0:03 Is it possible to own just three Footsie
0:05 100 companies and get paid dividends
0:08 every single month of the year? I've
0:10 been fascinated with passive income ever
0:13 since I started my investing journey way
0:16 back in 2009. Passive income is the
0:18 money which flows to you regardless of
0:21 what you do with your time. Watching TV,
0:24 taking a stroll, or simply chilling out.
0:27 My current share portfolio consists of
0:30 29 UK companies in addition to a few
0:33 exchangeraded funds. Different companies
0:35 pay out dividends in different months of
0:37 the year. So, by holding several in your
0:40 portfolio, it's possible to get paid
0:42 dividends every month. This screen shows
0:45 how much passive income I received each
0:48 month for 2025. The total for the year
0:51 was over £20,000,
0:53 but it wasn't always this high. When I
0:58 started in 2009, I only received £93 for
1:00 the whole year. It's amazing how
1:02 powerful a consistent approach and of
1:05 course compound interest can be if you
1:07 just stick at it for the long term. As
1:10 you can see, some months pay out more
1:12 than others. From my experience, I found
1:14 the more frequent the payments, the more
1:17 motivating this journey became. If you
1:19 want to experience the fun of investing
1:21 and perhaps generating your own passive
1:24 income, then Trading 212 will give you a
1:27 free fractional share worth up to £100
1:29 to start you off. Just click on the link
1:31 in the video description, or you can
1:34 simply scan this QR code instead. So,
1:37 let's see which three Footsie 100
1:39 companies you could own in order to
1:41 receive at least some dividends each
1:43 month. This is not investment advice, of
1:45 course, and that I must make it clear
1:47 that owning a small number of individual
1:50 companies can be extremely risky. It's
1:53 like having all your eggs in one basket.
1:55 This video is therefore for interest and
1:58 entertainment purposes only. I've
2:00 scanned through the entire Footsie 100
2:03 index, which is made up of the UK's
2:05 largest listed companies, to see which
2:07 months of the year they pay their
2:09 dividends. The exact payment dates can
2:11 change slightly from year to year, and
2:14 dividends are of course not guaranteed.
2:16 It's up to the companies to decide how
2:18 much they pay and when they paid a
2:20 dividend, but I found the months in
2:22 which they are paid to be fairly
2:26 consistent. In January, 19 of the 100
2:28 companies in the Footsie 100 index pay
2:31 out dividends to their shareholders. You
2:33 may want to use these slides to pick
2:35 your own combinations of companies if
2:37 getting paid each month is important to
2:40 you. Just for illustrative purposes, I'm
2:42 going to pick the pharmaceutical giant
2:45 GSK. I've owned shares in the company
2:48 myself since 2012. GSK is a global
2:50 pharmaceutical and biotechnology
2:52 company. It is one of the top 10
2:55 pharmaceutical companies in the world.
2:57 And in terms of market cap, it is the
2:59 eighth largest company in the Footsie
3:02 100. This company pays dividends four
3:05 times a year. So that's already a third
3:07 of the job done. The yield is currently
3:11 3.6% spread over four payments. So as a
3:14 rough guideline, if you have £1,000
3:16 invested in GSK, you are likely to
3:20 receive dividends of around £36 a year
3:23 based on current data. In February, just
3:25 eight companies pay out. And for this
3:28 month, one idea would be to pick British
3:32 American Tobacco at a yield of 5.7%.
3:34 I've owned shares in this company since
3:37 2014. British American Tobacco pays out
3:39 four times a year. The company
3:41 manufactures and sells nicotine
3:45 products. In 2025, it was the world's
3:47 second largest tobacco company based on
3:49 revenue, and it is currently the sixth
3:51 largest company in the Footsie 100
3:54 index. It's important to note that most
3:57 people in the UK with company pensions
3:59 will of course own all of the shares
4:01 mentioned in this video because company
4:03 pension providers invest into the
4:06 Footsie 100 constituents in order to
4:09 grow wealth over the long term. In
4:12 March, a total of 13 companies pay out.
