Hello everybody!
Welcome back to Late Twenties and Broke dot com, I’m your host Jonny F.
Today we’re going to be talking about dividend income. Namely -How to grow dividend income. And, where is it?? Mine is pretty small.
I was listening to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast as I do every once in a while. Usually I listen to it as I do my bike commute to and from work. Their Money podcast isn’t exclusively real estate related, they talk about a variety of personal finance topics like getting out of debt and how to earn from small businesses. It’s hosted by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, author of Set for Life and First-Time Homebuyer.
Anyways, I was listening to the episode about the Middle Class Trap. The episode was titled “The Middle-Class Trap That Could Keep You from FIRE (How to Escape It)“. You can read the transcript here, and the podcast episode is inside the article as well.
It was talking about families with a 1,000,000 USD + net worth, but they can’t eat it. Their net worth is trapped inside their primary home and their 401K. This is a problem I’ve thought about on and off over over the years, starting with my Tesla shares being stuck in a retirement plan in Canada.
I mean, how much really is my passive income annaully, and month to month right now?
What is the difference in my passive income NOW, in 2025 at a $100,000 net worth – compared to when my net worth was zero?
Well gang, let’s start with my dividend income from my Robinhood account:
| Year | Portfolio Size | Annual Dividends | Monthly Dividend Income |
| 2019 | $109 | $4.22 | 35 cents |
| 2020 | $3,802 | $19.43 | $1.61 a month |
| 2021 | $5,739 | $16.80 | $1.40 a month |
| 2022 | $5,803 | $117.46 | $9.78 a month |
| 2023 | $7,781 | $219.17 | $18.26 a month |
| 2024 | $12,960 | $255.79 | $21.31 a month |
As you can see – since starting this blog I’ve brought my dividend income from a measly 35 cents a month, to $21 a month. Is $20 doing anything for me, at all? Let’s make an assessment:
- It’s more than most of the planet earns in passive income, so its a blessing.
- This is a true monthly profit, I don’t have any student loans or credit cards to worry about.
- That being said, I can double that in 2025. If not triple it.
My mindset in the autumn and winter of 2024 was leaning towards dividend stocks. To be honest, I have two coworkers who are actively investing in dividend stocks every month – and it’s really nice to have fellow investors to talk to.
I started a daily buy back on November 18th, to buy $6 worth of RITM every trading day. It’s automatic, and I really don’t notice the money being gone.
To be honest, I set it to $6 because that’s how much I was spending getting to work and back with Uber – and I finally replaced that habit with biking. So it’s part of my motivation to bike everyday, as inspired by Mr Money Mustache.
And just recently on Jan 31st I added two more auto-buys to DCA (dollar cost average) into. I do $3 of JEPI, and $3 of JPEQ every trading day now.
So at $12 a day, with 230 trading days left in the year, I will accumulate $2,760 in this strategy by end the of 2025. If it averages out to a 6% dividend, that adds $165 in forward annual income, which is another $13.80 a month. I think those are some pretty decent seeds to plant in 2025. We’ll keep it set at that rate for now and re-evaluate in 2026.
Also, I have 200 shares of Palantir (PLTR) which skyrocketed in Q3 and Q4 of 2024. I already have 2 long term calls sold on them, so they’re pretty jammed up for me – but the value finally bounced back to my entry price of $33 and then it’s way up in the $60 or $70 range now. I sold my calls at the $35 mark, so someone out there is very happy with me. But anyways, in June 2025 the first 100 shares will sell. And in January 2026, the second 100 shares will sell (probably, possibly) as that is their time expiry.
Where will I park that $7,000? That’s a very good question. When those PLTR shares sell, I really need a place to park it and a plan for how to grow dividend income. At a 6% dividend, it could spit out $420/year, which is an additional $35 a month. But with our fearless leader Dividend Pig still on a mysterious disappearance, I’ll look through his blog roll to see if anyone else has some good stock tips.
That’s my plan for how to grow dividend income in 2025. I’m your host Jonny F, and have fun out there everybody – and keep your stick on the ice. I’m rootin’ for ya.
-Jonny F