What an £800,000 Dividend Portfolio Paid Me This Month: Passive Income July 2026

At the start of the year, my share portfolio stood at £690K. And just 7 months later, it's risen to over £800,000. Not only does my capital rise over time, but I receive a stream of passive income each month. In this video, I'll show how much passive income I receive from both share dividends and premium bomb prizes. [music] And if you stay to the end, I'll reveal which seven shares I've been putting more money into this month. Right, let's get straight into July's passive income. On the 3, I received a nice gift from Sage. The share price has fallen 7% so far this year, and there are still fears that competing AI technology could impact its business model. The dividend yield is 2.3% per year, spread over two payments. Here is the dividend history in pence per share. And what I like about Sage is its ability to grow the dividend year after year. This month, Sage Group paid out a total of £30. Don't forget, this video is not investing advice, and I'm only showing you my own journey. On the 24th, I received some free money from Experian. The shares have had a terrible time this year, down 16%. Just like Sage, Experian could be impacted by the rise of AI technology. The dividend yield is 1.9% spread over two payments. Long-term dividend history looks impressive and the company is able to grow the dividend over the long term. This month, Experian paid out a total of £55. If you are enjoying this video, then please hit the like button as it really helps out the channel. On the second, I received a present from Bunzel. The shares are doing great this year, up over 35%. Its North American business is recovering strongly. The dividend yield is 2.6% 6% spread over two payments a year. The long-term dividend history looks robust and I'm happy to hold this company for the long term. This month, Bunzel paid out a total of £60. On the 6th of July, one of my exchange traded funds paid out. This one has the ticker code VWRL and it gives you exposure to over 3,700 companies from around the world. Here are some of the largest ones that you would own. It's a bit like owning the whole global economy in a single share. I think this could be a good choice for someone who is perhaps starting their investing journey and really has no idea of what to buy. The ongoing charge is just 0.14%. The ETF is up 9.1% so far this year, and it also pays a small dividend spread over four payments a year. This month, VWRL paid out a total of £60. Now, unfortunately, this is just one of my ETFs which are outside my stocks and shares Iser, and that means my arch enemy, the tax man's claw, is tracking me down as I speak and wants to grab some of those dividends. More about that later. On the 10th, I received some passive income from Pimmen. The shares are down 18% this year so far. Inflationary pressures and macroeconomic uncertainty has made investors worried. The dividend is decent, however, at 5.4% way above the current Footsie 100 yield of 3%. Dividend history is a bit patchy, as you would expect from a house builder, as it's in a cyclical sector. This month, Pimmen paid me a total of £85. On the 6th, another one of my ETFs paid out. This one has a ticker code VE and is a bit like VWRL we saw earlier, but this one focuses on companies from developed markets. There are almost 2,000 in all, giving me some good diversification. Ongoing charges are just 0.12%. The price is up 9.6% and it pays a small dividend of 1.4% spread over four payments. This month, VVE paid out a total of £100. By the way, if you want to see how much I hold in each of the shares and ETFs mentioned in this video, then I've listed the totals in a video description along with some offers which could save you some money. Also, on the 6th, I received some cash from VH. This ETF consists of over 2,000 mid to large cap companies from around the world, which pay higher dividends, and here are the largest ones you would own. Ongoing charges are 0.2 29%. The price is up 12.9% and it pays a dividend of 3.3% spread over four payments a year. Here is the dividend history where you can see a slight long-term upward trend. This month, VHL paid out a total of £135. On the 9th of July, I received an envelope of cash from GSK. The shares are up 5.5% so far this year and the dividends are 3.5% spread over four payments a year. I'm a real fan of quarterly payers as the more frequent the payments the more motivating this journey can be. Here is the dividend history and for the last few years GSK has been raising it. This month GSK paid out a total of £185. Now my [snorts] next dividend payment shocked me at the sheer size of it. But before I reveal it, a reminder that if you want to start your own dividend journey like I have, then the really cost-effective platform Trading 212 will help start you off with a free fractional share worth up to £100. And you can sign up using my link in the video description or simply scan this handy QR code and let your wealth journey begin. On the 23rd, I received an absolutely huge bundle of cash from National Grid for simply holding their shares. The price is up slightly this year and the dividend is above average at 4.1% spread over two payments a year. Here is the dividend history. After many years of dividend rises, there was a fall in 2025 as a company embarks on a significant upgrade program of its infrastructure. I've held National Grid shares for over 16 years, and in that time, it's paid me a total of £9,500 in dividend payments. This month, National Grid paid out a total of £720. Now, receiving dividends like this is very motivating, but