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Yum, market is having a blast this month, numbers say down $2,000, Robinhood’s weird YTD shows down only $400? Doesn’t really matter though, since the goal is income generation. To that affect I’ve crossed over the $5,000 mark for the year in taxable account dividends. Not too bad considering the almost $10,000 loss in face value of those shares at the same time. There is a reason this has been deemed an “experiment” all year long. For context the S&P 500 is up 10% this year. That would be around a $3,000 positive on the $53,000 that I’ve committed this year.
| October | Vanguard | Robinhood Mine | Robinhood Wife |
|---|---|---|---|
| Balance 1 October | $13,767.54 | $42,635.08 | $4,352.63 |
| Money Added | $0.00 | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Dividends October | $247.14 | $460.35 | <<To the Left |
| Money Removed | $200.00 | $700.00 | $0.00 |
| Balance 1 November | $11,779.19 | $40,266.75 | $4,102.69 |
Almost all contributions for the month went to my wife’s IRA to the tune of $2,100, which puts her account at $6,000/$7,500. This is still on track with completing contributions by November 20th. My manual DRIP process bought 0.08 shares of O, 1 share of AGNC, 1 share of ARR, 0.196 shares of MAIN, 2 shares of SPYI, 3 shares of QQQI and 2.63 shares of BLOX this month in the taxable accounts.
It is rather painful to see these dividends dragging the portfolios down, but we’re going to hold with the game plan.
| Source | October | 2026 Total |
|---|---|---|
| Swagbucks | $100.00 | $1,200.00 |
| Chase Bank | $0.00 | $1,300.00 |
| USAA Bank | $0.00 | $300.00 |
| Branded Surveys | $120.04 | $320.04 |
| Chime Referrals | $0.00 | $300.00 |
| SoFi Bonuses | $0.00 | $305.00 |
| FreeCash | $100.00 | $1,884.93 |
| Robinhood Gold Card | $100.00 | $1000.00 |
| Covered Calls Premiums | $206.00 | $3,633.00 |
| Dividends | $707.49 | $5,698.81 |
| Neilson | $0.00 | $48.00 |
| Class Actions | $0.00 | $7.31 |
| Honeygain | $0.00 | $17.93 |
| VFW | $0.00 | $5.00 |
| Birthday | $0.00 | $100.00 |
| Travel Reimbursement | $0.00 | $40.67 |
| Kalshi | $10.04 | $10.04 |
| Rip Rush | $34.72 | $34.72 |
| Total | $1,378.65 | $16,205.45 |
Not too terrible this month, dividends went down a little, and covered calls were not amazing. I’ve zeroed out my Branded account; I think I’m done messing with them. Freecash hasn’t been tracking my last two milestones so I’m awaiting a support response on that, because it put me negative on dollars in a solitaire game, there’s almost $40 in payouts not applying.
| Source | October | 2026 Total |
|---|---|---|
| Backpay Bonus | $0.00 | $8,663.09 |
| Total with Others | $24,868.54 |
| Deal | Spent | Earned |
|---|---|---|
| Atlas Earth | $10.74 | $0.00 |
| Kalshi (branded) | $10.00 | $10.04 |
| Solitaire Cash | $54.00 | $31.88 (33.18 never triggered). |
| Last Month’s Chart | Annual: $1,345.31 ($38.37 was free) | $2,820.04 |
As far as as extra income goes, I’m actually pretty happy with the outcome this year. The crashing balances are highly concerning, but I don’t see much I can do about that. I want to stick with monthly paying dividends and those are being hit pretty hard at the moment. The principal loss is a problem, and I really do plan on pivoting to more reliable dividend funds over time. If I had put all of these funds into covered calls who knows where that would be sitting.
When my wife’s IRA is completed, I will continue to follow the Game Plan which still requires 300+ shares of ARR and 700 shares of AGNC. With my 1 share a day rule, I plan on focusing on those shares, while putting the rest of the money that was going to fund my 2026 IRA into debt repayments. I track the debt pile every 15th of the month.
~~Miniwing~~
Parent, Stoic, Investor
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