September 2025 Dividend Income Update
Hey Fans!
Welcome to our latest update: our September 2025 dividend income update.
A reminder for anyone new to the site, this is a standing monthly series related to our hybrid investing approach – an approach I’ve been using for about 16 years now.
We invest this way:
- We invest in mostly Canadian stocks that deliver growing dividend income to us as shareholders, and
- We invest in a couple of low-cost equity ETFs for extra diversifcation.
September 2025 Dividend Income Update
Since I shared my last income update in early September, a few things have changed now that it’s early October.
- My wife retired from work (I continue to work part-time),
- I purchased a bit more Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ),
- We earned a small 1% raise from Emera (EMA), and
- I increased our cash wedge slightly for 2026 and 2027 retirement spending plans. More on that in a bit.
Year to date, despite the market volatility that arrived in early October, it’s been a stellar investing year.
Again, I certainly didn’t see these market returns coming so far in 2025, but I will gladly take them after 2023 and 2024 were “big years” as well. These returns have juiced our confidence (and capital) we can retire early.
I hope your portfolio has done well too…
September 2025 Dividend Income Update
Like I’ve shared a few times on this site in recent months, most of our assets are now positioned for upcoming withdrawals. We are making the shift from savers to spenders. I’m planning to retire myself in the spring of 2026. While things can always change with work, new offers, new opportunities, etc. it looks that way. 🙂
Related to our cash wedge, we’ve positioned our RRSPs now to ensure at least 2 years’ worth of cash withdrawals can start in 2026, for that year, and for 2027 as well. Along with those RRSP withdrawals, I plan to take money out of my corporation to meet spending needs. Finally, we also have some cash savings set aside for discretionary spending (local trips/daytrips and future international travel if we choose to do that).
So, 2026 spending as part our transition year into retirement will be funded via something like this:
- cash savings +
- corporation withdrawals +
- RRSP withdrawals.
We will continue to keep a small emergency fund beyond 1, 2, and 3 above.
Also of note, we will not be touching our capital in 2026 nor 2027.
I’ll breakdown more spending plans when we get there – next year.
For the rest of the 2025 calendar year, we’re unlikely to purchase any more stocks although I am looking to max out our TFSAs for January 2026.
The income moved higher this month mainly with thanks to the CNQ purchase along with this low-cost ETF that continues to DRIP every month, to deliver lazy global growth inside my LIRA since I’ve owned it in 2020.
Even without any further purchases in 2025, the dividend income might move higher in the coming months thanks to some upcoming, potential, dividend increases from TD, CBIC, Enbridge and Fortis later this fall/early winter.
Do you hold any of these stocks like I do for income and growth?
And, last but not least, I hope to share some news about my wife’s LIRA ** we will invest in (now that she is retired and is in the process setting up that account for more income needs).
Cheers to cashflow!
We shall see of course…
September 2025 Dividend Income Update
Add it all up amongst a few moving parts in recent months and things are coming together nicely for higher cashflow later this year.
This is our *projected annual dividend income for the ** 2025 calendar year:
*Recall these projected annual dividend income (PADI) updates on my site focus on 1. our non-registered accounts x2, 2. our RRSPs x2, and 3. my small LIRA from a former job years ago. This cashflow does not include any TFSAs or my corporation or my future workplace DB pension. I’m far too young to include any government benefits.
** I will include my wife’s LIRA in this tally when that is funded and invested in a few months.
I also continue to share this information not to brag. Hardly. I know some retirees that earn over $100,000 per year from their portfolio!! Rather, I share these updates to tell a big part of our investing and retirement income journey in hopes income planning can help you too.
You can always read some questions and answers about this journey on my FAQs page.
In context, this means we are projected to earn almost $4,500 per month from part of our portfolio doing nothing. Upcoming dividend raises should push our income higher in a few months alone.
I’ll keep you posted as we progress but it seems almost assured we’ll surpass our revised target of $54,000 in a few months.
Happy income investing to you as well.
Mark
Hey Mark.
I am going to ask you a couple of questions and hoping other readers would benefit from ir.
I have a substantial amount of USD ” floating around ” .
I have maxed out my TSFA and my RRSP ‘s so it will go to a Non-Registered Account.
I would like to keep this account in USD as a “rainy day account ” and use it sporadically.
