This content explores the possibility of generating monthly dividend income by investing in just three FTSE 100 companies, demonstrating how specific combinations can offer both consistent payouts and potential capital growth.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
Is it possible to own just three Footsie
100 companies and get paid dividends
every single month of the year? I've
been fascinated with passive income ever
since I started my investing journey way
back in 2009. Passive income is the
money which flows to you regardless of
what you do with your time. Watching TV,
taking a stroll, or simply chilling out.
My current share portfolio consists of
29 UK companies in addition to a few
exchangeraded funds. Different companies
pay out dividends in different months of
the year. So, by holding several in your
portfolio, it's possible to get paid
dividends every month. This screen shows
how much passive income I received each
month for 2025. The total for the year
was over £20,000,
but it wasn't always this high. When I
started in 2009, I only received £93 for
the whole year. It's amazing how
powerful a consistent approach and of
course compound interest can be if you
just stick at it for the long term. As
you can see, some months pay out more
than others. From my experience, I found
the more frequent the payments, the more
motivating this journey became. If you
want to experience the fun of investing
and perhaps generating your own passive
income, then Trading 212 will give you a
free fractional share worth up to £100
to start you off. Just click on the link
in the video description, or you can
simply scan this QR code instead. So,
let's see which three Footsie 100
companies you could own in order to
receive at least some dividends each
month. This is not investment advice, of
course, and that I must make it clear
that owning a small number of individual
companies can be extremely risky. It's
like having all your eggs in one basket.
This video is therefore for interest and
entertainment purposes only. I've
scanned through the entire Footsie 100
index, which is made up of the UK's
largest listed companies, to see which
months of the year they pay their
dividends. The exact payment dates can
change slightly from year to year, and
dividends are of course not guaranteed.
It's up to the companies to decide how
much they pay and when they paid a
dividend, but I found the months in
which they are paid to be fairly
consistent. In January, 19 of the 100
companies in the Footsie 100 index pay
out dividends to their shareholders. You
may want to use these slides to pick
your own combinations of companies if
getting paid each month is important to
you. Just for illustrative purposes, I'm
going to pick the pharmaceutical giant
GSK. I've owned shares in the company
myself since 2012. GSK is a global
pharmaceutical and biotechnology
company. It is one of the top 10
pharmaceutical companies in the world.
And in terms of market cap, it is the
eighth largest company in the Footsie
100. This company pays dividends four
times a year. So that's already a third
of the job done. The yield is currently
3.6% spread over four payments. So as a
rough guideline, if you have £1,000
invested in GSK, you are likely to
receive dividends of around £36 a year
based on current data. In February, just
eight companies pay out. And for this
month, one idea would be to pick British
American Tobacco at a yield of 5.7%.
I've owned shares in this company since
2014. British American Tobacco pays out
four times a year. The company
manufactures and sells nicotine
products. In 2025, it was the world's
second largest tobacco company based on
revenue, and it is currently the sixth
largest company in the Footsie 100
index. It's important to note that most
people in the UK with company pensions
will of course own all of the shares
mentioned in this video because company
pension providers invest into the
Footsie 100 constituents in order to
grow wealth over the long term. In
March, a total of 13 companies pay out.
There are several companies we could
pick, but let's go for another quarterly
payer, Unilver. I've owned shares in
Unilever since 2013. It pays a dividend
of 3.4% spread over four payments a
year. Unilver is a global consumer goods
giant. Its brands include the likes of
Dove, Noir, Persil, and Pot Noodle. It
is currently the fourth largest listed
company in the UK. In April, there are a
total of 11 large cap companies paying
out. We have already committed to GSK,
so no need to worry about anything else.
This screen shows how the share price
has changed over the last 5 years. It's
up almost 30% in that time. In May, we
have a huge number of companies paying
out in a single month, an incredible 29
of them. We have already selected
British American Tobacco with its rather
large dividend yield. The share price
has grown too and over the last 5 years
it's increased 58%.
In June we have reached the halfway
stage. A total of 21 companies pay out.
We have already selected Unilver which
is a quarterly payer. The share price is
up at just 3.7% over the last 5 years.
Perhaps we could replace Unilver with a
better pick. We'll have a look at some
other options a bit later on. If you
have enjoyed this video so far, then
please hit that like button as it really
helps out the channel. In July, there
are a total of 23 companies paying out,
including one of our picks, GSK. Here is
the dividend history of GSK in pence per
share. The company has been able to grow
the dividend for the last 3 years. In
August, there are just eight companies
paying out. And this time, it's the turn
of British American Tobacco. You can see
here that the company has a great track
record of growing a dividend over the
long term. Into September now, and we
have the best month of all for
dividends. An astonishing 40 of them pay
out this month. This time, it's the turn
of Unilver to reward us with some
passive income. And despite the average
dividend yield and mediocre share price
growth, the dividend growth in pence per
share over the years has been quite
robust. And I'm happy to hold Unilever
shares in my own portfolio for the long
term. In October, there are 14 Footsie
100 companies paying out, including GSK.
