NEW RECORD MONTH FOR DIVIDEND INCOME!

While I expected to set a new record for dividend income in December with it's total of 22 dividend payments, I was not expecting to beat July's record earnings in November.  However, after calculating remaining dividends due for this month, it looks like I'll have a new record, beating out July by a 1% increase.  One percent isn't much, but I'm happy with any increase in record earnings.  This month's record won't last long, as I still expect December's earnings to blow it out of the water.  

Not only will I receive an additional 8 dividend payments in the month of December, but payments will be higher and include two special dividends from UVE and MAIN.  It looks as though that trend will continue in 2016, with the biggest months being July and December.  March and June of 2016 also look to be very good months with high number of payments and a special dividend in June.  So I'm pretty excited about the upcoming year as far as monthly cash flow goes!

While the stock market being down of late certainly presents some good buying opportunities and a chance to increase overall yields, it is kind of depressing to see the overall value of portfolio holdings decrease.  Still, this is much easier to deal with when monthly income increases month after month.  So I'm not overly concerned.  

It seems very likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates in December.  I think this will actually relieve some of the uncertainty in the markets and its' effects will be mostly inconsequential in the long run.  I'm not expecting to see any major increases in interest rates anytime soon.  This rate increase will have a negative impact on bond funds, utilities and REIT's but should benefit some of the other holdings in my portfolio, helping to offset the impact.