Updates

The second buildout buy is done. 11,250 shares of NCYF at 52.5p, taking the pile from 11,800 to 23,050. The goal was 25,000 - a nice round number chosen because at the regular 1p quarterly payment, 25k shares means £250 a quarter, matching RECI's £250.50 and levelling the pair up properly. So yes, I fell a little short. The goblin brain noticed.

But here's why I'm not being hard on myself about it. This upcoming payment isn't the regular 1p - it's the boosted 1.5p of the cycle, and every one of those 23,050 shares is in before the July 30 ex-div. That's £345.75 landing in August, knocking on the door of £350 from a position that paid me £33 three months ago. And by the time the regular quarters come back around, the position will be sitting comfortably above the 25k level anyway. The target gets hit - just one payment later than the plan said.

This is the thing about targets that took me a while to learn. Setting one isn't really about hitting it to the decimal - it's about the pull. A target gets you 80 or 90% of the way there almost automatically, and 92% of a goal reached is infinitely better than the 0% of no goal at all. I'd rather set the number, fall slightly short, and be holding 23,050 income-producing shares than never draw the line in the first place.

Meanwhile the machine keeps humming - the SMIF payout of £500 lands later this week, the first full £500 month on the completed 100k hoard. That money will have a job to do soon enough.

As for what's next, the likely path is boosting the RECI numbers again, since that's the next dividend in the rotation come October. But there's genuinely no urgency for once. September is the LGEN and SMIF payout month - no NCYF, no RECI - so I've got the whole of August and September to properly decide the strategy. A rare luxury: time to think, funded by income that arrives whether I'm thinking or not.

And honestly? This is the part I dreamed about. I'm at the point now where substantial payouts are arriving on a schedule, and it's a lot of money doing exactly what it was told to do. The wealth goblin feels lucky - extremely so - and I'm excited to keep ploughing ahead. Feed the pile. Buy back time.

The buildout push is officially underway. Today I bought 8,500 shares of NCYF at 52.4p, taking the pile from 3,300 to 11,800. The timing was the whole point - the ex-div for the 1.5p August payment is July 30, so every one of those shares qualifies for the big payment of the cycle. That's £177 heading my way in August instead of the £49.50 it would have been. The goblin brain is very satisfied with that trade.

And I'm not done. Tomorrow the RECI quarterly lands - another £250.50, taking RECI to £501 for the year. The plan is to pair that payout with around £3,750 of new money and fire the lot straight into NCYF, either Friday or Monday. Another similar-sized buy, still inside the ex-div window. Income buying more income, with a bit of fresh fuel on top.

A quick look at the inner workings of the goblin mind, because there's a reason these two get built in equal-ish sizes. RECI pays in January, April, July and October. NCYF pays in February, May, August and November. Between them that's eight months of the year covered - and for those eight months, the base income on top of SMIF is effectively whichever of the two positions pays less. Right now a RECI quarter is £250.50, while NCYF's regular 1p quarters are £118 (that August £177 is the special 1.5p payment - strip it back to the 1p base and you get £118). So the floor across those eight months is £118, set by NCYF - which is exactly why the buildout money is flowing there. The next buy should lift that floor to around £194, closing in on RECI. Grow the pair level and two lumpy quarterly payers start to behave like one smooth monthly one.

It's been an interesting month for the goblin outside the spreadsheet too. I've moved apartments and been dealing with some medical stuff, but through all of it the dividends have remained consistent. That's the entire pitch of this portfolio - life gets messy, the income doesn't care.

The added bonus is LGEN has been dancing with the £3 barrier. It looks quite bullish, and whilst the price doesn't really matter to the strategy, it's a vote of confidence in the stock and exciting to keep following for the future.

The July SMIF dividend lands after the NCYF ex-div date, so that one stays in the account for now. I'm also waiting to see whether I get my full deposit back from the old apartment - I have no real plans for that money, so it's potentially another £2,500 or so to chuck into the machine.

As for where the new money is coming from - it's a windfall from an AI product we launched. What I've deployed so far is about 50% of the total payout, so expect the big buys to keep coming over the next few months. With the LGEN dividend now approaching as well, the portfolio just becomes more and more interesting. The snowball is well and truly in effect.

NCYF is officially on the board. The fourth and final pillar of the dividend machine is live. Bought 3,300 shares at 50.1p per share - it's a smaller buy than I'd have liked, but consistency matters more than size. The Iran situation has knocked my earnings a bit, and I had family visiting which meant spending money on actually enjoying life. What's the point of building all this if you never live? I make no excuses for the smaller buy. About £1,025 of new money went in this month.