I am late again with my monthly passive income update. Summer has been busy, but better late than never – so let’s take a look at what happened with our portfolio during July.
July was a particularly memorable month for us. We had our big vacation of the year, which included my Ironman 70.3 race in Gdynia, Poland. After the race, we continued our trip to Slovakia, where we spent some time in the mountains and went on a few hikes.
The mountains were probably one of the highlights of the whole trip, and I have a feeling we’ll be back there someday.
Of course, all of this had an impact on our finances as well. But I’ll get to that later.
For now, let’s look at the numbers.
Dividend Income
As always, let’s start with dividend income. During July, three companies paid dividends to my portfolio:
As with every monthly update, I like to compare each dividend with an actual household expense. It makes the numbers a little more tangible and shows which parts of our lifestyle the portfolio could already help pay for.
- $9.28 – Eastman Chemical (EMN): Covers 6.0% of our Home expenses over the past 3 months.
- $5.10 – Mondelez (MDLZ): Covers 4.1% of our Sweets expenses over the last 3 months.
- $8.79 – W.P.Carey (WPC): Covers 0.8% of last month’s Mortgage payment.
The amounts are still relatively small compared to our overall expenses, but that’s the nature of the journey. The important thing is that the portfolio is already paying for a small part of our lifestyle – and hopefully that share will keep growing over time.
Dividend Year-on-Year Comparison
Let’s compare July dividends to what I received in July 2025:
There wasn’t much room for growth this time, as I hadn’t added any new dividend payers that pay out in July.
Still, I’m happy with the result. All three companies increased their dividends, and as a result, I received almost 6% more than I did in July last year.
It’s a small increase, but it’s a good reminder of one of the things I like most about dividend investing: some of the growth happens without me having to do anything.
Other Passive Income Sources
Dividends weren’t the only source of portfolio income during July. We also earned money from several other investments:
- €6.61 – P2P lending
- €15.82 – Real Estate Crowdfunding
- €1.93 – Bonds interest
- €6.26 – Money Market Funds
- €0.91 – Real Estate Crowdfunding (Rental Income)
These individual amounts aren’t huge, but together they continue to add another layer of diversification to our passive income.
Passive Income Summary
After adding everything together, our portfolio generated €51.79 of passive income during July:
Chart below shows comparison of passive income over years:
Passive income was 15% higher than in July 2025.
That’s not a spectacular increase, especially compared with some of the bigger year-on-year jumps I’ve had earlier this year. But it’s still moving in the right direction, and I’ll happily take another month of growth.
Portfolio Contributions and New Investments
Now for the less exciting part.
I didn’t add any new money to my investment accounts during July.
Our vacation ended up eating most of the spare income for the month, leaving nothing available for investments.
And honestly, I’m completely fine with that.
One of the reasons I’m investing for financial independence in the first place is to have more freedom in the future. But that doesn’t mean every spare euro has to go into the portfolio today. Sometimes it’s worth spending money on experiences, travelling with the family, and creating memories.
July was one of those months.
The good news is that I managed to get back to investing in August, so I’ll have more to share about that in the next update.
Summary
July was a good month for different reasons.
We had a fantastic family vacation, I completed my Ironman 70.3 in Gdynia, discovered some beautiful parts of Slovakia, and the portfolio continued generating income in the background.
Financially, it wasn’t the strongest month. Passive income increased by 15% year over year, and I didn’t make any new contributions.
But that’s also part of the journey. Progress isn’t always going to be a straight line, and occasionally spending money on life is just as important as investing it.
Year to date, the portfolio has generated €458.90 in passive income, which represents 61% of my €750 annual goal.
I’m still slightly ahead of schedule, so the goal remains well within reach. With five months still left in the year, I’m confident I’ll be able to get there.
Thanks for reading, and see you in next month’s update!