First week of February

We got off to a decent start in February, even though we expect the month to be quite weak compared to January and March. Due to some changes in our portfolio, we lost part of the dividend income that we used to receive in February in previous years, and we haven’t yet been able to find suitable replacements. It’s therefore possible that our February dividends will not reach last year’s level.
Still, the beginning of the month was encouraging. We received the following dividends:

• 1,39 € Interests from January
• 17,83 € from returns from withheld taxes
• 5,51 € from Eurocommercial Properties
• 17,92 € from Verizon 
• 8,15 € from Cibus Nordic
• 17,03 € Dynex Capital
• 28,97 € from AT&T

Total amount was 98,19 €. Now our total 2026 dividend income is 795,54 €

 

We had quite a lot of capital available for new purchases after recently increasing our investment loan. During the week, we made the following acquisitions.

• 5,7126 shares of Dynex Capital @13,96718 USD
• 1 share of Dynacor @5,95 CAD
• 3,1678 shares of Ares Capital @19,44883 USD
• 12,6349 shares of Transcontinental @23,59734 CAD
• 1000 shares of Waypoint REIT @2,4651 AUD
• 220 shares of Canadian Utilities @43,97582 CAD
• 100 shares of A&W food services of Canada @36,7078 CAD
• 86 shares of Kendrion N.V @15,12895 €
• 52,2779 shares of Realty Income @61,02368 USD
• 21,7006 shares of LTC Properties @36,65383 USD
• 20 shares of Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce @129,043 CAD
• 255 shares of Washington H Soul Pattinson @38,192 AUD
• 110 shares of National Australia Bank @48,18727 AUD
• 84 shares of Orion @70,11905 €

These purchases will increase our 2026 dividend income by approximately €1,200.

 

Closing Out the First Month of the Year

Our final income for January ended up exceeding expectations. The main reason was a sizeable refund of previously withheld taxes, which gave the month a welcome boost. The actual new dividends came in almost exactly as forecast.With that, this became our best January ever in terms of dividend income.

 

Overall, our dividend income grew by 17.08% compared to last year — a solid increase in our view. After taxes, we received a total of €702.96, up from €600.39 during the same period last year.

Here’s what arrived in our account last week:

• 33,31 € in returned withheld taxes
• 18,53  € from MSC Industrial Direct
• 3,29 € from Gladstone Commercial Reit
• 5,72 € from Gladstone Investement Corp
• 4,20 € from Boston Pizza Royalties
• 12,09 € from LTC Properties
• 16,45 € from Canadian Net REIT

New investment loan 

This week we decided to take on a bit of leverage, as we had access to a very affordable loan. A total of €40,000 was transferred to our investment account, with an interest rate below 2.5%, which we consider quite reasonable. We haven’t deployed the full amount yet. The plan is to reopen some positions in Australia, strengthen our holdings in Canada, add a few European stocks, and allocate only a small portion to the US — most likely to complete one or two ongoing purchase plans

Although taking on debt always adds some risk, in our case the overall picture remains quite balanced. The borrowed amount is small compared to the total portfolio, and the new capital is being spread across several regions rather than concentrated into a single bet. Strengthening positions in Australia, Canada and Europe actually broadens our geographical mix, which helps smooth out volatility between markets that rarely move in perfect sync.

On the cash‑flow side, the structure is equally steady. Our existing dividends already cover the loan’s monthly costs, so the repayment doesn’t depend on quick wins or unusually high returns from the new investments. This keeps the financial pressure low and prevents the kind of forced decisions that usually make leverage dangerous.

Taken together, the loan nudges our risk level up only slightly, while the added diversification and stable cash flow help keep the overall strategy on solid ground

Purchases for the week 

As always, we kept building toward the future and made a few additions to the portfolio, even though most of the loan capital still sits untouched on our account. The most notable move was completing our Signify position: we bought 76.1255 shares @ €21.73639, bringing the total to an even 100 shares. The timing wasn’t ideal, as the share price dropped sharply after the earnings release, but that’s part of the game and nothing unusual in the long run.

