Alright… with 2025 now in the rear view mirror (and me finally getting around to working on this post), I present my Portfolio dividends for December, and the entire year.
December dividends were very solid. While I didn’t set a monthly record, I was very happy with the total, which I’ll share shortly. For the year, things were much more upbeat… dividend records galore as my Portfolio continued to grow and deliver.
As for the change to my Portfolio value in December, while the stock market was generally flat for the month, my Portfolio didn’t fare quite as well. Primarily, this was due to the big decline (over 14%) by Broadcom (AVGO) during the month. With AVGO being my largest holding by quite a large margin (almost triple the size of my 2nd largest holding at the end of November), the stock’s retreat had a rather negative impact on my Portfolio.
On a brighter note, it was a 3rd straight year of double-digits gains in the stock market. My Portfolio went along for the ride, and subsequently rose in value, too. That’s always a nice outcome.
Now for a preview of my dividend highlights for December before the details are provided later…
Monthly dividend came up just shy of $2.3K. However, Year-over-Year (YoY) growth for December exceeded my 15% target.
Additional forward dividend income from my 3 sources (reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and investment of capital) was quite good, but not as strong as the past two months. Still, it was a good finish to 2025.
My monthly and annual dividend charts now have complete data for the year (always exciting to see). One of the charts required a Y-axis adjustment due to my growing dividend total.
Let’s get to it… say hello to the dividend details for December 2025, beginning with my dividend income…
Dividend Income
In December, I collected a total of $2,295.73. This was the only the 6th time I’ve exceeded the $2K mark. Each time it’s been a quarter-ending month. I suspect 2026 will be the year I finally cross $2K in a non-quarter-ending month. Let’s go!
My YoY dividend growth in December was terrific. I not only exceeded my 15% growth target, I’d say I crushed it, finishing at 18.06%. This was my 4th best number posted for any month this year.
A total of 25 companies paid me a dividend in December. Ten of those companies provided a triple-digit dividend, too! Another 10 stocks provided a dividend topping $40. Only two dividends were less than $10. In general, the dividends were hefty and numerous.
The largest dividend of the month was delivered by Aflac (AFL). The dividend topped $200 for the first time, and came in at $201.81. My AFL dividend is set to climb by more than $10 come March, too, once the dividend raise AFL provided in November takes effect. Semiconductor stocks Broadcom (AVGO) and Qualcomm (QCOM) weren’t far behind with dividends of $196.94 and $195.71, respectively.
My smallest dividend of the month was $5.26 from Alphabet (GOOG). The dividend from Portfolio newcomer Meta Platforms (META) wasn’t much bigger at $8.40. Going up from there was a dividend of $18.79 provided by Microsoft (MSFT). Each of these companies has a sub-1% dividend yield, so the low dividend amounts are no surprise. Every other Portfolio dividend was north of $30.
The increased dividend amounts from Chevron (CVX), NextEra Energy (NEE), UnitedHealth Group (UNH) and Microsoft (MSFT) were each helped by one or more purchases over the past year.
Increased YoY amounts for all other companies were a result of dividend increases and reinvested dividends over the past year. I added more than $31 in YoY dividend gains from AFL, better than $11 from QCOM, and another $10 from both T. Rowe Price Group (TROW) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). I won’t forget about the more than $9 from Enbridge (ENB) or in excess of $8 from Visa (V) either. Good contributions all around!
Of the December stocks that paid me both last year and this year, a few recorded a payout reduction. These stocks included Skyworks Solutions (SWKS), Main Street Capital (MAIN) and Hershey Co. (HSY). Each of these reductions was due to trims on my part, not a dividend cut or suspension.
As for new dividend payers in December, there were 5 of them: three closed-end funds (CEFs) and two tech stocks. The three CEFs provided the largest payments. PIMCO Corporate & Income Strategy Fund (PCN) led the way with a $107.74 distribution. That was followed by $69.72 from DNP Select Income Fund (DNP) and $60.88 from BlackRock Health Sciences Trust (BME). The new dividends from the two tech stocks, Meta Platforms (META) and Alphabet (GOOG), were much smaller at $8.40 and $5.26, respectively.
I had only a single stock that no longer paid me a dividend this December. That stock was Pinnacle West Capital (PNW). I sold this stock in February, 2025 to make an additional investment in Chevron (CVX).
