At the beginning of 2026, I confidently declared that this would be our best dividend year ever. Looking back, I probably jinxed the whole thing by being so certain about it.
After shifting part of the portfolio from pure dividend stocks to a combination of dividend and growth stocks (mainly AMZN and TSLA), the expected dividends for 2026 have now been revised down by 16% compared to the original forecast I made on January 1.
This means that all my charts will now show a clear deficit between the actual outcome and the forecast I set at the start of the year.
However, I’m still hopeful that the total value of the portfolio will increase over the full year. In the end, that’s really the only thing that matters.
Lesson learned: Maybe I shouldn’t announce “this will definitely be our best year ever” quite so loudly next time.
Update – August 2026
The dividend hit was real.
A few months later the regular income is still lower after the shift toward growth, but the September extras from the BDCs (especially MAIN) just handed us over $1,200 in pure supplemental cash. Quiet compensation for the sacrifice.
AI-generated image with Grok