Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

July 2026 Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:47:50 GMT

Welcome to the Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter for July 2026. In this newsletter I will share the companies I invested in this month.

These investments are the building blocks that tie together with the overall goal of reaching $1,000 in monthly dividend income. Each investment increases forward annual dividend income. Every dividend increase also increases forward annual dividend income. The same goes for each dividend that gets reinvested as well. The beauty of a dividend growth investment strategy is that it lets us see our progress in real time, and show us how our actions and inputs directly correlate with the end result. It shows us how far along we are on the journey as well.

I find it helpful to invest with the end goal in mind. The end goal being a certain amount of target dividend income. I focus on dividend income because it is more predictable, reliable and easier to forecast and rely on than share prices. This is what makes living off dividends a superior strategy to live off a portfolio in retirement than traditional asset depletion strategies, which are reliant on a bull market. In order to get the full benefit of a dividend growth investing strategy however, and living off dividends in retirement, one has to build that portfolio on solid ground.
You need to play strong defense and strong offense.

I invested $1,116.76 in the following seven companies last month. This exercise added $19.92 to forward annual dividend income.

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investments for July 22, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 22 Jul 2026 15:12:14 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to two existing positions. One is in a taxable account, the other in a tax-deferred one. I try to invest roughly $1,000 per month in best values I see today. I also add any dividend income received to the contributions pile, and invest them in the best company I could find, rather than the company from which the dividend originated from (DRIP).

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Buys for July 16, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 18:14:13 GMT

Good Afternoon,

I wanted to let you know that I added to two existing positions in the Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter Portfolio. These are firms that have been somewhat punished as of recently with the potential for increased competition from new entrants. I am taking the variant perspective that this is a possible over-reaction. That being said, these are somewhat cyclical as well, so if I am wrong, it could turn out to be a double-whammy (increased competition, along with overall softness in business and growth along with also an even lower valuation multiple). I guess that’s a tripple whammy potential.

Now that I have talked about the downside risks, perhaps I should mention the two companies I added to a few minutes ago.

Dividend Growth Investments for July 7, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Tue, 07 Jul 2026 15:02:40 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to a couple of existing investments today.

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investment for July 1, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:35:07 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I initiated a new position. The company is a dividend achiever that has managed to increase dividends for 15 years in a row, a 5 year annualized dividend growth rate of 15%, forward P/E of 11 and a dividend yield of 1.80%.

Many software type companies have been sold off on AI fears, then slowdowns etc. The million dollar question is whether the market is correctly anticipating future disruptions to these businesses, and discounting them, even if financials are still strong OR if Mr Market is just overly fearful and just throwing the baby with the bathwater.

Now, each specific company comes with its own unique risks/opportunities. They are lumped together into the “software is being eaten by AI”. But if I start to think about it, I see AI as something that cuts their expenses on the labor side and helps them improve existing products/services, rather than being eaten alive by AI. I doubt consumers will go and just vibe-code their own Tax submission software to file taxes for example (or vibe code their accounting software). If they had the expertise to do so, they’d have already done it pre-AI. Now, there could be more competition, but that’s always been the case too for everything.

Dividend Portfolio Holdings For June 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 21:26:04 GMT

Welcome to the May 2026 portfolio review! In this email, I will share the updated dividend growth portfolio as of June 30, 2026.

The goal of the portfolio is to generate $1,000 in monthly dividend income by investing roughly $1,000 every month in the best ideas I could find at the moment. Based on previous communication, this could take anywhere from ten to fifteen years from the launch date of the newsletter. The portfolio and this project are geared towards long-term investors, whether they are in the accumulation phase or the distribution (retirement) phase.

After 97 months of meticulous saving and investing, we are slowly but surely progressing towards the end goal. I am updating the list of dividend portfolio holdings below. I have included the company name, shares owned, entry price and estimated annual dividend income. You can download the spreadsheet behind the tables and charts from here.

