ACCOMPLISHED GOAL OF INCREASING ANNUAL DIVIDEND INCOME BY 50%!

Finally did the calculations and even without the extra dividend income starting in May, I've already reached my goal of increasing annual dividend income by 50% in 2016!  With reinvested dividends and ongoing stock purchase plan, it's impossible to say at this point how much I'll beat my original goal by, but it's pretty exciting!  It's quite possible that I might even see a 100% or more increase by the end of the year.

March 2016 saw a 90% increase in dividend income over March 2015 and it looks like April will follow suit, with another 90% increase over April 2015.  I'm still a long way from having the kind of passive income I'd need to retire, but with these type of gains, it's only a matter of time.  What surprises me most is that I'm continuing to see such fantastic increases in monthly cash flow.  It was one thing to make big percentage gains when I was just starting to rebuild my portfolio, but I expected to see a slow down.  When monthly cash flows are low, it's easy to achieve big percentage gains.  However, as cash flow increases, it takes more out of pocket cash to keep seeing the big gains in monthly dividends.  Or so I thought.  As it turns out, I haven't been investing that much more in cash.  I believe, what I forgot to take into account were the reinvested dividends.  I knew they would help boost income by buying more shares, but I never expected they would increase earnings by as much as they have.  Very nice surprise though.