Unwrap Growing Monthly Income This Holiday Season

The holiday season is synonymous with gift-giving, discounts, and finding value where others might overlook it. Shoppers patiently wait for sales, knowing that buying quality items at reduced prices makes the experience even sweeter. Yet when it comes to investing, many people abandon that same discipline, often chasing what’s popular instead of what’s priced attractively. This is where income investors can gain a meaningful edge.

Just as retailers entice customers with seasonal sales, the market occasionally offers its own version of bargains. As income investors, we seek sources of undervalued income assets that pay like clockwork while you wait for sentiment to improve. 

Monthly-paying investments are particularly appealing during times of uncertainty. They smooth cash flow, reduce reliance on market timing, and allow for effective compounding while helping you handle real-life expenses. 

At High Dividend Opportunities, we believe income should be both reliable and growing. Today, we discuss our top picks that recently raised their dividends, strongly indicating that it pays to be patient, and that investing in high-yielding securities doesn’t mean sacrificing growth.

Pick 1: O – Yield 5.6%

Realty Income (O) is one of the largest retail-focused REITs in the world, with 15,542 properties in nine countries, with Triple-Net Lease agreements with 1,647 tenants, operating across 92 industries. At the end of Q3, 31.5% of its tenants were investment-grade.

O continues to focus on expanding in the European markets, making ~$1 billion in acquisitions, and taking advantage of lower cost capital, while bringing the YTD acquisition total to $3.9 billion at a 7.7% weighted average cap rate.

Realty Income maintains a fortress A- balance sheet, with $3.5 billion of liquidity, and 93.5% fixed-rate debt. The REIT ended Q3 with a 98.5% occupancy rate. The REIT reported higher rent recapture on new leases, and  narrowed their 2025 AFFO guidance to $4.25 - $4.27/share. 

O recently raised its monthly dividend to $0.27/share, representing a 5.6% annualized yield.

Pick 2: RQI – Yield 9.4%

Cohen & Steers Quality Income Realty Fund (RQI) is a REIT-focused Closed-End Fund with ~ 47% of its assets invested in healthcare, telecom, data center, and industrials. The CEF’s top ten holdings represent the best-in-class REITs in their respective subsectors. 

RQI is actively managed, and uses leverage in its strategy. This is the key to the CEF’s outperformance against passively managed ETFs despite operating in economic conditions that have been unfavorable to the REIT industry.

RQI trades at a ~7% discount to NAV, marking among the deepest discount levels in the past five years. As of June 30, 2025, RQI reported $122 million in realized gains. a sum that equals an entire year’s distributions. It doesn’t come as a surprise that the CEF raised its monthly distribution by $0.01 to $0.09/share, and announced a special distribution of $0.13, payable on January 6th.

Conclusion

Income investing doesn’t have to be complicated; all it requires is discipline, selectivity, and patience. By focusing on undervalued and overlooked opportunities with strong cash flows, investors can position themselves to collect reliable income while allowing long-term value to be unlocked. Let the regular income quietly do the work for your financial future.

At High Dividend Opportunities, this is exactly what we do every day. We work towards building and maintaining a portfolio designed to pay —month after month, regardless of market noise. We focus on value, income durability, and long-term results.

This holiday season, consider giving yourself a gift that keeps paying long after the decorations come down. Use the market discounts to start building an income stream designed to support your financial goals—one dependable dividend at a time.