I have invested $ $113,070.99 so far in 112 companies through June 30, 2026. This figure includes the amount of automatically reinvested dividends, as well as new contributions to the account. It does not include companies I have sold so far.

June 2026 Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 24 Jun 2026 19:55:13 GMT

Welcome to the Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter for June 2026. In this newsletter I will share the companies I invested in this month.

These investments are the building blocks that tie together with the overall goal of reaching $1,000 in monthly dividend income. Each investment increases forward annual dividend income. Every dividend increase also increases forward annual dividend income. The same goes for each dividend that gets reinvested as well. The beauty of a dividend growth investment strategy is that it lets us see our progress in real time, and show us how our actions and inputs directly correlate with the end result. It shows us how far along we are on the journey as well.

I find it helpful to invest with the end goal in mind. The end goal being a certain amount of target dividend income. I focus on dividend income because it is more predictable, reliable and easier to forecast and rely on than share prices. This is what makes living off dividends a superior strategy to live off a portfolio in retirement than traditional asset depletion strategies, which are reliant on a bull market. In order to get the full benefit of a dividend growth investing strategy however, and living off dividends in retirement, one has to build that portfolio on solid ground.
You need to play strong defense and strong offense.

I invested $1,095.68 in the following seven companies last month. This exercise added $21.81 to forward annual dividend income.

Investing as a Business - Part Two

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 12:01:00 GMT

My goal is to help you become a better investor. This is why I have been writing about Dividend Growth Investing and investing in general for close to two decades.

A few months ago, I wrote “investing as a business”.

The post outlined the principles I use in creating and managing a portfolio, in order to build wealth and income. I try to manage my portfolio like I would manage a small business.

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investments for June 15, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 17:12:26 GMT

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investment for June 8, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 16:11:35 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to an existing holding this AM. It is a company I have been buying this year, as it has been on sale. This is also the last investment I would make for quite some time. That’s because I am getting closer to the maximum I want to risk there, before seeing some follow-up results later on.

The stock sells for 16 times forward earnings and yields a little over 2.50%. The five year annualized rate of dividend growth is at 17%. The company has increased dividends for 13 years in a row.

How to convert an existing portfolio to a dividend stock strategy?

Dividend Growth Investor — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 12:46:51 GMT

There are various ways that investors can accumulate their nest egg. One strategy includes putting a portion in one or a few attractively valued dividend growth stocks every single month, and reinvesting dividends selectively. Another strategy involves investing in something else such as index funds or other investments, using tax advantaged accounts such as 401 (k) for example.

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Activity for June 3, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 03 Jun 2026 18:18:26 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I made a few transactions today.

As you know, I am a buy and hold investor. I go through my entry criteria (valuation, fundamentals, quality), and once I find something, I buy it and hold it for as long as possible. I rarely sell, because my audit has uncovered a painful truth - selling has been a mistake. I now rare sell. Notably, I would hold a security for as long as it doesn’t cut/eliminate dividends or it gets acquired. I do reserve myself the right to “other” however.

As you can see that my buy and hold and pretty much never selling, combined with my strategy of buying what I think is attractive today, leads to a very long list of companies in the portfolio. This diversification does not bother me, as I view it as a protection against ignorance. And believe me, the future of say 2046 or 2056 will turn out much differently and in a big surprising way to what we think today. At least that’s how the past 20 - 30 years turned out for me - I am surprised about things that I thought would for sure turn out one way, and they didn’t. I am also surprised about things I dismissed, which turned out to be amazing. And vice versa ;-)

I do hold on to most spin-offs, and that turns out into a big portfolio with lots of companies. Research has stated that in aggregate, spin-offs tend to do well. But, if I end up with a negligible position size, it just becomes a rounding error. Which makes it a pain if you have to report it each month (takes mental bandwidth in a way).

I do hold fractions of shares or a lot of positions too, and have done so for long periods of time. But I do understand that for the purposes of this portfolio I share with you, it may be a little bit too much. Hence, a few years or so ago I made the policy change to get rid of any spin-off shares if the new position is worth about $100, if I do not see myself adding to this position in the next few months or so.

