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

How much cash did my shares pay me this month for doing absolutely nothing? In this video, I'll reveal all my passive income from both share dividends and premium bond prizes. And if you stay to the end, I'll discuss everything I've been buying this month. From a very ordinary job, I've been putting spare money each month for over 17 years into dividend paying companies such as these. When I get paid dividends, [music] I don't spend the money. Instead, I reinvest it to produce even more dividends. August is always a very strange month indeed for dividends. This graph shows my dividend totals every August since 2009 when I started. One reason for this variation [music] is that companies don't always pay dividends in the same month each year. For example, National Grid and Unilver, which are two of my biggest dividend payers, sometimes pay out in August, and sometimes it's in other months instead. Right, let's get straight into my August dividend income for 2026. This is not investment advice and I'm simply showing you my own journey. At the start of the month, I received some cash from Tatan Lyle. This British company is a global supplier of diverse food and beverage products to food and industrial markets. The shares are up a huge 50% this year because the company has agreed to a 2.7 billion cash takeover offer from a US ingredients group. So, this may be the last dividends I'll ever receive from Taan Lyle. Perhaps I'll go out shopping for another company to take its place. The dividend history has not been anything to shout about. And if I'm honest, I won't be sorry to see this company go. This month, Taan Lyall paid out a total of £130. If you want to see how much I hold in each of the companies mentioned in this video, I've listed the totals in the video description. Towards the end of the month, I received a cash payment from Green Coat Wind Energy. Green Coat is the largest renewable infrastructure trust, which owns and operates 49 wind farms in the UK, generating approximately 2 gawatt of electricity, powering 2.2 million homes and avoiding the production of 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide. The share price is up almost 10% this year so far, and it's a quarterly payer. I find the more frequently I get paid dividends throughout the year, the more motivating this journey becomes. Dividend history looks robust and I'm happy to hold for the long term. This month, Green Coat Wind Energy paid out a total of 195. And on the subject of energy, did you know that UK energy prices are expected to increase in October 2026 and a further increase in January 2027? I've been with Octopus Energy for 5 years. And if you switch to this award-winning energy provider, we will both receive £50 each of credit. You can sign up using the link in the video description or just scan this handy QR code. On the 14th, it was a turn of British American Tobacco to pay out. The share price is almost unchanged this year, but the dividend is high at 5.9% spread over four payments. Dividends per share are showing a long-term upward trend. This month, British American Tobacco paid out a total of £235. Also paying out in August was United Utilities, the UK's largest listed water company. Strong financial results and increased investment guidance has boosted investor confidence. The shares are up 19% this year. There is an above average dividend on top of 3.8% 8% spread over two payments a year. Dividend history is showing an impressive upward trend. A very good sign indeed. This month, United Utilities paid out a total of 270. If you find these videos useful, then please hit that like button as it really helps out the channel. And now onto the monthly premium bond draw. I only use premium bonds as my emergency fund, kept out of the market on purpose, so hopefully I never need to sell my shares and can allow them to compound over time. The headline prize rate for August was 3.8% but it's rising to 4.35% for September and that's a pretty big increase. There is one draw a month. You have easy access to your money and there is a chance to win a million each month and all winnings are taxfree. The tax-free element is really important. You can see in this table, which is based on the new September prize rate of 4.35%, the expected average yearly return with £50,000 invested will be £2,175. And because premium bonds are taxfree, you can keep all of it. Remember, this is based on an investment size of £50,000 and it's the mean expected return for that amount. Your results may differ. Now, let's see how this compares to having your £50,000 in a regular savings account instead. And assuming the interest rate is the same at 4.35%. If you are a higher rate taxpayer, only the first £500 of interest will be taxfree and the rest will be taxed at 40%. So, you will actually end up with just £1,55. This table shows the interest rate you would need to receive from a regular savings account to actually do better than tax-free premium bonds on average with £50,000 invested. So, you can see that for some savers or investors, premium bonds