My May 2024 Medium Income Report
Why writing beats investing for me
Dividend investing is one of my favorite forms of “passive income”. With each stock purchase, you receive a quarterly cash percentage that you can reinvest into the company or simply pocket.
For instance, purchasing one share of Starbucks stock would earn you $2.28 annually or $0.57 each quarter.
While the dividends may not seem astronomical initially, they do add up if you can buy a large amount of shares. This concept made so much sense to me. Just last month, I invested over $1,000 into the market, expecting a $28 return. This translated to $2.33 a month in dividends and I couldn’t wait to receive my payout.
Around this time, I decided to take Medium more seriously. After a few weeks of diving into content on the platform, I published my own on May 14th. This was my first article in over a year!
The article didn’t take me long to write, but I felt it was a strong piece that really captured my feelings. During the month of May it received 5 reads and earned me $2.71.
Feeling discouraged, wondering how I would break through on Medium. Earning just $2.71 from five reads made me question my approach. However, I didn’t give up and chose to push forward.
I wrote two more articles that month — one garnered 4 reads and $0.51, the other 13 reads and $0.36. In total, my May earnings reached $4.84, leading me to question if Medium was the right platform for me.
This all changed on June 3rd. I received an email from M1 Finance, the platform I use to buy my dividend stocks. They informed me that my dividend of $3.04 was now available in my account.
I was proud of myself, my journey as a dividend investor began. A $1,000 investment was now earning me $3.04. It wasn’t much, but I took my money and I bought income. It could only go up from here.
It then hit me — my articles had earned more than my $1,000 investment. I was paid more for my three articles than I was for my several shares of stock.
This realization changed my perspective on Medium. Of course, I would love to be one of the top writers on the platform, earn a reasonable amount of money, and share income statements with you all. But I recognize that I’m not there yet, it’s early in my journey — both in writing and dividend investing.
It’s crucial to keep writing, even if the payout is small, because every story, like each dividend stock, contributes to a greater goal. Now, I view each article as an individual share. Each one with different potential to take off or simply earn me steady “dividends”.
This approach has made it so much more enjoyable to show up everyday, and I look forward to see how large my Medium portfolio will grow.