The rest of the week’s purchases were:

• 76 shares of Neste @21,37211 €
• 16 shares of Orion A @69,2375 €
• 40 shares of Kone @61,05 €
• 1,3720 shares of Dynex Capital @13,98632 USD
• 201 shares of Cibus Nordic @154,70134 SEK

Based on current dividend levels, we expect these additions to lift our 2026 dividend income by roughly €400, giving a small but steady boost to our long‑term compounding.

 

  

third week of 2026

This week was fairly uneventful, but not completely quiet. In addition to receiving dividends, we also got some returns from withheld taxes. These returns boosted our income enough to break our January record for passive income. We originally expected to match last year’s level, but we ended up surpassing it. Dividends arrived on Tuesday and Thursday. We received the following payments:

•  49,96 € as returns from withheld taxes
•  125,40 € from Kesko A
• 1 share of Main Street Capital worth of 53,67 € as a DRIP
•  6,44 € as a remaider from Main Street Capital
• 4,17 € from Transcontinental. 
• 47,19 € from Saratoga Investment

The total income amounted to 286.83 €. A solid result, especially considering that dividends arrived on only two days. So far, we’ve collected 611.08 €, which is 10.69 € more than in January last year. And there are still more dividends on the way.

Of course, we also made some small reinvestments during the week. Our purchases were:

• 6 shares of Kone @61,81333 €
• 12 shares of Sampo @10,18166 €
• 1,483 shares of Ares Capital @20,97775 USD
• 7,1375 shares of Apple hospitality Reit @12,66543 USD

These additions will increase our estimated 2026 income by 19.94 €.

 

 

First 2 weeks of 2026

The first two weeks of the year are now behind us. We’ve had a steady stream of dividends, and we’ve also made a few adjustments to our portfolio. Let’s start by looking at the dividends.
The first dividend we received was a DRIP from Main Street Capital. The official payment date was at the end of last year, but DRIP settlements usually take a few days. We received 1 new share and 14,72 €.

Other dividends during the first week were:

• 0,62 € from Iron Mountain
• 17,15 € from Restaurant Brands
• 16,40 € from Dynex Capital
• 18,38 € from Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure 

Total dividends for the first week came to 119,17 €. A solid start to the year.

Our second week began with a dividend from Cibus Nordic. We received 9,32 € at the beginning of the week. The rest of the dividends were:

• 5,09 € from returns of withheld taxes
• 2,34 € from Apple Hospitality REIT
• 7,37 € from Northland Power Inc
• 19,34 € from Exchange Income
• 30,61 € from Realty Income
• 83,93 € from Blue Owl Capital
• 6,73 € from Keurig Dr Pepper

Total dividends for the second week were 155,41 €. Altogether, we’ve collected 323,38 € so far. It seems the first month of the year will be a bit weaker than last year. One reason is that Saratoga Investment changed its dividend schedule from quarterly to monthly. This lowered our January income but strengthened February and March. Another change came from Whitestone REIT, which shifted from monthly to quarterly payments.

Because of Whitestone’s schedule change, we took a closer look at the company. It hasn’t been particularly compelling for a long time. Management hasn’t performed well, and there have been ongoing speculations about replacing them. Activist investors have even made an offer to buy the company. The only real reason to hold the stock was the potential buyout, so we decided to sell and replace it with another quarterly payer. Selling Whitestone resulted in a profit of roughly 1,000 €. We reinvested the proceeds into Ares Capital Corp, increasing our annual dividend income by about 200 €.

