- What does FI have to do with AI?
- What dividends did I receive in February 2026?
- What positions do I hold in my portfolio?
- How does my dividend income stream compare to VUAG and VWRP?
- When will I achieve financial freedom?
What does FI have to do with AI?
I need to tell you something. AI is coming for our jobs. Big corporations are laying off employees on a massive scale. Recently on platform X, Block announced major workforce reductions — around 4,000 people (about 40% of employees). The CEO explained it as a strategic use of artificial intelligence tools.
Like it or not, AI will impact every single one of us. Seeing this, I’m grateful to myself that 2.5 years ago I made the decision to start investing. At the beginning, I was driven purely by the pursuit of FI. Now I see there is no other way than becoming self-sufficient. I have to do everything possible to protect myself and my family from the employment crisis that is coming.
Remember: I am not a financial advisor. I’m just sharing my journey toward financial freedom. Everything I talk about should be treated as an example of my own experience, not as investment advice.
What dividends did I receive in February 2026?
By 20.02.2026 I had invested £600 into dividend-paying instruments to generate monthly cash flow. Here are the first results.
The first dividend I received came on Friday, 20.02.2026.
It was paid by Global X SuperDividend (SDIP) — £1.74. At the time of the dividend payment, I no longer held units of this fund. So I was very happy and used the dividend to repurchase SDIP — this time in a much smaller amount.
My next purchase was McDonald’s shares, for which I used my weekly pocket money plus a few extra pounds. In total, I bought £26.87 worth of shares.
Fun fact:
In the United Kingdom there are around 1,493 McDonald’s restaurants (2025 data).
What does that mean in practice?
If you bought McDonald’s shares for ~£15, statistically that would equal about 1 penny per restaurant in the UK (purely mathematically — not actual ownership of a specific location).
However, if you wanted £0.01 per McDonald’s restaurant worldwide (~40,000), you would need around £400 invested.
On 27.02.2026 I received another dividend — £0.99 from BlackRock Capital Allocation Term Trust (BCAT).
The dividend received, my pocket money, and a few pounds from selling a silver ETF were reinvested into several positions.
If you’re interested in what I currently hold in my portfolio, visit my website — link in the description.
| Ticker | £ Invested | |
| AGNC Investement | AGNC | 1.5 |
| BlackRock Capital Allocation Term Trust | BCAT | 25.46 |
| JPMorgan Nasdaq Equity Premium Income Active UCITS | JEPQ | 242.4 |
| Global X Superdividend | SDIP | 1.74 |
| Realty Income | O | 3 |
| Dominos | DOM | 8.5 |
| United Parcel Service | UPS | 10.5 |
| BP | BP | 9.5 |
| Canadian Natural Resources | CNQ | 17.19 |
| STAG Industrial | STAG | 24 |
| Chevron | CVX | 25 |
| Stanley Black & Decker | SWK | 16 |
| Bank of Montreal | BMO | 24 |
| Exxon Mobil | XOM | 25 |
| Johnson & Johnson | JNJ | 27 |
| Nucor | NUE | 50 |
| Altria | MO | 9 |
| iSharess UK Dividend | IUKD | 25 |
| Coca-Cola | KO | 25 |
| Mc Donald’s | MCD | 26.87 |
| Imperial Brands | IMB | 10 |
| HSBC | HSBA | 23.54 |
| National Grid | NG | 7 |
| J Sainsbury | SBRY | 4 |
| British American Tobacco | BATS | 5 |
| United Utilities | UU | 6 |
| TOTAL | 652.2 |
In February 2026, I received a total of £2.73 in dividends. Even though the amount is not impressive, I’m satisfied with this passive income.
What if I had invested everything into VUAG or VWRP?
Let’s compare what would have happened if all the money I invested into my dividend income stream had instead gone into VUAG (S&P500) or VWRP (FTSE All-World UCITS ETF).
To be clear – I am not sponsored by Vanguard, and the fact that I reference their ETFs is purely coincidental.
At the moment, it looks like the best return would have come from VWRP. I’m giving myself one year to observe these three instruments. However, I must admit — receiving dividend payment notifications is extremely satisfying.
Financial Freedom – Report
Status as of 01.03.2026
As the name of my channel suggests, my main goal is achieving financial freedom. At this stage, that means £1,000 of passive income per month.
To generate £1,000 per month using the 4% rule, I need £300,000 invested.
Now some numbers:
Workplace pension: £56,161
All other investments + dividend income stream: £16,464
Total: £72,625
My latest target date is my 57th birthday in October 2036 — represented by the red line.
The yellow line shows my £1k goal.
The blue line represents where I am now and when I will reach £1k (the intersection with the yellow line) — assuming I continue buying my freedom the way I have been doing so far.
According to the latest calculations, I have already bought 24.2% of my financial freedom. Theoretically, I should reach my goal on 28.07.2033 — 3 years and 3 months earlier than planned. That’s in 7 years and 5 months. I hope this timeline will shorten significantly because I intend to increase income from all possible sources I’m building.
There is another path to my financial freedom — building a bridge between my current situation and age 57, when I gain access to my workplace pension. My calculations show that on 28.03.2031 I will have 67 months left until that moment. In other words, at that point I would need £67,000 to withdraw £1,000 per month and meet that condition. And It looks that this is going to be possible to happen.
So theoretically — 5 years and 1 month from now. Exciting!!!
And how is it going for you? Is AI already breathing down your neck?
Let me know in the comments.
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