DIVIDEND INCOME UP 40% FOR FIRST QUARTER 2018 COMPARED TO 2017!

With the markets down and not having as much cash available to invest as I'd like, I've been kind of concerned that I'd not be able to grow dividend income as rapidly as I'd like.  While that's is still a concern, I was pleasantly surprised to see dividend income for the first  quarter of 2018 is up over 40% compared to first quarter 2017!  So, should I continue to grow monthly cash flow at this moderate pace, I'll still be collecting a nice tidy sum each month when I retire in four years.  If at all possible, I may even work an extra year to give the earnings time to compound even more.

I was not happy with CRF's proposal to issue new shares, so I sold my stakes in both CRF and CLM.  While I liked their high monthly dividend payments, the truth of the matter is, they were mostly just a return of capital.  The share price has suffered all along and even though I invest more for the cash produced, I don't want to own a stock that's constantly going down in value.  So I've moved on and invested the money in a bond fund (FTF) paying over 11% and a stock fund (ZTR) paying over 12%.  While that's less than the yields from CRF and CLM, these two funds have better performing share prices and have actually raised dividend payments in the past.  Even with rising interest rates, FTF being an intermediate term bond fund should do O.K. and the two of them together are much more conservative than CRF and CLM.   Not to mention their investment styles are much more less convoluted.

While I'm just as averse as anyone else at seeing the overall value of my portfolio drop, I have been pretty happy seeing a more rapid increase in monthly income from reinvested dividends.  With share prices lower, reinvested dividends purchase more shares and increase cash flow exponentially.  So I'm looking at it as a good thing, since I'm still in the accumulation phase.