4:14 There are several companies we could
4:16 pick, but let's go for another quarterly
4:19 payer, Unilver. I've owned shares in
4:22 Unilever since 2013. It pays a dividend
4:25 of 3.4% spread over four payments a
4:29 year. Unilver is a global consumer goods
4:31 giant. Its brands include the likes of
4:34 Dove, Noir, Persil, and Pot Noodle. It
4:36 is currently the fourth largest listed
4:39 company in the UK. In April, there are a
4:42 total of 11 large cap companies paying
4:45 out. We have already committed to GSK,
4:48 so no need to worry about anything else.
4:50 This screen shows how the share price
4:53 has changed over the last 5 years. It's
4:57 up almost 30% in that time. In May, we
4:59 have a huge number of companies paying
5:02 out in a single month, an incredible 29
5:04 of them. We have already selected
5:06 British American Tobacco with its rather
5:08 large dividend yield. The share price
5:11 has grown too and over the last 5 years
5:13 it's increased 58%.
5:16 In June we have reached the halfway
5:19 stage. A total of 21 companies pay out.
5:22 We have already selected Unilver which
5:24 is a quarterly payer. The share price is
5:28 up at just 3.7% over the last 5 years.
5:30 Perhaps we could replace Unilver with a
5:32 better pick. We'll have a look at some
5:35 other options a bit later on. If you
5:37 have enjoyed this video so far, then
5:39 please hit that like button as it really
5:41 helps out the channel. In July, there
5:44 are a total of 23 companies paying out,
5:47 including one of our picks, GSK. Here is
5:50 the dividend history of GSK in pence per
5:52 share. The company has been able to grow
5:55 the dividend for the last 3 years. In
5:57 August, there are just eight companies
5:59 paying out. And this time, it's the turn
6:02 of British American Tobacco. You can see
6:04 here that the company has a great track
6:06 record of growing a dividend over the
6:09 long term. Into September now, and we
6:10 have the best month of all for
6:13 dividends. An astonishing 40 of them pay
6:16 out this month. This time, it's the turn
6:18 of Unilver to reward us with some
6:20 passive income. And despite the average
6:23 dividend yield and mediocre share price
6:25 growth, the dividend growth in pence per
6:27 share over the years has been quite
6:30 robust. And I'm happy to hold Unilever
6:32 shares in my own portfolio for the long
6:36 term. In October, there are 14 Footsie
6:39 100 companies paying out, including GSK.
6:41 As I've already mentioned, I've owned
6:44 shares in this company since 2012. And
6:47 over this time, it's paid me a total of £8,713
6:49 £8,713
6:52 in dividends alone. I release regular
6:54 videos showing my complete portfolio and
6:57 all my passive income each month. To be
6:59 notified as soon as I release a future
7:02 video, just tap the subscribe button.
7:05 It's absolutely free. In November, there
7:08 are 13 companies paying out, including
7:11 British American Tobacco. Since 2014,
7:13 this company has paid me a total of £7,380.
7:16 £7,380.
7:18 And in December, 15 companies pay
7:21 dividends to their shareholders. And our
7:23 final payment of the year will be from
7:26 Unilver. Since 2013, when I bought my
7:28 first Unilver share, the company has
7:32 paid me a total of £7,750
7:34 in dividends. And because I make good
7:37 use of a stocks and shares Iser, these
7:40 dividends are tax-free. So with just
7:41 three companies, you could receive
7:44 dividends every single month. But what
7:46 would be the overall performance if you
7:48 did? Well, nobody can predict the
7:50 future, and we can only look at what's
7:52 happened in the past. The combined
7:56 dividend yield of these three is 4.2% a
7:59 year, and the average share price growth
8:02 over the last 5 years was 31%.
8:05 This means if you had invested £1,000
8:07 spread equally across these three
8:11 companies 5 years ago, your £1,000 would
8:14 now be worth £1,583.