I'm not going to spend the money. Instead, I'm going to reinvest it to buy more shares so that next year I'll receive even more dividends. And so, the snowball grows. Now, onto the monthly premium bond draw. I only use premium bonds as my emergency fund, kept out of the market on purpose. If I ever unexpectedly need a large sum of money, I really don't want to have to start selling my shares at the same time as a stock market crash. I can draw upon my bonds and give time for the shares to recover. The headline prize rate is 3.8%. There is one draw a month and you have easy access to your money. And there is a chance to win a million each month. All winnings are tax-free. If you want to see all my premium bond results over the last eight years, then I'll leave a link at the top right of the screen. The first million pound winner this July was based in Reading and held just under the maximum of $50,000 in bonds. The second lucky winner was from Warikshshire and held just 14,000 in bonds. It just goes to show that you don't actually need the full amount invested to win the big one. Each bond has an equal chance of winning a prize. No million pounds for me this month, but I did at least manage to win two prizes totaling £50. The bar on the left shows my expected winnings after seven months of the year with £50,000 invested. And the bar on the right shows what I've actually won. I'm a bit behind expectation at the moment, and it'll be interesting to see what happens as a year progresses. So, the total passive income this month was £1,480. Oh, and here comes the dreaded tax man's claw to take some of my money away. How much will I have to pay Mr. Claw this month? Fortunately, most of my investments are protected inside a stocks and shares ISER, and there is no dividend tax to pay. But unfortunately, my two ETFs, VEve and VWRL, are outside. So, some of those dividends will be grabbed by Mr. Claw. There just isn't enough room to keep everything inside. This month, I had to pay the claw a total of £40. And there he goes, running off with my money. I'm sure he'll be back next month for some more. The green bars on this chart show my passive income for the first 7 months of last year, and the blue bars are for this year. All figures are after tax, so you can see exactly what I get to keep. This chart shows how my average monthly share dividends have changed as the years have gone by. This is just my dividends and does not include premium bond prizes. You can see the dip in payments during the pandemic, but also how quickly the payments recovered. At the time of this video, I'm receiving an average of £1,679 per month in share dividends after tax. The current yield of the Footsie 100 is 3% and my own portfolio is lower at 2.6%. But as I've been investing for so long and companies tend to raise their dividends over time, my dividend yield on the actual money invested is 6.5%. Now don't forget that as well as dividends, there is also capital growth which combined make up my total return. So how is the actual value of my portfolio changed after the first 7 months of 2026? Let's take a look. My complete portfolio consists of around 30 individual stocks as well as five exchangeraded funds. I'll leave a link at the top of the screen if you want to check out my complete portfolio in more detail. At the start of the year, the portfolio stood at 690K and 7 months later, it's reached 808K. Around 20K of new money has gone in this year from wages and savings. I put a bit more in than I normally do because the stock market fell earlier in the year. I try to be greedy when others are fearful. During the good times, I tend to put a bit less in and save it. This gives me a net gain for the first 7 months of this year of nearly £100,000 or 14.1%. It's been a great year so far. However, these are of course unrealized gains as I haven't actually sold anything and taken a profit. Just before I show which seven companies I've been busily putting more money into this month, here are the companies in the portfolio which will be paying out in August. To be notified of that video as soon as it's released, and all you have to do is click the subscribe button. It's absolutely free. So, what have I been buying in July? Well, I've added more to Astroenica when the price fell sharply. When I see bargains, I like to snap them up. Shares tend to go up over the long term. When I first bought Astroenica way back in 2009, they were around £28 a share. Today, they are over 120 a share. I've also added more to Pimmen. It also fell recently, so I added more. When I see a cyclical stock going through a bad time, I add a little more in. Better times will hopefully return in the future. I've added more to BAE Systems. It's been rising strongly as countries around the world boost their defenses and I'm buying into this momentum. I've continue to add more to my S&P 500 ETF. When I started investing in 2009, ETFs were not really a thing and my platform at the time did not allow me to buy overseas individual shares. These days are different and ETFs give me great diversification. I've also added more to my develop world ETF and I've been buying HSBC. It's been steadily rising this year, so I've added more. My final purchase is in IG Group. They recently bought an American company and the share price plummeted. I'm a long-term investor, so I bought in on the dip. So many purchases this month, I was like a little kid in a sweet shop. Now, in June of this year, I received my biggest dividend haul of my entire life. My passive income literally went bananas. To see that video, then click here. See you next time and happy investing.