Been looking at some solid passive income plays lately, and I keep coming back to two names that really stand out in the monthly dividend space.

First up is EPR Properties. What caught my attention was their recent 5.1% dividend bump - that's meaningful when you're talking about monthly payouts. They're a REIT that focuses on experiential stuff like theaters, golf resorts, and theme parks. The beauty of their model is the long-term net leases they use, which means tenants handle all the maintenance and operating costs. That creates incredibly stable cash flow.

What's interesting is they're only paying out about 70% of their funds from operations as dividends, keeping the rest to reinvest. That's smart capital allocation. They're planning to drop $400-500 million into new properties this year, up significantly from last year's $288.5 million. If they can maintain that 5%+ FFO growth they just demonstrated, we should see continued dividend increases. The yield is sitting above 6% now, which is pretty attractive for a monthly dividend stock.

Then there's Realty Income. This one's been absolutely relentless - they've raised their dividend every single quarter for 113 quarters straight. That's nearly three decades of consistency. Current yield is around 4.9%, and they're planning to invest at least $8 billion this year to expand their portfolio. They own retail, industrial, gaming properties - all backed by long-term leases with major companies.

What I find compelling about both of these top monthly dividend stocks is that they're not just paying high yields, they're actually growing them. Realty Income raised their payout by 2.9% last year and maintains a 75% payout ratio, giving them room to keep that streak alive. With a $14 trillion addressable market, they've got plenty of runway.

If you're serious about building passive income streams that actually keep pace with inflation, these two are worth digging into. Both recently guided for solid 2026 performance, so the outlook looks decent from here. The monthly dividend structure alone makes them worth considering if you're trying to smooth out your cash flow throughout the year.