We started making purchases right after the new year and have already completed several transactions. Some of them are a bit speculative, but most were made to strengthen our dividend income. In addition to the Ares Capital purchase, the transactions made during these two weeks were:

• 3,9625 shares of Transcontinental @23,07886 CAD
• 1,3036 shares of Ares Capital @20,88064 USD
• 6,9571 shares of Golub Capital BDC @13,94978 USD
• 18 shares of Neste @20,55333 €
• 23,7845 shares of Signify N.V @21,03261 €
• 1,8688 shares of Restaurant Brands @92,76045 CAD
• 4,3736 shares of Blue Owl Capital @12,70118 USD
• 4 shares of Realty Income @59,19 USD
• 2,8248 shares of Apple Hospitality REIT @12,5139 USD
• 6,8497 shares of Dynex Capital @14,61524 USD

We estimate that these purchases will increase our 2026 dividend income by 64,50 €. A nice boost, especially considering it comes on top of the 200 € increase from switching Whitestone to Ares Capital.

 

we are back

Approximately three years ago we sold our positions to pay back the loans we had. Interest rates were rising, and our situation had reached a point where the interest we paid was only slightly lower than the dividend income we received. The margin was so small that the risk simply wasn’t worth it. And we turned out to be right since shortly after we sold almost everything, stock prices fell. The timing was coincidentally very good.

We started rebuilding our portfolio right away, and we managed to recover some positions at good valuations. Of course, over the years some stocks have risen significantly after the decline, and we weren’t lucky with those ones. Still, the recovery after the sale has been quite rapid, and we managed to return to our 2021–2022 levels within three years. Now we are back in the game, focusing on building sustainable dividend income for the future. Our current portfolio is just over 200 k€, compared to a little under 260 k€ at its highest point.

Investment portfolio

Asset class	31st Dec 24	31st Mar 25	30th Jun 25	30th Sep 25	31st Dec 25
Cash	4 470,58 €	17 125,18 €	16 328,29 €	2 470,49 €	4 187,44 €
Investment funds	11 526,05 €	11 357,71 €	14 787,19 €	14 768,72 €	14 870,93 €
Coop memberships	1 500,00 €	1 500,00 €	1 500 €	1 500 €	1 600 €
Shares	106 743,88 €	155 816,03 €	161 148,83 €	173 833,68 €	183 112,10 €
Gross investment portfolio	124 240,51 €	185 798,92 €	193 764,31 €	192 572,89 €	201 530,75 €
Investment loan	0 €	0 €	0 €	0 €	0 €
Net investment portfolio	124 240,51 €	185 798,92 €	193 764,31 €	192 572,89 €	201 530,75

In terms of income, we surpassed our 2021 level last year, ending with 9,158.44 € in net investment income. This year’s goal is to reach five digits, and if we are lucky, we might even break our 2022 record.

We haven’t received any investment income yet this year, but we have made one transaction. We bought 2.0911 shares of Transcontinental at 23.16484 CAD. This purchase will increase our net income by 1.53 CAD, or approximately 0.95 €. A small start, but an increase is still an increase

 

 

First half of August 2023

First two weeks of August have passed and not so much has happened. During this period July ended and final amount of dividends in July was 203,33 € making it the 3rd smallest dividend month so far in 2023.  

We made following purchases:

• 2 shares of Gladstone Investment Corp @13,805 USD
• 8 shares of Blue Owl Capital Corp @14,085 USD
  
• 129 shares of Saratoga Investment @26,81372 USD
• 4 shares of Whitestone REIT @10,4125 USD
• 10 shares of Nordea @10,363 €
• 41 shares of Kesko A @18,07902 €
• 122 shares of Cibus @116,16123 SEK
• 4 shares of Capman @2,495 €

We are slowly recovering from the sales of the shares. We have now bought back 6 positions and are currently buying 12 positions. Our position in Saratoga Investment is almost full. We have already bought back the original position and only "interest" position remains to buy. We decided to add 10% to amount of shares originally held. 

We received following passive income:

• 5,79 € from Transalta Renewables
• 0,20 € from interests from IBKR
  
• 0,36 € from Cibus
• 5,07 € from Whitestone Reit
• 5,20 € from Gladstone Investment Corp
• 2,69 € from Gladstone Commercial Reit

Total amount of passive income was 19,31 €.