As I've already mentioned, I've owned
shares in this company since 2012. And
over this time, it's paid me a total of £8,713
£8,713
in dividends alone. I release regular
videos showing my complete portfolio and
all my passive income each month. To be
notified as soon as I release a future
video, just tap the subscribe button.
It's absolutely free. In November, there
are 13 companies paying out, including
British American Tobacco. Since 2014,
this company has paid me a total of £7,380.
£7,380.
And in December, 15 companies pay
dividends to their shareholders. And our
final payment of the year will be from
Unilver. Since 2013, when I bought my
first Unilver share, the company has
paid me a total of £7,750
in dividends. And because I make good
use of a stocks and shares Iser, these
dividends are tax-free. So with just
three companies, you could receive
dividends every single month. But what
would be the overall performance if you
did? Well, nobody can predict the
future, and we can only look at what's
happened in the past. The combined
dividend yield of these three is 4.2% a
year, and the average share price growth
over the last 5 years was 31%.
This means if you had invested £1,000
spread equally across these three
companies 5 years ago, your £1,000 would
now be worth £1,583.
To simplify the calculations, I'm
assuming dividends are actually taken as
cash and not reinvested. So, how does
this compare to a typical Footsie 100
exchangeraded fund, which typically pays
out four times a year? Well, as you can
see here, you would have actually done
better with the ETF instead of picking
these three shares, but you would not
have received dividends every month. You
would have received dividends every 3
months instead. So, the question I'm now
going to ask is, can we replace any of
these shares with alternatives, which
would not only give you dividends every
month with just three companies, but
would also have beaten the performance
of a Footsie 100 ETF. And from my
painstaking analysis, there are actually
seven other possible combinations of
just three companies which would pay
dividends every month. Let's start by
replacing GSK with London Metric
Property PLC. This company owns a
diverse range of assets including Alton
Towers, War Castle, and Manchester
Arena. It is currently the 84th largest
listed company in the UK. The dividend
yield is high at 6.4% but the share
price growth has not been great over the
last 5 years and is down nearly 18%.
Dividend history looks promising however
with the company able to grow the
dividend over the long term. A very good
sign indeed. The average yield of these
three is 5.2% and a mean price growth of 13.5%.
13.5%.
£1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
worth £1,400.
This is even worse than before. Let's
replace Unilver with BP and try again.
BP is one of the oil and gas super
majors and is the ninth largest company
in the UK. Over the last 5 years, the
share price is up over 70% and a
dividend yield is a large 5.8%.
Payments can be volatile and this is to
be expected in the oil and gas sector.
With these three, the average yield is
6% and the mean price growth over the
last 5 years is 36.3%.
£1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
worth £1,716,
which just beats the Footsie 100 return,
but only by £11. Let's see if we can do
better. This time, we will swap BP with
Imperial Brands. Imperial Brands is the
fourth largest international cigarette
company measured by market share and is
the 32nd largest company in the UK. The
share price has doubled over the last 5
years. On top of that, the dividend is
high at 5.1%
and those dividends have been growing
nicely over the long term. These three
give an average yield of 5.7% and a
5-year combined share price growth of 46.8%.
46.8%.
£1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
comfortably beating the Footsie 100 over
that period. Perhaps we can do even
better if we replace Imperial Brands
with Shell. Shell is another oil and gas
super major and is the third largest
company in the UK. The share price is up
113% over the last 5 years and a
dividend yield is 4%. Dividend history
shows a steady growth over the last four
years. The average yield of these three
is 5.4% with a combined share price
growth of 50.1%.
£1,000 invested 5 years ago would now be
worth 1,860.
Just a few more possible combinations.
This time we'll try British American
Tobacco BP and GSK. The average yield is
5% and a combined share price growth is 67.6%.
67.6%.
£1,000 invested in these three 5 years
ago would now be worth £1,898.
Just two more possible combinations
available for us to look at. Replacing
BP with Imperial Brands give us an
average yield of £4.8% and a share price
growth of 64.3%.
£1,000 invested 5 years ago would be
worth £2,023.
Not bad, but have I left the best until
last? Our final combination of three
shares which pay dividends every month
is British American Tobacco, Shell, and
GSK. The average yield is 4.4% 4% and
the average share price growth over the
last 5 years was 78.5%
which gives us the best return of 2042
comfortably beating the Footsie 100 ETF
and receiving dividends every single
month of the year. This screen shows the
months in which those companies pay
their dividends. Just to reiterate,
investing in individual companies is
riskier than a more diverse portfolio
such as a global index tracker, and
future share performance may not reflect
past performance. I just love the sound
of dividends trickling into my
investment account each month. The
question is, could it be possible to
live off your dividends and therefore
not have to worry about household bills
each month? To see how my dividends more
than cover my household bills, then
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