I am looking for various alternatives as where to invest these monies taking into account the most advantageous vehicle so the interest accrued yearly would be not be considered as personal income and bring up my income bracket way up. Essentially tax optimization.
I am an avid reader of your posts and I appreciate how you take the time to answer everyone.
Additionally, I had followed how you invested in ETF’s and stocks (Enbridge, Tou, Brookfield, XAW.etc)
Henry
Hey Henry, very nice to hear from you!
No problem with “rainy day” USD money. 🙂
Of note, any interest earned in a taxable account is taxable – just the nature of the account. Have you seen this post:
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/weekend-reading-taxation-of-income/
Big fan of those stocks, not advice on this site, but I own all of that myself: ENB, TOU, BN and XAW and I don’t see myself selling any of that anytime soon since it delivers both income, growing income and capital gains.
Back to you….
As a Canadian resident, you are required to report your worldwide income to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), which includes all U.S. sourced money. The U.S. money must be converted to Canadian dollars for tax purposes, and a foreign tax credit can generally be claimed to avoid double taxation
Now, the other challenge with substantial USD money in a taxable account is Foreign reporting with CRA too:
Foreign Property Reporting (T1135): If you own “specified foreign property” with a total cost of more than CAD $100,000 at any time during the year (including U.S. bank accounts and securities not held in Canadian registered accounts), you must file Form T1135, Foreign Income Verification Statement, even if it doesn’t generate income.
See that link – interest, dividends, and capital gains are fully taxable in Canada.
On top of this…the U.S. has withholding tax on dividends (usually 15% with a W-8BEN form completed at your brokerage). Capital gains are usually not taxed in the U.S. unless from U.S. real property. An Foreign Tax Credit can be claimed for U.S. withholding taxes.
All said, having lots of USD money in a taxable account is a bit messy…
Not advice! 🙂
Mark
Hi Lloyd,
The government student loan is interest free and she has been told by cra that her minimum payment is 230$ per month. She has 9 years max to pay it back but she will pay it off as quickly as she can. There are no other benefits to this loan other than it being interest free.
20,000 is not bad of a student loan considering she has a 4 year degree. She worked hard to only borrow 20,000 as her parents were unable to contribute.
In her tfsa, she invested in 3 Canadian dividend stocks and did ok on her investments. She wasn’t sure if she should continue with her tfsa contributions or contribute only to her student loan.
g’ morning JB
Given the parameters, I’d tend to split the $500. Half to loan, half to TFSA. If the income to fund this is rock solid, I’d likely go with equity investments and take advantage of the interest free loan and compounding/growth. No harm in paying back deflated dollars as time goes by. But I can also see the emotional advantage of paying off debt when the market seems to be at its all time high and interest rates are low. It all comes down to how she feels about it. All the best to her in any case.
Thank you.
Most welcome. I just feel debt is an anchor, i.e., something that holds younger people back financially and an emotional burden if not dealt with. So, win-win when debt is paid off.
Doing so also builds good/smart money habits for the future. Lots of benefits in my book.
The path I took when I had $10k of debt as a young 20-something was to kill it off aggressively while I saved slowly, inside my RRSP.
In those early days, I started with saving just $25 per month. It wasn’t much but it allowed me to put in habits that I continue 30 years later and now financially independent.
Food for thought!
My best to you and your daughter.
Mark
Hi Mark ~
Thanks as always for a great read, and congratulations to your wife on her retirement!! Hope you both enjoy this new phase. Regarding your observation that “The income moved higher this month mainly with thanks to the CNQ purchase along with this low-cost ETF that continues to DRIP every month, to deliver lazy global growth inside my LIRA since I’ve owned it in 2020.” — I tried without success to follow the link to discover what the low-cost, monthly-DRIPping ETF is that you refer to in your LIRA — my best guess is that it’s HEQT.TO, but the dates don’t seem to fit. Would you mind please clarifying which ETF you’re referring to? Many thanks, Barbara
Thanks, Barbara and you nailed it. I own a bunch of HEQT in my LIRA – since 2010 and will continue to own it for some lazy, global, growth.
I will be accessing that LIRA to LIF money in a few years.
