into my account and checking out if I’ve received any dividends. March and April seem to be particularly quiet months in terms of income for the holdings I have. Also, shares have been particularly rocky over the past couple of months, so it’s always a bit tough to see the numbers go down. But, I’m in it for the long haul, which should hopefully see a positive outcome. My stocks and shares ISA is with Hargreaves Lansdown, which is very easy to use and I’d definitely recommend them. You can get information about that here or even open an ISA in about 5 minutes.
Eventually, the aim is to use the dividend income to pay some household bills. Things like council tax, or water rates. That’s when passive income really takes over. We are such a long way off this! To pay fixed expenses each month from passive income would be amazing. To be able to pay for things that we have no control over, such as our council tax or the water rates, by using dividend income would take the pressure off other areas of money. One day, this will be our reality. I can’t wait until this point 🙂 when the numbers start to tip in that balance, our financial freedom point will be ever closer.
The dividend income received in March is a combination of dividends from shares and funds. There are always going to be swings in terms of how much income is produced by dividends, just because different holdings pay out at different times. In March 2017 I received £14.92 so only up slightly from last year.
Dividends received in March:
Premier Monthly Income – £0.51
Sage Group – £15.30
Total: £15.81
Not too bad! It’s not a vast amount but March is a low income month for dividends. Hopefully over the year this will even out; there are always months that are going to pay out less. Perhaps I should do some reading around about holdings that pay out during March? I’ll put it on my to do list 🙂
As I wrote about the effect of the magic snowball, mine is beginning to move slightly. By reinvesting the dividends, it’ll only create more income. I believe that continuing to live a frugal lifestyle and save as we go along will see us right in the end. I hope this is inspiring someone else to begin their frugal journey. If we can do it, anyone can! We are not depriving ourselves of anything, just making purposeful choices and it’s beginning to pay off. Literally!
My dividend income aim for 2018 is £800 received. At the end of March, I’m up to £126.05 so it’s been a good start 🙂 still a long way to go until that aim though! Although there are some months throughout the year where there is little paid, I’m sure this will be an upwards trend overall 🙂
Have you received any dividends this month? Thanks for reading!
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Great read, maybe one day I will be brave enough to open a stocks and shares ISA of my own!
Thanks for stopping by! And you will be – it took me ages to do so but I’m very glad I took the plunge, so to speak.
We have a stocks and shares isa each and an income portfolio with multi asset income units. The income units give us around £250 monthly which subsidises our pensions as we took early retirement. Wish we had started earlier though.
Our stocks & shares ISAs have index trackers in them so we don’t get to see the lovely dividends that are drip fed into the tracker fund.
I do toy with the idea of buying individual stocks but in all honesty it would be purely to see the dividend pay out which I don’t think is the right reason to invest that way.
We will be using our S&S ISAs in a similar way, to draw down from to cover some of our bills. Hopefully all our utilities, we shall see.
I’m really interested to read about your ISA stocks and shares. I’m new to this idea and love what I’ve read so far. Can I ask a silly question… is the idea that you invest x amount each month in your ISA plus the dividends ploughed back in too? I’m wondering if this is realistic for us. Do you need to invest a lot each month? Thanks for sparking ideas in my head!
That’s the general gist, yes! Slow and steady wins the race 🙂 if you’ve got any more questions, email me at ladyofthecottage@gmail.com and I can try to help!
Your last comment response says it all. Slow and steady wins the race. You will be amazed how fast dividend investing picks up and the impact of all of your hard work. Keep up the grind!
Bert