Investing in an accelerating dividend is one of the best ways to consistently increase your wealth over the long-term. With these three stocks expected to increase their dividends in May, now is a great time to add them to your portfolio.

My investing strategies for dividend stocks all focus on finding, owning, and trading dividend paying stocks that regularly, or irregularly, increase their dividend rate. You can put some extra pop into your brokerage account values by purchasing shares of growing dividend stocks before they come out with their next dividend increase announcement.

The real estate investment trust (REIT) sector includes a large number of companies that pay growing dividends combined with enticing yields. Most REITs announce a new, higher dividend rate once a year and then pay the new rate for the next four quarters. I maintain a REIT database that includes when the companies typically announce dividend increases as one of the data points.

A month to six weeks before the next dividend announcement is often a good time to buy or add shares of a REIT that you expect to announce a higher dividend payment for the next quarterly payout. When the market sees the higher rate, the share price often moves higher, and it can be a significant gain to the upside. You can use this information to either buy shares to hold for the longer-term at a lower price or as an intermediate term trade with the goal of making a profit on the typical high single-digit to low double-digit share price gain that often comes with a higher dividend announcement. In many cases the share price will continue to appreciate until just before the next ex-dividend date.

The first three months of the year and the final three are the periods when dividend increase activity is highest. However, there are REITs that announce new rates almost every month of the year, with only a few increase announcements in the summer months of June and July. For May, my database has three REITs that have historically announced new, higher dividend rates.