Otherwise, beyond my HEQT ETF, I just tend to hold XAW ETF for ex-Canada long-term growth. Been buying that since 2016 in fact.
I will update this post in the coming year for sure, once fully retired:
https://www.myownadvisor.ca/how-we-invest/
Thanks for your question! 🙂
Mark
Don’t quite agree with your “cash wedge’ philosophy but to each their own.
My “cash wedge” is having the min withdrawal available funds in my LIF which go to my TFSA in Jan and the rest to cash in a non registered portfolio. The LIF funds are available now for 2026 so as more divs accumulate they can sit there for the following year (2027) or if they bother me too much they may be applied to more stock within the LIF. After all, I have two years to accumulate the necessary minimum funds for 2027 from this date (today)
The RIF is a bit different as I am endeavouring to do as Mark above and adjust withdrawals to the max out the tax bracket.
Again, left over funds get shoveled off to the non-reg portfolio
The non registered portfolio was/is my cash wedge if something major pops up i.e. travel, major house expense ect., ect.
I didn’t see any reason why I should just sit on “cash” when I can put it to work earning me some more dinaro by my favorite means – DIVIDENDS. This has been a big month for this portfolio – > $1.2K
I agree that as an “invested” cash wedge it is riskier and more volatile than outright cash but so far so good.
Trying hard to spend more lately. Big cruise coming next year but I still don’t have to sell off anything to cover it.
Time catches up to you Mark! The older you get the less likely you are to overspend your savings, partially because they will continue to snowball .Enjoy the rewards of your labours as much as you can. Time will catch up to you at some point.
RICARDO
All good my friend…you don’t have to invest the way I do! 🙂
My cash wedge is really a buffer against bad things happening to good people – in this case, a few dividend cuts/decrease to my cashflow for us until about early 2028 or so whereby I believe all portfolio income from all invested sources (LIRAs/LIFs, RRSPs/RRIFs, taxable accounts, TFSAs, etc.) will be > expenses.
This means, the cashflow coming in even without my future workplace pension, future CPP, future OAS will cover all our expenses. That’s the plan for 2028 so if I can live off cash/cash equivalents in the meantime and let the portfolio grow a bit in 2026-2027 (? who knows if that will happen) then we should be “OK”.
Not quite there yet but certainly approaching $55k per year in just a few accounts is not too bad.
In a few years, I might be like you whereby I don’t need as much cash/cash equivalents since cashflow is always coming in. Who knows? I will keep you posted!
Mark
We are focused on total returns and don’t do “dividend investing”.
That said, I still track dividends and interest. Its mainly for tax preparation (or so I tell myself). I am thinking of retiring in 2030, which is when I will be 60, so no need to generate cash flow. In fact, I try to reduce cash generated from within the portfolio to minimize the effort of reinvesting and reduce taxes (eg by using ZDB and ZST.L).
But my spreadsheet still spits out total divs/interest for the year (from all accounts) and I admit that it feels good to see it grow passed 6 digits even if my brain tells me: “ignore”.
Great stuff.
I will be retired in 2026…early 50s and we’ll see if I work again. I might!
Age 60 seems to be a nice target and whether you earn income from stocks via dividends or sales, all good. Income is income.
It is my hope our portfolio via a mix of dividends and stock sales will eventually generate ~ $100k per year. I will have some government benefits on top of that (CPP and OAS). That should provide for a decent lifestyle.
Continued success to you!
Mark
Yes, same to you.
I tried to ‘retire” at 52 with the intention of living off investments and pensions but ended up working as a consultant and it became full time within 6 months of “retiring”. Took away the pain of admin/management/having to find work for others so I can just do the interesting technical stuff for more money and less taxes. But I’ll have another go at retiring in 2030, or earlier if I stop liking work before that.
You sound like you’re in excellent financial shape, Mordko and we’ll see how things play for us – my wife and I.
My wife is now fully retired at age 52 and enjoying things so far. Never say never about work but at least we’ll have the options of working or not at all – everything we’ve tried to build for the last 20 years. 🙂
Out for a bike ride soon to enjoy the day!
Best wishes and stay in touch.
