April 2025 Dividend Income Update

Lots happened in the past month. The stock market plummeted suddenly because of the President Trump’s decision to add tariffs and then pausing them and then starting them again (I lost track), but I was quite amazed that one person can cause the world markets to change so abruptly. He must feel quite powerful.

Then Mr. Warren Buffett announced in the Berkshrie Hathaway Annual General Meeting that he is planning to retire at the end of the year 2025. He would be 95 years old when he retires. Somehow I can’t really imagine him wearing a floral Hawaiian shirt sitting on a lounge chair on a tropical beach enjoying his retirement. I’m still so grateful that we decided to go to the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting in 2016, it would have been nice to go this year but it’s hard to go with two active kids in tow.

Then, a few days ago, I was bending down to help my daughter clip her fingernails when I heard a loud POP and felt sudden back pain and spasm. I think I strained my back and even turning in bed or getting up out of bed was quite the ordeal. Another reminder that without health, wealth is nothing. Well, wealth could buy you a private helper to do things that you are not able to accomplish but it’s still not your health back. I kept thinking to myself, I am grateful that this is not chronic and that it will resolve itself in a few days.

Again, money gives you more options but it doesn’t give you your health (unless you are that interesting individual Bryan Johnson who spends upwards of $2,000,000 to attempt to reverse aging).

Another reminder that life is short and to not wait for the ‘perfect time’ to follow your dreams. I recently watched a movie called “Like a Rolling Stone” about a woman in her 50’s who dedicated her life to her family (not being allowed to go to college, forgoing a career and raising her daughter, cooking meals for her verbally abusive husband, and then taking care of her twin grandsons) and she couldn’t take it anymore. She had put off seeing her high school friends for 30+ years and then had enough and decided to go on a road trip and focus on her own happiness. It’s a true story.

Being a woman is difficult, especially a woman in the thick of motherhood. Packing lunches, doing laundry, making dinner, cleaning the house. Relentless chores and tasks to be done to maintain the household. There is little time, energy, and mental capacity for yourself.

So stack that dividend income and investment portfolio, but don’t forget to follow your dreams in the meantime.

If you like to track your dividend income like I do, here’s a free dividend tracker spreadsheet download for you. I find it motivating to keep track of your numbers and continue to see a positive trajectory.

April 2025 Dividend Income Update

My goal for 2025 is to have at least $39,000 annually of dividend income.

Here’s my March 2025 Dividend Income Update if you want to look at my dividend portfolio from last month.  The forward annual yield at that time was $38,297

A few notes: I leave the US dividends received/ estimated as a 1:1 US and CAD dollar exchange to keep thing simple.

My April 2025 Forward Dividend Income is $38422 and this is a 0.3% increase from last month, or a $125 increase in annual dividend income.

My “hourly rate” is now $4.39 whether I’m eating or sleeping or cleaning my stove.

Or the rate is $18.47/hour if I was working a 40 hour work week, which means my dividend income covers a minimum wage salary.

On June 1, 2024 the minimum wage in BC increased to $17.40/hr and will increase to $17.85/hr on June 1 2025.

Way to go passive income!

Here’s my screenshot chart from Wealthica below on my 12 month performance relative to VTI and VEQT as of December 1, 2024. As of December 29, 2024 I was still beating the S&P500.

To get to this page, log into Wealthica and click on “add-ons” then click on “Performance Report” in the drop down box. You’ll be able to see how your portfolio compares to the S&P/TSX and the S&P 500 (but it doesn’t include the dividends).

Personally, I think it’s not a bad idea to keep track of how your portfolio compares to the benchmark indices, because if you have 75 different Canadian dividend paying companies and your return over the years is only 4% compounded annually then you might want to think about changing your investment strategy.

Comparing my own portfolio to the benchmark (and being appalled at the measly return) is what prompted me to switch to at least 50% of my portfolio in ETFs a few years ago and since then my portfolio has been doing better total growth-wise.

My April 2024 forward dividend income was $35,138 and my April 2025 forward dividend income is $38,422 so the YoY increase is 9.3%.

Here’s how my forward dividend yield looks like compared to the last few years, it has definitely slowed down recently. Sorry the chart looks ugly.

You can read my Wealthica review here if you’re interested in it. It’s not free anymore but it still provides good value for the cost.

I love it as it works especially well with my Questrade accounts because of the API access and the graphing capabilities of Wealthica are much better than what you would just get with Questrade.

Unfortunately Passiv Elite is not free for Questrade users anymore, but Questrade Plus users only (you have to pay a monthly fee for this service).

If you prefer your own spreadsheet instead, and you’re interested in getting your own dividend income spreadsheet tracker, sign up for a free download here.

DIVIDENDS RECEIVED

I like tracking upcoming payments and ex-dividend dates using the Dividend Pro App. I just renewed for another year and they increased the price, it’s now $17.50 or so for a year but I think it’s worth it so I can keep myself updated regarding dividend payments and changes.

Wealthica also has a free add-on called “Income Investor Lite” and you can choose to see the Income Calendar, Dividend Holdings, and Upcoming Payments with a subscription of $9.99/year.

You can do a free trial of the upgraded income investor lite (no credit card needed) for seven days.

The upgraded version has an income calendar showing you the upcoming payments.

Also it shows you the dividends paid (in total), and forward yearly dividends expected including the current dividend yield and your yield on cost (in the paid version).

The free version shows you an income chart of the last 12 months of payments and the forward 12 months of payments expected, however the forward 12 months doesn’t seem accurate.

I like it because you don’t have to manually update any holdings when you make changes to the number of shares you own etc. however, I don’t like that you can’t see it on the phone (and it’s just on desktop).

Therefore, I’ll stick to Dividend Pro for now.

Here are the companies and ETFs that paid dividends and distributions in April 2025. It was an above average paying month.

• Telus (T.TO)
• Altria (MO)
• TD (TD.TO)
• Vanguard ex-Canada ETF (VXC.TO)
• iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT (XRE.TO)
• Riocan Real Estate Investment (REI.UN.TO)

DIVIDEND PORTFOLIO CHANGES

Here are some changes to the portfolio in April:

• I got more Vanguard ex-Canada ETF (VXC.TO)- double the usual amount since the markets were in such turmoil in early April

Here are some of my favourite five Canadian dividend stocks if you’re interested. One of them has been a triple bagger for me, returning over 350%.

Keep calm and keep the snowball rolling!