Dividend Update: January 26

 

Welcome to 2026 - a year that certainly started with a few rather ominous events. Let's cycle through a couple. In short, it's Trump's world and we are living in it (for better or worse, and mostly it's been for worse):

1) Trump's obsession with Greenland was, even by his standards, shocking. European countries sent troops to Greenland, but not in order to fend off possible adversaries. I quote from a CNN article I read in January: "Such deployments are obviously symbolic; they wouldn’t be much of a match for the mighty US armed forces. But the symbolism is staggering nonetheless. European states are sending their men to make a show of defending NATO territory, not from Russia or China or a terror group, but from the President of the United States — the Western alliance’s most crucial and powerful leader." Later on, Trump said that Greenland was "psychologically important for him" and posted AI-generated pictures of claiming the island. We've entered very strange and absurd times.

2) Trump's desire to kick Powell out of office seems nigh. But it was stunning what Powell had to say about a potential overreach of the government: "This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.

If you were not to have that, that would be a great temptation, of course, to use interest rates to affect elections, for example. And that’s something that we don’t want to do." Ominous words. 

3) As Trump ousted Maduro and openly admitted that it was really just mostly for the oil and his petty desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize, you got the feeling that even though the maneuver itself was carried out with surgical precision, the plan of what to do next was clearly not. Again, I quote from an article I read, which I think quite accurately captures what's going on these days: 

"Yet there’s still a sense that Trump is winging it, like a juggler frantically trying to keep multiple balls in the air at once and only just stopping them from plunging to the ground. Despite a string of successful — and dramatic — military operations, Trump’s luck may not last forever. And hubris might push him too far." 

5) Earnings season started and it mostly was ok for the companies I owned. I do, however, have a special eye on Texas Instruments and PepsiCo, which once again could not cover their dividend with the free cash flow. I'm less worried about Texas Instrument as they are expanding massively, but more worried about PepsiCo's ability to turn the corner.

Striking was also one quote from Jamie Dimon in the earnings call: "The deficits in the United States and around the world are quite large. We don’t know when that’s going to bite. It will bite eventually because you can’t just keep on borrowing money endlessly. And so early on, fine. Who knows? And of course, we have to deal with the world we got, not the world we want." Someone's will have to deal with the debt pilling up eventually.

This was just a small list of the chaos that started off 2026 - I could easily list a few more worrying things (e.g. protests in Iran being violent shut down; ICE killing two protesters in Minneapolis, etc.). But leaving geopolitics aside, January was for me a rather successful month (which you of course only note looking back on it and not in the midst of it):

    a) I crossed the 200k barrier, which is something I never would have expected

    b) I almost achieved a new dividend-high and was only a couple of Euros short (more on that below)

    c) I had a lovely day-trip to the Antisana volcano, which is the 4th highest volcano in Ecuador and we            hiked all the way to the part where the glacier begins and the technical climbing starts (roughly                around 4,200-4,300m above sea level and you could feel the air getting thin).

What did I buy this month?

I automatically invested in the All-World ETF, bought a bit of Legal & General (as it was a minuscule position that I wanted to keep but build up) and bought more of the IncomeShares Gold Yield ETP.

In total, I received 834,31€ from 26 stocks or ETFs this month  (some of those are already sold and won't pay again in April) and I'm once again inching closer to that 1000€ a month barrier that I'm just dying to cross (even though it is only a number in the end).  

1. iShares World Equity High Income: 161,90€
2. IncomeShares Silver+ Yield Options ETP: 100,72 €
3. iShares STOXX Global Select Dividend 100 ETF: 78,99 €
4. Global X Euro STOXX 50 Covered Call ETF.: 55,14 €
5. WisdomTree Emerging Markets Equity Income ETF: 52,47 €
6. Goldman Sachs BDC: 42,97€ 
7. Main Street Capital: 42,38 €
8. Agree Realty: 36,08 €
9. Realty Income: 34,86 €
10. W.P. Carey: 32,22 €
11. Blackstone Secured Lending: 29,13€ 
12. Blue Owl Capital: 28,12 €
13. Philip Morris: 26,13 €
14. Starwood Property Trust: 23,24 €
15. Altria Group, Inc.: 15,43 €
16. Net Lease Office Properties: 11,93 €
17. TotalEnergies SE: 11,12 €
18. PepsiCo: 10,37 €
19. VICI Properties: 8,46 €
20. Vanguard USD Emerging Markets Government ETF: 8,07 €
21. JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income Active ETF: 6,58 €
22. Bank of Nova Scotia: 6,07€ 
23. IncomeShares Gold+ Yield Options ETP: 5,44 €
24. EPR Properties: 3,01 €
25. WisdomTree Europe SmallCap Dividend ETF: 2,36 €
26. Hannon Armstrong Sustainable Infrastructure: 1,22 €

At the foot of the Antisana peak - good times :-)

                        Springsteen channelling the protest-vibes of Woody Guthrie & early Bob Dylan