Mark
I have a question about your approach with the TFSA….over time when you may have accumulated gains…..have you sold some to get back to your book value or close to it and then repurpose the proceeds for example to buy more XAW? or have you kept on using DRIPS for your equities in the TFSA’s?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Hey Sue,
Thanks for your question. I haven’t sold anything inside the TFSA for gains. Rather, I just say invested in low-cost XAW + a mix of Canadian banks and some other socks.
DRIPs are always “ON” inside both of our TFSAs. That is not part of our income updates here.
DRIPs have been turned “OFF” inside both RRSPs and both taxable accounts. I would rather have the cash reserves build up and I can spend the dividends and distributions paid from those accounts in particular.
Thoughts?
Mark
Thanks for your perspective Mark. I have some Canadian Dividend stocks in both TFSA’s and thanks to you…..started to consider the role for XAW which is also in both (for a couple years now- yes missed some growth having not invested this ETf i there earlier than that but had this one in the corp for some time and sold it and made a gain there and did a Capital Dividend Election). With the TFSA’s, as I look at the capital gains that have accumulated with certain stocks, sometimes I think maybe it would be an option (on occasion) to pare back some of these gains and re-distribute it to buy more XAW , perhaps lets say for example …….an insurance stock has gained ++ and possibly may make up too much in % of the TFSA overall now whereas it may be an opportunity to take some of that gain and buy more XAW since even if in Jan 2026 one will add 7k again to this particular ETF and growth now is a focus…..one may be better served to take some gains and buy more XAW. . Both TFSA’s are fully funded and doing great but I also find there could be room for some fine tuning to maximize our investments there in regards to this type of transaction (not to do it all the time but perhaps occasionally). A nice problem to have I know and I am grateful to even have this scenario. All Stocks are on DRIPS as is XAW. I would welcome other members chiming in here too if they would like to join the conversation.
Lots of great low-cost ETFs out there, as you know Sue, but I’ve really enjoyed the global growth from XAW since 2016. I added more around th COVID years and I’ve kept adding more in both TFSAs in more recent years.
It’s wise I think given I own 25+ Canadian stocks and therefore I have a low-cost fund for global returns that has no Canadian content.
I’m tempted to invest another $14k for us, inside both TFSAs, in XAW for 2026. We shall see. Big fan of Brookfield (BN) and some other growthy stocks though too – might do a mix.
I know some investors are “trimming” equities now since they are up 20% for the year, they need the cash for near-term spending but that all depeneds on your income needs of course. I’m not selling anything.
You: “Both TFSA’s are fully funded and doing great…” Nice to read.
Ya, DRIPping XAW inside the TFSAs now too since we won’t need the TFSA money for another 10-20 years potentially.
With DRIPping, that’s compounding. Remember the rule on that:
Charlie Munger – “never interrupt it unnecessarily”.
So, that means letting wealth grow over the long term, DRIPping = small wins that when “left alone” over time = HUGE gains.
I suspect if you let compounding do it’s thing, 5-years, 10-years from now you’re going to have an awful lot more money.
Cheers,
Mark
Thanks Mark for your thoughts. I may decide to add both to XAW and perhaps add funds to some of the stocks that are under represented relative to the others. I can appreciate this advice about perhaps not doing any trimming because you also lose the compounding of having less stocks to drip than before. Sometimes tinkering with what’s going well isn’t a good idea. In general it would also not necessarily align with my buy and hold approaches for these TFSA’s. We don’t have an income need at this time for these accounts. I have signed up for the summit on the 22nd, hoping to learn a lot more.
Take care and all the best to you and your wife- that is quite a great milestone for her and yourself and I hope you both celebrate this in a big way !!! 🙂
Correct, trimming/selling/adjusting the portfolio usually means interrupting the compounding machine. Not ideal but retirees sometimes have no choice but to sell assets to meet their income needs.
I will eventually do the same, just not selling very much in the early retirement years.
Lots of great speakers at this year’s Summit – I have no doubt you’ll learn something and hard to beat FREE if you’re able to watch some key episodes over the next weekend within 48 hours but even if you pay for it, a very good value for all the talks.
Yes, my wife is happy and her stress is coming down. She is fortunate to retire at age 52. 🙂
Thanks for reading and following along!
Mark
Mark, have you heard about seniors getting a 10 year term insurance plan and paying premiums annually with extra funds? 10 years later the $ has doubled and is tax free? Thanks!
I have not, Dave. Do tell more?