Dividend Growth Investor - Investments for June 1, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 14:59:21 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to two existing positions. One was initiated last month, and the second is one where I have added to for the third month in a row.

I build positions slowly and over time, by focusing on the best values I could find at the moment. Different companies are available on sale at different times. I also test my thesis on fundamentals and valuation as I build out positions slowly. When I initiate a position, I look for companies where I can allocate at least $500 - $1,000 (which works for the parameters of this project). Then I regroup, and see how things go, before investing again.

I have a hard limit of allocating $2,000 on cost per company, in order to manage risk. I expect to be wrong on 40% - 60% of companies. When I am wrong, I want to limit loss to amount I invested, minus any dividends received. When I am right however, a winner will pay for many losers, and then some. In the terms of dividend growth investing, the portfolio effect is such that the dividend should come from a variety of company types:

1. Low yield/high growth
2. Medium yield/medium growth
3. High yield/low growth

All of those work together to generate an organic stream of income that grows above rate of inflation. Under the surface however, you have a lot of companies that may not pull their weight and may fall on hard times eventually. Some may just plod along. A few select ones (or perhaps more than a few) may pull through well, and even surprise you well beyond what you thought was possible in the first place. But overall, the portfolio is like a symphony, with each company doing its part and playing an instrument or some other activity to get to the desired effect of some good music.

I am in effect planting seeds. I have no idea which of the seeds will grow into mighty oaks, and which may end up getting eaten by the squirrels. But I do know that if I keep planting those trees, the overall effect would be a nice forest that could develop over a period of a few short decades. I just need to be patient, and not dig out the seeds every hour, in order to see if they are growing. I just need to let nature do its thing.

Dividend Portfolio Holdings For May 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Sun, 31 May 2026 00:08:42 GMT

Welcome to the May 2026 portfolio review! In this email, I will share the updated dividend growth portfolio as of May 31, 2026.

The goal of the portfolio is to generate $1,000 in monthly dividend income by investing roughly $1,000 every month in the best ideas I could find at the moment. Based on previous communication, this could take anywhere from ten to fifteen years from the launch date of the newsletter. The portfolio and this project are geared towards long-term investors, whether they are in the accumulation phase or the distribution (retirement) phase.

After 96 months of meticulous saving and investing, we are slowly but surely progressing towards the end goal. I am updating the list of dividend portfolio holdings below. I have included the company name, shares owned, entry price and estimated annual dividend income.

May 2026 Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 27 May 2026 12:18:37 GMT

Welcome to the May 2026 edition of the Dividend Growth Investor Newsletter. In this edition, I discuss the companies I purchased for my portfolio in May.

The goal of the newsletter is to go beyond just buying companies every month. The real goal is to show how real wealth can be built in the stock market. The process of building an income portfolio is very simple, but not easy. An investor simply needs to save money and put them to work in attractively valued stocks regularly. The next step involves reinvesting dividends either selectively or through a DRIP. The last step is the most exciting one – to patiently hold on to your collection of businesses for the long-term. To build a dividend machine, one has to arm themselves with a lot of patience and a long-term focus. This means avoiding the expensive habit of timing the market because it “looks high” or because “it is crashing”. Having the patience to hold on to your investments through thick or thin is a habit that is within the control of the investor.

There are a lot of distractions along the way, which can trick the investor into trading in and out of positions, or to get scared from market corrections. Other distractions include switching strategies because something else has done better in the past and everyone is talking about it. While it is important to monitor the portfolio regularly, it is also important to avoid falling prey to minutiae that may not matter a few years from now. Avoiding distractions is one factor where investors have control over.

