Dividend Update: December 25

 

 I was looking forward to December. While I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve (I often find it somewhat overrated and a bit of a hassle), I love Christmas and enjoy the time off at that time of the year and the opportunity to spend time with friends and family while also having the time to reflect or read a bit. 

This year, of course, I was not with my family, but with my girlfriend's family. On the one hand, I have to say that I hold them very dear and they treat me as family. Still, I did miss my family and the time to catch up with all of my siblings, who (even while still living in Germany) I very rarely see. Well, that will just have to wait, as my "vacation" in Germany is planned for the summer of this year.

At the same time, December was a busy month and it still remains overshadowed by what happened just yesterday as Trump captured Maduro from Venezuela, which caused quite a few street celebrations by Venezuelans here in Quito as well (as there are lots of people from Venezuela living here, not all of them enjoying a splendid reputation among the Ecuadorians who ascribe the rise in crime also at least partly to them). I had a hunch that something was about to happen as colleagues of mine who worked in Caracas for Germany were already flown out a month ago as a safety precaution. Two friends of mine, both Venezuelans, were unable to find flights to Venezuela to visit their family for Christmas and had to take a flight to Colombia and then cross the border by bus. There was something in the air and a lot can be said about the ethics, consequences, legality of the actions taken by Trump, but I am tired of speculating for now and let events unfold and reserve judgment for another point.

December was also a busy month as lots of other stuff happened:  Unilever spun off the ice-cream section, which I sold immediately; there is an Iron Maiden concert next year in Quito for which I am trying to get a ticket (they are aging legends and I have yet to see them live); I bought a ticket for my next trail run in March, for which I am practicing already; I watched the latest Avatar movie and was both utterly impressed with the visual effects and again somewhat underwhelmed by the very generic story; and I had my first New Year's Eve at the beach, where people danced bare feet in the sand at midnight and some took even a New Year's swim in the balmy Pacific. All in all, it was a packed month, but one which I quite enjoyed. 

It also proved to be my highest income month in my dividend journey. In total, I collected 869,40€ in dividends from 37 stocks or funds. I'm still knocking on the door of 1000€ a month, but I have a hunch that next year, barring any sort of catastrophe, I might get there. 

1. Ares Capital: 165,88 
2. Main Street Capital: 78,51
3. IncomeShares Silver+ Yield ETP: 76,85
4. Global X Eurl STOXX 50 Covered Call: 72,18
5. VanEck MorningStar Developed Markets Leaders ETF: 63,32 
6. Golub Capital: 52,17 
7. New Mountain Fiance: 33,08 
8. Agree Realty: 31,42 
9. HANetf Alerian Midstream Energy: 30,31 
10. Realty Income: 30,27 
11. FS KKR Capital: 27,58 
12. iShares Fallen Angels High Yield Corporate Bond ETF: 20,14 
13. Sixth Street Specialty Lending: 19,58 
14. Unilever: 18,68 
15. GCP Infrastructure Investment: 17,84 
16. Johnson & Johnson: 17,44 
17. Simon Properties Group: 12,54 
18. International Public Partnership: 12,45 
19. Net Lease Office Properties: 8,33 
20. Enbridge: 7,68
21. Exxon Mobil: 6,58 
22. McDonalds: 5,89 
23. JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income ETF: 5,89
24. Vanguard USD Emerging Markets Govt Bond ETF: 5,17 
25. Pfizer: 4,97 
26. T. Rowe Price: 4,94 
27. Consolidated Edison: 4,85 
28. Goldman Sachs BDC: 4,74 
29. Global X S&P 500 Covered Call ETF: 4,44 
30. Coca-Cola: 4,33 
31. BP: 4,26 
32. IncomeShares Gold+ Yield ETP: 4,03
33. NextEra Energy: 3,95 
34. Shell: 2,71 
35. EPR Properties: 2,63 
36. LTC Properties: 2,05
37. Imperial Brands: 1,36 

At the time of this writing, I am also doing my yearly review and I can already tease that I'm going to change a few things in my portfolio as it has become somewhat messy and I'd like to streamline it a little more. 

For now, I wish you the very best for 2026 and leave you with a couple of pictures from my travels and the title song to the surprisingly good movie "The Killers", which I watched over the holidays. I quite like the track (even though the message and its title is rather contrary to the whole project of investing for the future ;-)).

 

Sunset at the balmy Pacific