October 2022 Dividend Income Update

October 2022 Dividend Income Update

Welcome to my latest monthly dividend income update!

For this month’s dividend income update theme, I want to pick up on the quiet quitting revolution.

I want to offer what’s in my head on this subject and why financial independence is part of my solution instead.

Quiet Quitting 101

Following the Great Resignation, triggered by the pandemic, a newer workplace trend is happening: quiet quitting. This essentially means employees are not really leaving their jobs, at least physically, but mentally they are checking out. 

This is quite the visceral response to 2.5 years of dealing with the pandemic, let alone other pressing issues folks have in their lives. People have grown mentally tired of their jobs, feeling underappreciated at work, and related to the pandemic, being a bit resentful over being required to put in more hours, take on additional duties, not really defined by any job description.

Some quiet quitters are truly unhappy – that’s my guess. Still others are enjoying their jobs but they are taking a more strategic wait-and-see approach should their employer come around. 

In my Weekend Reading post, I shared a few ideas in how to overcome this complete mental checkout if this revolution applies to you:

1. Talk about it. I think anyone dragging out work or not feeling completely engaged in their work should discuss these issues or concerns with a friend, trusted co-worker, spouse/partner but ideally their workplace manager. 
2. Practice psychological safety. What I mean is, it’s acceptable to fail/not be perfect, it’s acceptable not to feel your best, it’s acceptable to recalibrate your workload. Management should make any employee feel welcome to share, trust, and disucss any issue in a professional way without any fear of reprimand.
3. Recalibrate your peronal time and figure out how much is enough. Ultimately, only you know your boundaries and limits. Your work may be very valuable today but your personal, long-term wellbeing is your most vital, capital asset by a long shot. 

I support anyone, anytime, wanting to take more time to decompress and practice self-care.

I’m practicing more self-care myself. 

This self-care has nothing to do with quiet quitting but instead everything to do with realizing financial independence soon to fulfill a multi-year goal long before any pandemic workplace culture was a thing. 

Financial Independence 101

Financial stress can be very damaging and trigger a whole set of personal health issues. I’ll admit, I’ve experienced financial stress in the past. (Too much debt for my personal taste was the main issue.) I have personally found the way out of this financial stress is to focus on financial independence and my road ahead. Through financial independence (FI) – the ability to be work-optional – it has been my/our goal to get back more of our precious commodity of time and do more things on our own terms. This FI goal has motivated me and sustained my passion to run this blog for almost 15 years now. 

For us, FI is not about not retirement nor stopping to work. It never has been. It is however the decent amount of wealth we need so we’re no longer dependent on an active source of income, specifically a full-time job, to cover our basic expenses.

Historical data and FIRE-seekers continue to tell us to aim for a 4% safe withdrawal rate – i.e. if you have a $1,000,000 portfolio of stocks and bonds then you can live off $40,000 per year. Obviously, a 4% safe withdrawal rate is only a starting point.

Why financial independence is part of my solution…

Full-time work has been great for and to me. I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy working with my employer and current team. Some of my work colleagues may read this blog, let alone this post for today, but it remains an honest and transparent scribe of my thinking.

For me/for us, our full-work work is becoming “enough”. 

Countless studies have shown over the years that people tend to feel their best when they are happy contributing to things they actually enjoy doing. Myself included. Back to the quiet quitter theme, to support some workers in that mental mindset, I believe management in organizations should consider uplifting career services, such as mentoring or coaching. They should also consider paying for upskilling, offering new skills, to get employees to “the next level”.

This next level stuff just isn’t me though. 

Work optional, is. 

I like the idea of moving to part-time work, in the coming 18-24 months, since this semi-retirement balance inspires me. I no longer wish to spend time chasing some people (in my project management role) to complete prerequisite work. It’s mentally exhausting. 

Instead of starting my day at 8 am or so, I will enjoy reading or exercising in the morning, and then logging into work on my own terms.

My allotted vacation is very generous today, given my 20-year+ length of service, but it would be very nice not to have to submit any time-off requests for approval. 🙂

In a previous role at work (not my current one), I was talked down to in some instances, left to feel some project challenges at work were triggered by me alone. Making work optional is part of the solution to guard against that from ever happening again. 

October 2022 Dividend Income Update Summary

In October 2021, I wrote the following:

“Part of my investment plan, which has not really changed over the last 11+ investing years and hosting this blog for others to learn from, is to buy and hold and buy more of my favourite Canadian dividend stocks for income and growth. I will do this until I reach my beloved crossover point:”

Well, onwards and upwards…

With more recent purchases in BCE and Whitecap (WCP) in particular, our October 2022 forward dividend income for the year now sits at $28,621.

That’s the total dividend income we should earn by the end of December 2022, should no dividends get cut, no dividends get reinvested, and I don’t buy anything else this year inside some of our key wealth-building investment portfolio accounts. 🙂

I do of course hope no dividends get cut or reduced, I will reinvest my dividends earned inside the TFSAs for sure, and I might buy more stocks this year if I can scrounge up the money to do so…while some stocks remain beaten up. So, this number should be even higher in a few months. I will let you know of course!

This income level by far and away exceeds our desired 2022 goal when we started investing this year.

It also puts us very close to surpassing our end-goal of $30,000 per year to start semi-retirement with.

To put that forward dividend income into perspective:

• Almost half of that annual income is tax-free for future retirement spending and fun. 
• Our forward dividend income continues to rise every month thanks to those reinvested dividends inside our TFSAs, thanks to many dividend increases during the year, and the odd, small strategic purchase. 
• This income translates to earning $2,385.08 per month.
• It works out to about $550.40 per week.
• This income also means we earn over $78 per day. 
• We also earn enough dividend income from Enbridge stock alone, to cover our condo utility bills – every month.

Thanks for reading and sharing.

I look forward to your questions or just comments!

Mark

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