8:17 To simplify the calculations, I'm
8:20 assuming dividends are actually taken as
8:22 cash and not reinvested. So, how does
8:25 this compare to a typical Footsie 100
8:27 exchangeraded fund, which typically pays
8:30 out four times a year? Well, as you can
8:32 see here, you would have actually done
8:34 better with the ETF instead of picking
8:36 these three shares, but you would not
8:39 have received dividends every month. You
8:41 would have received dividends every 3
8:43 months instead. So, the question I'm now
8:46 going to ask is, can we replace any of
8:48 these shares with alternatives, which
8:50 would not only give you dividends every
8:52 month with just three companies, but
8:54 would also have beaten the performance
8:57 of a Footsie 100 ETF. And from my
9:00 painstaking analysis, there are actually
9:03 seven other possible combinations of
9:05 just three companies which would pay
9:08 dividends every month. Let's start by
9:10 replacing GSK with London Metric
9:14 Property PLC. This company owns a
9:17 diverse range of assets including Alton
9:19 Towers, War Castle, and Manchester
9:23 Arena. It is currently the 84th largest
9:25 listed company in the UK. The dividend
9:28 yield is high at 6.4% but the share
9:30 price growth has not been great over the
9:33 last 5 years and is down nearly 18%.
9:36 Dividend history looks promising however
9:37 with the company able to grow the
9:39 dividend over the long term. A very good
9:42 sign indeed. The average yield of these
9:46 three is 5.2% and a mean price growth of 13.5%.
9:48 13.5%.
9:51 £1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
9:54 worth £1,400.
9:57 This is even worse than before. Let's
10:00 replace Unilver with BP and try again.
10:03 BP is one of the oil and gas super
10:05 majors and is the ninth largest company
10:08 in the UK. Over the last 5 years, the
10:11 share price is up over 70% and a
10:14 dividend yield is a large 5.8%.
10:16 Payments can be volatile and this is to
10:19 be expected in the oil and gas sector.
10:21 With these three, the average yield is
10:24 6% and the mean price growth over the
10:27 last 5 years is 36.3%.
10:30 £1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
10:34 worth £1,716,
10:36 which just beats the Footsie 100 return,
10:40 but only by £11. Let's see if we can do
10:43 better. This time, we will swap BP with
10:46 Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands is the
10:48 fourth largest international cigarette
10:51 company measured by market share and is
10:54 the 32nd largest company in the UK. The
10:56 share price has doubled over the last 5
10:59 years. On top of that, the dividend is
11:01 high at 5.1%
11:03 and those dividends have been growing
11:06 nicely over the long term. These three
11:09 give an average yield of 5.7% and a
11:12 5-year combined share price growth of 46.8%.
11:14 46.8%.
11:17 £1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
11:23 comfortably beating the Footsie 100 over
11:26 that period. Perhaps we can do even
11:28 better if we replace Imperial Brands
11:31 with Shell. Shell is another oil and gas
11:33 super major and is the third largest
11:36 company in the UK. The share price is up
11:39 113% over the last 5 years and a
11:42 dividend yield is 4%. Dividend history
11:44 shows a steady growth over the last four
11:47 years. The average yield of these three
11:50 is 5.4% with a combined share price
11:53 growth of 50.1%.
11:56 £1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
11:59 worth 1,860.
12:02 Just a few more possible combinations.
12:05 This time we'll try British American
12:08 Tobacco BP and GSK. The average yield is
12:11 5% and a combined share price growth is 67.6%.
12:13 67.6%.
12:16 £1,000 invested in these three 5 years
12:20 ago would now be worth £1,898.
12:23 Just two more possible combinations
12:26 available for us to look at. Replacing
12:28 BP with Imperial Brands give us an
12:32 average yield of £4.8% and a share price
12:34 growth of 64.3%.
12:37 £1,000 invested 5 years ago would be
12:40 worth £2,023.
12:43 Not bad, but have I left the best until
12:46 last? Our final combination of three
12:49 shares which pay dividends every month
12:52 is British American Tobacco, Shell, and
12:56 GSK. The average yield is 4.4% 4% and
12:58 the average share price growth over the
13:02 last 5 years was 78.5%
13:07 which gives us the best return of 2042
13:11 comfortably beating the Footsie 100 ETF
13:13 and receiving dividends every single
13:16 month of the year. This screen shows the
13:18 months in which those companies pay
13:21 their dividends. Just to reiterate,
13:23 investing in individual companies is
13:26 riskier than a more diverse portfolio
13:28 such as a global index tracker, and
13:31 future share performance may not reflect
13:33 past performance. I just love the sound
13:35 of dividends trickling into my
13:37 investment account each month. The
13:39 question is, could it be possible to
13:41 live off your dividends and therefore
13:44 not have to worry about household bills
13:47 each month? To see how my dividends more
13:50 than cover my household bills, then
