After our financial epiphany in 2011, Mrs. T and I made a conscious decision that would change our lives – we stopped utilizing GICs and mutual funds to build up our investment portfolio and started building a dividend portfolio. Initially, we started with four individual dividend stocks and received a total of $675.21 in dividend income in 2011.
That was the beginning of our dividend growth journey.
Since the creation of this blog in August 2014, I have been posting dividend income updates every single month. This was my way to demonstrate it is possible to build up a sizable dividend portfolio that would generate a dividend income that we could live off from one day. This was also my way to keep myself accountable and be transparent to readers.
Talking and writing about investment theories and strategies is one thing; it’s way more valuable when I can back it up with real actions, real numbers, real setbacks, real successes, real mistakes, and real progress.
This page is a complete record of our dividend growth investing journey. I have decided to post data since 2011 and link every single monthly dividend income report I have posted. This way, readers can click through and read what was happening in our portfolio and our lives at any point along our journey.
The charts below also shows actual and real progress of how our dividend income has grown since 2011. The bars looked extremely small initially but our dividend income has compounded and the dividend snowball has grown, especially over the last few years.
Annual Dividend Income Growth
2026* = January only (goal: $72,000). All amounts CAD · USD dividends reported at 1:1 rate
Year-by-Year Summary
← scroll on mobile if needed
| Year | Annual Total | YoY Growth | Year-End Post |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | $675.21 | — | Pre-blog era |
| 2012 | $2,484.37 | +267.94% | Pre-blog era |
| 2013 | $5,456.20 | +119.62% | Pre-blog era |
| 2014 | $8,362.30 | +53.26% | Dec 2014 → |
| 2015 | $10,318.02 | +23.39% | Dec 2015 → |
| 2016 | $12,559.74 | +21.66% | Dec 2016 → |
| 2017 | $14,834.38 | +18.08% | Dec 2017 → |
| 2018 | $18,734.29 | +26.28% | Dec 2018 → |
| 2019 | $23,049.16 | +23.03% | Dec 2019 → |
| 2020 | $26,975.01 | +17.07% | Dec 2020 → |
| 2021 | $30,912.20 | +14.60% | Dec 2021 → |
| 2022 | $42,305.81 | +36.86% | Dec 2022 → |
| 2023 | $50,189.07 | +18.65% | Dec 2023 → |
| 2024 | $57,412.72 | +14.39% | Dec 2024 → |
| 2025 | $64,838.46 | +12.93% | Dec 2025 → |
| 2026 Live | $13,560.23 (Jan – Feb only) | Goal: $72k | Feb 2026 → |
All dividend income is reported in Canadian dollars. US-dollar dividends are included at a 1:1 USD:CAD rate — consistent across all years to track investing progress rather than currency movement. The 2026 row reflects January only and will be updated monthly.
Some context about our journey
It’s very neat to look at our progress over the year and one thing particularly stands out for me – how much we have compounded. The early years were slow. It was hard to get any momentum going. But as our dividend income got bigger, the compounding effect was getting bigger and bigger. So it’s like rolling down a “dividend snowball” down the hill – the snowball is small initially but gets bigger and faster as it rolls down the hill.
Some additional notes:
2020: COVID year, the market crashed hard and at one point our portfolio dropped by $250k on paper. That was very scary. But we knew we are in it for the long run. Rather than panicking and selling stocks, we save as much as we could, moved money around, and bought a lot of stocks that were on sale. Looking back, this was a once-in-a-lifetime buying opportunity we needed.
2021-2022: We continued to save a lot of continue to buy a lot of stocks. This led to the biggest YoY since 2014 at 36.68%. Organic dividend growth also helped – by then dividend hikes from the likes of Enbridge or Royal Bank were adding hundreds of dollars to our forward annual dividend income without us having to lift a finger.
2025: We exceeded $60,000 in dividend income, covering more than 100% of our core expenses.
Monthly Income Reports — Complete Archive
Every post published since the blog launched in July 2014. Click any month to read the full update — which stocks paid, dividend hike announcements, and what we bought or sold.
The blog didn’t exist yet, but the investing did. We started with 4 stocks in 2011 and received $675 that year. Full annual totals for 2011–2013 are in the summary table above. For the origin story, read our dividend portfolio re-examination post, which covers the early years in detail.
What this page is really about
Why did I create this page? It’s one thing for someone on the internet to write about the power of dividend compounding. It’s another thing to actually publish real and actual numbers, month after month, year after year. Basically, we want to use this page to show what we have been doing.
When I look at our dividend income from 2011 or even 2014, the amount seems extremely small. If your dividend income is at the similar level, please don’t get discouraged. It takes time to build up your dividend income. We had the same dividend growth investing strategy in 2011 and today. The strategy didn’t change, we were being patient and let the compounding do its magic over time.
Are you new to dividend investing? Start with our beginner’s guide to dividend investing and the dividends overview page. To follow along in real time, subscribe to the newsletter below — every new monthly report goes to subscribers first.
