Hello, returning and new readers for another monthly dividend update (remember, you can sign up for the Tawcan Newsletter so you don’t miss any new posts and updates).
This marks the 146th monthly update (wow!) since we started this blog in July 2014. Where did the time go? It’s really hard to believe that I have chronicled our financial independence journey for so long already.
At the time of writing, we own 35 individual dividend stocks and index ETFs.
Why a mix of individual dividend stocks and index ETFs?
We own individual dividend stocks so we can continue strengthening and improving our stock analysis. Holding individual dividend stocks also provides us with a predictable and growing income.
We own two low-cost index ETFs, the iShares Core MSCI AC World ex Canada Idx ETF (XAW.TO) for diversification reasons, and the Invesco NASDAQ 100 ETF for tech and higher growth exposure.
We believe in keeping investment strategy simple such that we can explain it to any kid in under five minutes.
We don’t speculate, we don’t play with options, and we certainly don’t own any high-yield covered call ETFs. We believe in slowly building up our dividend portfolio to ensure a stable and growing dividend income.
In August, we went for a quick one-week family trip in Ontario. Flying in Toronto meant we could quickly tour this major Canadian city for a day. We checked out the Hockey Hall of Fame and walked around downtown Toronto. Both kids were very excited to see and touch the Stanley Cup.
Mrs. T also had two separate gallery shows for her pottery. It was neat to see her pieces on display.
Per my 2026 goals and resolutions, I spent some time on the beach taking long exposure pictures. It was interesting and fun to take long exposure pictures in the midafternoon using multiple ND filters. Most of the pictures I took had an exposure time of longer than 5 minutes; some were over 8 minutes. I was relatively happy with how some of the pictures turned out
Dividend Income – August 2026
In August, we received dividend paycheques from the following companies:
- Apple (AAPL)
- AbbVie (ABBV)
- Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO)
- Costco (COST)
- Emera (EMA.TO)
- Granite REIT (GRT.UN)
- National Bank (NA.TO)
- Royal Bank (RY.TO)
- SmartCentres REIT (SRU.UN)
- Waste Connections (WCN.TO)
These ten dividend payouts added up to $4,400.40.
Since August is one of the weaker dividend income months for us, I was very pleased to receive over $4,000 in dividends. Looking back, February and May are also the weaker months, but we received over $4,000 as well. I believe we will get a similar amount in November as well.
It’s nice to know that our “weaker” months are resulting in at least $4k worth of dividend income.
Compared to August 2025, we saw a YoY increase of 11.47%. A respectable number, but it is the second lowest YoY growth so far in 2026. However, if we average the growth rate from January to August, we are seeing a 20.5% YoY growth. Since most of our dividend growth so far comes from investment of new cash, it shows our high savings rate has paid off.
Dividend Hikes
Just like June, we didn’t see any dividend hikes from stocks that we hold in our dividend portfolio.
Since we can’t control whether or not company boards approve dividend hikes, we can only focus on what we can control – invest in high quality companies that have consistently raised their dividend payouts. For the most part, all the stocks we own have done that (with the exception of BCE and Telus in recent years).
If we exclude last month’s dividend cut from Telus, we have increased our forward annual dividend income by $2,301.73. At 4% dividend yield, that’s equivalent to investing $57,543.25 in new capital. So yes, dividend hikes or organic dividend growth is extremely important, especially when your portfolio and dividend income become quite sizable.
Dividend Reinvestment Plans
We now only drip in TFSAs and no longer drip in RRSPs and taxable accounts. We are doing this because we are building up our cash wedge for eventual early retirement in a few years’ time.
We plan to use the cash wedge to pay for our expenses and the dividend income we receive each month will replenish the cash wedge. If everything works as we planned and structured, the cash wedge amount will grow so we will always have some cash buffer.
In August, we dripped the following shares:
- 1.1954 shares of Bank of Montreal
- 0.5205 shares of Emera
- 0.4504 shares of Granite REIT
- 1.157 shares of National Bank
- 6.7819 shares of SmartCentres REIT
In total, 10.1052shares were dripped with $819.45 out of $4,400.40 invested right away.
More importantly, we increased our forward annual dividend by $29.96. It’s not a lot of money but everything counts, right?
Stock Transactions
With the Iran-US and Russia-Ukraine wars continuing to rage on and the US-Canada trade policy uncertainty continuing, the stock market was quite volatile throughout August.
Despite the Canadian banks pulling back quite a bit in mid to late August, the share prices were still close to the respectable 52-week highs. In other words, I do not believe the Canadian banks are at a bargain price yet.
So with some money available to utilize and take advantage of the market volatility, I decided to purchase the following:
- 165.0311 shares of Brookfield Renewable Corporation (BEPC.TO)
- 0.5554 shares of Alphabet (GGOL)
I decided to purchase more BEPC shares to increase its weight in our portfolio. BEPC’s share price has suffered quite a bit in the last year, with the stock trading close to a 52-week low. Since BEPC has Brookfield’s solid backing, I believe the stock will be OK over the long term. Buying some shares close to a 52-week low is a way to take advantage of the discounted share price.
These purchases increased our forward annual dividend income by $306.32.
Dividend Scorecard – August 2026
Here’s our dividend scorecard for August 2026:
Overall, August was a solid month for us despite no dividend hikes.
Looking ahead for the rest of 2026
We continue to save for next year’s TFSA contribution room (I anticipate the 2027 contribution room will be $7,500 per eligible person). At the same time, if we see buying opportunities, we won’t be shy in deploying some cash.
The Canadian banks have had a fantastic run since January 2025. With so many uncertainties with the Canadian economy (US-Canada trade policy, global energy volatility, slowing immigration, high household debt, and the AI boom, to name a few), I suspect the Canadian banks will return to earth for the remainder of the year. This could be true for the other sectors too.
Despite saying that, it is very possible that we will finish the year with a very positive bang, if more positive events were to happen and improve investors’ confidence. Maybe the AI boom will continue for many years to come and really drive the global economy.
I can’t predict the future and never will. Having done DIY investing for close to 20 years, I have learned that it’s more important to control what I can control:
- Spend less than we earn (i.e. living below our means)
- Increase savings gaps whenever we can
- Invest in high-quality stocks and low-cost index ETFs regularly
Rinse and repeat. It doesn’t get simpler than that.
You don’t need complicated investing strategies; you don’t need to use leverage only to increase your risk; you don’t need to be glued to the computer all day looking at the stock market.
Keep it simple and enjoy your life!
Summary – Dividend Income August 2026 Update
After eight months, we have received $53,250.50 in dividend income. As expected, we officially exceeded the 2023 annual dividend amount ($50,189.07). We are also not too far from the annual dividend amount from 2024 ($57,412.72).
I’ll be honest. It’s funny to see our dividend income from 2011, which is A LOT smaller than what we are getting nowadays. It just shows that our hard work over the years has paid off and we continue to build up our dividend income so we can live off dividends in the not-so-distant future.
To put things in perspective, $53,250.50 after eight months is equivalent to:
- $219.14 per day or $9.13 per hour that our dividend portfolio is generating for us, regardless of what we’re doing
- $1,479.18 per week or $36.98 per hour of working wage after 36 working weeks
Mrs. T and I continue to feel grateful and appreciative of what we have created for ourselves since our financial epiphany in 2011. We are very glad that we started our financial independence journey years ago.
How was your August dividend income?