Cheers,
Mark
Hi Mark
I’m curious, when you look to 2026 and 2027, are you taking into account tax brackets when you do your planning? For example each year we will take out enough from our RRSPs to max out our tax brackets as I am trying to lower my RRSP balances to smooth out taxes over our lifetime. For this year, as my RRSP is fairly significant, I withdrew enough to maximize the next bracket over and above our spending needs. I just hold the excess in cash for now, may invest it in my non-registered account, or simply blow it on something else. I am curious about your approach to taxes as you and your wife move fully to relying upon your savings.
Thanks for your question, Mark.
Absolutely looking at tax planning for 2025, and future years.
My thinking is to start taking out RRSP withdrawals in 2026 and 2027 as to start “smoothing out taxation” over a period of 10-20 years for spending. So, like you (?), I want to lower our collective RRSP/RRIF balances over time. That has always made sense to me and likely you as well.
I will withdraw from RRSP/RRIF such that a. I meet our spending needs over the next 20 years whereby most RRSP/RRIF assets are gone, b. I smooth out taxes, and c. I have opportunities to shift all RRSP/RRIF assets not spent each year to both TFSAs every year. That’s the plan.
RRSP/RRIF assets have to come out eventually, doesn’t mean I have to spend that money, can continue to invest some (i.e., TFSA).
Happy to get your feedback!
Mark
Hello Mark (and Mark),
I’m in a similar position wrt tax planning for retirement, which I’m currently planning for 2029 – 2031 (mid-50s), depending on career situation (including job satisfaction, work-life balance, etc.). Our combined dividend income distribution sits at 63% RRSPs, 15% TFSAs, and 22% non-reg. My wife and I are also planning to draw down RRSPs in our initial retirement years (starting with work DCPPs not included in the earlier income calculation), maintaining DRIPs in our non-reg for the first couple of years to maximize income growth. We’ll then shift to a more balanced income drawdown approach between non-reg and RRSPs, and leave our TFSAs to grow until our early 70s.
Mark – you supported us back in 2022 with your CAP projections report, and I’m pleased to say that our situation has since improved, which may allow us to retire earlier than initially planned :).
You are very kind, Justin 🙂
You did all the heavy work – saving and investing. LOL.
I think you are wise (biased a bit) to consider withdrawals from RRSPs/RRIFs while you are younger, get $$ flowing, smooth out taxation, etc.
Nothing wrong with DRIPs in your non-reg. accounts, just ensure you keep track of your adjusted cost base in case you sell something.
A mix of DCPPs, RRSP/RRIF income, non-reg. tax efficient income should treat you very, very well and leaving TFSAs a bit alone to become a few hundred $k as an emergency fund eventually would be HUGE piece of mind.
(Happy to help you again whenever you want with a 50% discount (not a typo :)) for any updated reports. Just reach out and we tend to send at least one reminder to folks 1-year after we work with them just in case. I hope you get your wish: “….I’m pleased to say that our situation has since improved, which may allow us to retire earlier than initially planned :)).
Stay in touch and continued success!
Mark
Looking for your opinion…
My daughter in law owes 20,000 on her student loan ( interest free). She invested in her tfsa for the past 3 years instead of paying money towards her student low as it was interest free. Now she is required to start paying on it. She wants to continue investing in her tfsa but I am suggesting she get rid of her student loan as quickly as possible and stop investing in her tfsa until it’s paid off. She has 500$ per month that she can afford to do one or the other or both. What’s your opinion? She has no other debt.
Humm, I’m a big fan of killing debt and investing at the same time since I did that with my mortgage for the last 15-20 years until I/we didn’t have one.
That said, when I was younger, I had about $10k of student loan debt and I killed it as much as possible since I knew then in my 20s that debt is an anchor and once I was out of (student) debt, I could start saving, investing and doing other more valuable things with my money than paying other people first.
So, if she can, I would say chip away at the TFSA investing but not at the expense of accelerating and killing the student debt.
I hope that helps including my personal student debt story.
Mark
Forgive me but I don’t know anything about student loans.
What’s the interest rate, term and is it fixed or floating on the loan? Is it deductible or tax credit generating?
And what investment is she utilizing in the TFSA?
Several variables could come into play to influence a decision.