As I mentioned in the first edition of the newsletter, the real goal is to generate $1,000/month in dividend income from this portfolio. I am going to achieve this goal by focusing on things I can control. These include:

The amount of money I can save and invest every month
The ability to invest in attractively valued dividend growth stocks regularly
The ability to reinvest dividends along the way
The ability to stick to my strategy through thick and thin and hold for the long-term
The ability to keep costs low

Given the fact that I am limiting myself to invest approximately $1,000/month for this portfolio, I am realistically setting myself up for reaching those goals within five - ten years from now. I selected this long-term goal in order to push myself to think long-term, and avoid thinking short-term. I try to select companies that I believe will be around in a decade or so, and will be more profitable and pay higher dividend payments along the way. I also evaluate dividends for safety. I focus on valuation today as well as long-term fundamentals. Without growth in fundamentals, and the ability of the business to grow them over time, the companies I invest in will be unable to achieve future dividend growth.

Long-term focus is important, because this portfolio will also be expected to provide solid dividends for the lifetime of the person who will be inheriting it. I am not just shooting for $1,000/month by the 2030s. I want to have a portfolio that will grow that dividend income stream without additional capital, beyond the 2030s. This is why I try to be careful what I include in this portfolio.

I plan to be diversified, in order to reduce the impact of errors that will be made along the way. The portfolio will be built slowly along the way. Based on my experience, different sectors are available at different times. Hence the portfolio weightings will likely look lopsided in terms of sectors in the first year or so. Around year two however, the portfolio will likely look more diversified than today.

Now that I discussed in a little bit more detail the overall philosophy the newsletter, I am going to list the companies I purchased this month. The full list is in the table below:

Dividend Growth Investment for May 20, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:45:00 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to an existing position today. The company has increased dividends for 19 consecutive years. It has a 5 year annualized dividend growth rate of 10.90%.

The stock has been beaten down, and sells at a little under 16 times forward earnings and yields a little over 2.60%.

I believe that this company is an essential organization in the plumbing of financial markets.

Dividend Growth Investor - Investments for May 15th, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:22:46 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to a few existing positions this morning. Those were companies that are typically in the expensive valuation category, but now are less expensive. Experience has shown me that certain types of companies are rarely in fair value teritory, so I should watch them like a hawk for an entry price level consistent with my methodology and understanding of valuation. These companies are low yielding, but offer the chance of an above average dividend growth and potentially higher expected returns.

The companies I added to in my taxable account were fractional shares. Note it makes sense to place lower yielding and non dividend paying cmpanies in a taxable account, while placing the mid and higher yielding companies in a tax-deferred account. If I could do all my investing through a tax deferred account, it would be my preferred choice. Given the rules around contribution limits and earned income calculations however, that is not always a possibility. Tax planning is important, and could save money in the long run.

Investing in MasterCard

Dividend Growth Investor — Fri, 08 May 2026 15:12:20 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to MasterCard, a position which I initiated earlier this year. I slowly building this position out, using the fractional share capabilities at Schwab. You can see the trade confirmation below (you can also see my review here):

This $100 investment increased forward annual dividend income by almost 70 cen…

Dividend Growth Investor - Recent Investment for May 6, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:08:55 GMT

Good Morning,

One of the most important parts of the Dividend Growth Investing process (and any investment process in general), is finding attractively valued quality companies for the portfolio.

In my case, I look at a few different buckets:

1. I screen the known dividend growth universes - e.g. Dividend Aristocrats or Dividend Champions

2. I monitor dividend increases

3. I look for ideas from my daily life, unleashing my inner Peter Lynch

4. Talking to other investors (this could also be a dangerous one if you do not have a framework for evaluating companies)

I believe the first two are repeatable and scalable blocks in the process of uncovering companies for the portfolio. Let me put these two concepts in action.

For example, a few weeks ago, I discussed a list of dividend aristocrats for further research.

Dividend Growth Investments for May 1st, 2026

Dividend Growth Investor — Fri, 01 May 2026 13:53:16 GMT

Good Morning,

I wanted to let you know that I added to two existing holdings. I initiated a position in the first last month, and I have been building out a position in the second for the past few months.