could be worth considering, especially if other tax shelters have been fully utilized. I've gone into more detail about all of this in my previous video, and I'll leave a link to that one at the end if you are thinking about getting into premium bonds. The first million pound winner this August was based in Hampshire and the aisle of whites and held just under £50,000 in bonds. The second lucky winner of the million pound prize was based in Kent and held £21,000 in bonds. No million pounds for me this month. In fact, I didn't win anything at all. This can happen sometimes even with the maximum amount invested. The bar on the left shows my expected winnings this year so far with £50,000 invested. And the bar on the right shows what I've actually won. As you can see, I'm well behind at the moment, but there are still four months of the year left and we'll see what happens. So, the total passive income this month was £830. Oh, and here comes the dreaded tax man's claw to take some of my money away. How much do I owe the claw this month? Well, I've got some bad news for Mr. Claw because all of my August dividends are safely tucked away inside my stocks and shares Iser. So, there is no tax to pay, Mr. Claw. It's been a bit of a wasted journey for you, my friend. Perhaps you'd like a Magnum ice cream instead. Pink lemonade flavor. M Oh, well, there's no need for that. And now for the overall passive income summary. The green bars show my passive income for the first eight months of last year and the blue bars are for this year. All figures are after tax, so you can see how much I actually get to keep. This chart shows how my average monthly dividends have changed since I started in 2009. This is just share dividends and does not include premium bond prices. I find it really motivating to see the average monthly dividends rise over time. At the time of this video, I'm receiving an average of £1,680 per month in share dividends after tax. It's important to remember that dividends are only part of the story. There is capital growth as well, which makes up the main part of my total return. Let's look at the full picture for 2026 so far. At the start of the year, the portfolio stood at 690K and at the time of this video, it's increased to 805K. The total amount of new money I've put in from wages and savings this year is 20K. I put more than normal in so far when I saw depressed prices earlier in the year. When I see people panicking and pulling money out of the market, I do the opposite and put more in. I try to be greedy when others are fearful. This gives me a net gain of 94K or 13.7% for the year so far. So despite all the stock market turmoil this year, the portfolio has done fairly well. These are of course unrealized gains as I haven't sold anything. Before I reveal what I've been buying this month, these are the companies and index funds which I own and which will be paying out in September. There are an incredible 20 of them altogether, and there are quite a few big hitters in there, too. I'm expecting my monthly dividend record to be absolutely smashed to pieces. Make sure you subscribe to the channel so you don't miss that video as soon as it's released. Subscribing to the channel is absolutely free. The average dividend yield of the Footsie 100 is 3%. My own portfolio, believe it or not, is a bit lower at 2.6%. But as I've been investing for so long, and share prices usually rise over time, my dividend yield on the actual money invested is 6.5%. So, what have I been buying this month? Now, I've no idea what your type of retail therapy is, but this is definitely mine. I've been buying more of my S&P 500 ETF. The ticker code is IUSA, and it gives you exposure to all those big American giants all in one share. Here are some of the largest ones you would own. There is even a small dividend of just under 1%. The fees for this ETF are incredibly small at just 0.07%. Here is a long-term graph of this ETF, and you can see that despite some scary volatility, it rises over time. Many investors confuse risk with volatility, and this is a long-term game. The stock market is simply a mechanism which transfers wealth from the impatient to the patient. I've also added more to Astroenica. I've owned this company for well over 15 years, and when I see a big dip in the share price, I'll jump straight in and snap up more shares at lower prices. It's not been a good year so far, but I'm confident better times will return, and the next one will please a lot of my viewers for sure. I've bought more legal and general shares. In fact, I bought them just before they went X dividend. Now, in theory, there is no financial benefit in doing this at all. And it was basically for motivational purposes seeing that dividend grow. Legal in general is up 9% this year so far. And just look at that huge dividend that's 7.6%. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the premium bond prize rate is rocketing. And if you want to see if they are finally worth investing in and to see all my results over the last 5 years, then click this video here. See you next time and happy investing. >> [music]