This is what dividend investing is all about! Investing in dividend stocks can help you earn dividend income, the best passive income stream! Bias, you better believe it.
Time to dive into Lanny’s September 2025 dividend income results! Have any records been set? Almost to financial freedom? One day and one month at a time!
Dividend income
Dividend income is the fruit of investing your money in the stock market. Furthermore, dividend income is my most important tool on the path to financial freedom.
How can I research and screen dividend stocks before purchasing? I use our Dividend Diplomat Stock Screener and trade on SoFi’s investment platform.
Related: Sign up for SoFi – get FREE inventory!
Related: View our dividend portfolios!
I also auto-invest and max out, pre-tax, my 401k through work and my health savings account. This allows me to save a LOT of money on taxes (aka thousands), allowing me to invest even more. In addition, any dividends I receive are automatically reinvested in the company that paid the dividend, known as a Dividend Reinvestment Plan or DRIP for short. This takes the emotion out of timing the market and builds on my passive income stream!
Related: Tax Strategy – Part 3: Cut taxes and increase investment.
Related: The power of dividend reinvestment
Related: Why I don’t time or predict the market
Growing your dividend income takes time and consistency. By investing as often and as early as possible, compound interest (also called dividends) can work, it’s magic. I went from earning $2.70 in one month in dividend income to well over…$10,000+ in one month. My dividend income record was set in December 2021. Was it broken this month?! The power of dividend compounding and reinvestment is a wonderful part of the portfolio. Every month, big or small, I continue to report the passive income that dividend investing brings me. Why?
*Not pictured is my wife’s dividend income above*
I want to show it YOU that dividend investing makes it possible to achieve financial freedom and/or financial independence. We all start somewhere, but investing consistently, compounding (reinvesting) dividends and keeping it simple will put you in a significantly better position than most. Furthermore, if I can grow this portfolio and income stream, YOU is also possible.
dividend income – September 2025
Now on to the numbers… In September we (my wife and I) received a total dividend income of $5,342.09. WILD! A $5,000 month. Congratulations to everyone who has achieved major milestones on the road to financial freedom.
The number and number of shares below shows what it means to buy shares and hold them for the long term. I have owned most positions for YEARS, letting dividend growth and reinvestment do their work. This is what dividend investing for financial freedom is all about. The passive income stream is growing at a FAST pace.
2023 was an increase of 24%. Guess what? 2024 was an increase of 23%! 2 years back-to-back 20% return. The S&P 500 is up almost 15% through mid-November, Bitcoin is extending its range above $100,000 and setting new all-time highs every few months, and everyone is still bracing for Donald Trump’s tariff talks with countries around the world. I’ll keep buying though, PERIOD!
Here’s the breakdown of dividend income for the month, between taxable accounts and retirement accounts (far right column, under ‘Pension’). Furthermore, “W” means my wife’s account:
Clearly, Vanguard’s High Dividend Yield (VYM) ETF carried the torch for us, with over $1,634 in dividend income generated on the taxable side, plus a few hundred in retirement accounts.
You’ll notice that SCHD is also in the equation for both my wife and me. We managed to sell a large number of individual shares and transfer the proceeds to SCHD. I actually bought SCHD every day for a few months, but recently stopped buying SCHD since early November.
Pfizer (PFE) and Target (TGT) dividends were all reinvested into the stock at such low prices.
I also split my retirement accounts in the far right column and the taxable account dividends are in the two left columns. The retirement accounts are made up of HSA investments, ROTH and traditional IRAs, as well as our work 401(k) accounts. In total, the retirement accounts provided a total amount of dividend income of $598.15 or 11% of the total dividend income. Accumulate revenue no matter what. LET’S GO!!
Related: Maximize your Roth for 10 years… Set it and forget it!
Dividend income year-over-year comparison
2024: 
2025:
Our dividend income is up ALMOST $1,000 from last year! Only a few dollars off, but holy smokes!
First, you will notice that many positions are eliminated by this reversal. Names like Viatris (VTRS), Walgreens (WBA), Nordstrom (JWN) and the like have all been eliminated as we have sold out of those three positions.
Second, I didn’t mention very small dividends of less than $1, as I have done in the past, but those are simply not material.
VYM has experienced tremendous growth thanks to its three-pronged approach: buying, reinvesting dividends and receiving dividend growth.
Finally, Pepsi paid in September last year and October this year. Therefore, revenues would have increased EVEN MORE!
Have you set a record for dividend income?
Dividend increases
We had three consistent and solid dividend increases. I value quality over quantity. We’ve had more stock gains lately, but this month’s gains provided much more growth in the future passive income stream.
Philip Morris (PM), with a huge increase, was very welcome!
Verizon (VZ) on the other hand, consistent with their 2% increase.
Real Estate Income (O), as always consistent with a half-cent increase.
Related: The impact of the dividend growth rate!
In total, the dividend increases created $74.06 in additional passive dividend income. I would have to invest $2,116 at a 3.50% dividend yield to add that income. Thanks for the raises because I didn’t need to have the capital to create that form of income!
Conclusion and summary of dividend income
The name of the game is: apply what you learn through financial education. The next steps are maximizing every dollar for investment opportunities and living life on your own terms. Therefore, my plan is to demonstrate that dividend income can be an income driver. A revenue engine that allows you to do that take back control of your life. An income engine that helps you achieve financial freedom. Dividend investing, once you learn the right way, becomes easier and starts to make tremendous sense!
Excited for the future, no doubt. Moreover, all the investments last year and the moves this year show that I want that too Save 60% of my incomeAnd making every dollar counthas driven the dividend growth.
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