2009 was a rough year for dividend income. For the past couple years I have been tracking a 30-50% growth rate in dividend income, but 2009 was the first year our dividend income actually shrank despite a net increase in stock holdings for the year. Its largerly explained by the dividend cuts of a number of blue-chip companies. For us the announcements of Pfizer, Wachovia/Well Fargo, and GE dividend cuts in 2009 all had significant impacts to our dividend income.
I pay close attention to our annual dividend income because its one piece of the passive income we are going to need once we hit our financial goals. As part of our passive income strategy we will need an annual cash flow to sustain ourselves once we reduce our earned income and before we can raid our retirement accounts.
Heres a look at our dividend income for 2009:
| Annual Dividends | |||
| Investment | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 |
| Pepco | $ 21.31 | $ 22.67 | $ 22.68 |
| AT&T | $ 18.48 | $ 20.80 | $ 21.32 |
| Bank of America |
$ 1.00 | ||
| BP | $ 11.02 | ||
| CMS | $ 12.02 | $ 21.99 | $ 31.64 |
| Connoco | $ 28.49 | $ 44.78 | $ 106.56 |
| Chevron | $ 29.71 | $ 34.16 | $ 37.17 |
| Duke Energy | $ 92.15 | $ 100.98 | $ 111.83 |
| Edison | $ 14.48 | $ 15.57 | $ 16.35 |
| ExxonMobil | $ 70.07 | $ 80.66 | $ 88.24 |
| GE | $ 99.58 | $ 114.97 | $ 102.07 |
| Healthcare SPDR |
$ – |
$ – |
$ 173.76 |
| IBM | $ 459.98 | $ 555.74 | $ 520.33 |
| Lowes | $ 11.37 | $ 14.59 | $ 15.72 |
| Medtronic | $ 39.97 | $ 53.74 | $ 68.70 |
| Merck | $ 206.25 | $ 212.83 | $ 222.68 |
| P&G | $ 40.33 | $ 46.94 | $ 53.52 |
| Pfizer | $ 803.70 | $ 972.66 | $ 255.60 |
| Rohn & Haas |
$ 27.75 | ||
| Spectra | $ 29.95 | $ 45.07 | $ 49.54 |
| Anheuser Busch |
$ 128.49 | $ 147.58 | $ – |
| Microsoft | $ 0.66 | $ 0.75 |
$ 0.86 |
| Johnson & Johnson |
$ 14.18 | $ 16.13 | $ 17.88 |
| Marsh&Mclennan | $ 10.76 | $ 46.14 | $ 35.60 |
| Union Bancshares | $ 6.00 | ||
| Wachovia | $ 23.95 | $ 360.57 | $ – |
| Wells Fargo | $ 40.82 | ||
| VXF | $ 69.99 | $ 66.84 | $ 55.31 |
| VWO | $ 87.34 | $ 108.32 | $ 52.62 |
| VTI | $ 0.76 | $ 96.93 | $ 337.00 |
| KBE ETF | $ – |
$ 92.58 | $ 208.17 |
| Total | $2,313.97 | $3,293.99 | $2,691.74 |
For 2009 we saw a drop of about 18% in our net dividend income over 2008. While its a set back, we continued making investments with higher dividend yields in 2009 which should pay off in the long run.
You can also see our 2005 passive income, 2006 passive income, 2007 passive income, and 2008 passive income.