Nearly all my dividends got automatically reinvested into the stocks that paid them. The exceptions were… 1) my BLK dividend did not get reinvested by my broker due to the stock price being too large (around $1K/share), and 2) there was only a partial dividend reinvestment of ENB due to a portion of the dividend being withheld for foreign tax purposes. The result of all the reinvestment was an additional $76.29 of forward dividend income. This was my 3rd best monthly boost ever due to reinvested dividends. The reinvestment of the PCN distribution accounted for more than $11 of the forward income total. The dividend from TROW added more than $9 to the total, too. ENB, CVX and DNP all contributed better than $5 as well.
As a result of December’s reinvested dividends, I dripped over 31 new shares of stock. This included over 8 shares of PCN, and close to 7 shares DNP. ENB was my only other holding to eclipse 2 shares, although AFL and TROW came fairly close.
Dividend Raises
The number dividend raises I received in December took a hit compared to last year. It was 5 raises this year, falling well short of the 8 from last year. Those 3 fewer raises were due to me selling one stock (BMY), and two of the raises (AFL & DIS) showing up in November this year instead of December.
Once again, all of the raises came in the first half of the month, as companies took care of announcing prior to the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Only one raise crossed into double-digit territory, which I’ll cover shortly. This was down from three such raises last year. At least the double-digit raise came from one of my best dividend payers.
My first raise of the month came from Enbridge (ENB). The company announced a 2.92% hike, down from the 3.01% provided last year. After converting to U.S. dollars, the raise translated to a $14.44 increase to my forward dividend income. I’d like to see raises from ENB creep over the 4% threshold in the future.
Just a day later, a disappointing 1.20% dividend raise came from Eastman Chemical (EMN). This was less than half of the 2.47% hike provided last year. With EMN being one of my smallest holdings, my forward dividend income only advanced by $2.98. EMN’s earnings and free cash flow payout ratios are elevated and don’t look to get better in 2026. Thus, I suspect I’ll see another tiny raise come December of next year – if EMN is still a holding of mine by then.
Several days later, a couple more dividend raises rolled in. The first one was the standard, small quarterly raise from Realty Income (O). The raise was 0.19% and it added $0.69 to my forward dividend income. Combined with the 4 other raises provided by O during the year it resulted in a total 2025 percentage increase of 2.27%. This fell short of the total 2.92% raise from O last year. The other raise was a decent 5.88% boost from Amgen (AMGN) that increased my forward dividend income by $17.42. This raise percentage was actually an increase compared to last year. AMGN was just 1 of 14 stocks from my Portfolio that managed this feat.
To complete the December raises, Broadcom (AVGO) announced a 10.17% increase – my lone double-digit raise for December. While this didn’t quite measure up to the 11.32% hike from December of last year, I won’t be complaining. A beautiful $72.71 was added to my forward dividend income thanks to this raise.
After accounting for all my December dividend raises, my forward dividend income increased by a solid $108.24. Sadly, this was less than half of what I received in December of last year, but that was primarily due to the AFL dividend showing up in November this year. AVGO provided the majority of my forward dividend income total this month.
I’d have to invest $4,084.53 at my Portfolio’s year-end yield of 2.65% in order to receive the same boost to my forward dividend income as this month’s raises.
Looking ahead to January, I anticipate another triple-digit forward dividend income total from raises. I expect to hear from Fastenal (FAST), BlackRock (BLK) and Nexstar Media Group (NXST) with good certainty. In addition, there’s the possibility of announcements from Air Products & Chemicals (APD), T. Rowe Price Group (TROW), Amdocs Ltd. (DOX), Quest Diagnostics (DGX) and Chevron (CVX) as well. However, these could slip into February based on what I’ve seen in previous years. No matter what, 2026 looks to get off to a roaring start on the dividend raise front.
Dividends Due To New Investment
I wasn’t very active with regard to new capital investment in December. I’d already reached my target investment for the year, so I didn’t find the need to go stock shopping. In addition, I didn’t have much cash to invest anyway.
Of course, I was busy getting ready for the holidays as well. There are lots of distractions in December!
That said, I did find a tiny amount of cash sitting idle in my brokerage account and decided to put it to work, by investing in one of my smallest holdings, VICI Properties (VICI).
The investment was so small that even a stock with a yield north of 6% only provided a few dollars of forward dividend income.
Details for my lone December transaction can be found in the following post…
My transaction resulted in a net investment of $56.09 into my Portfolio (told you it was small). Also, my forward dividend income increased by a minor $3.60 as a result of the purchase.
With my purchase being an existing Portfolio holding, the number of stocks/funds in my Portfolio remained at 58.
Tallying Up The Additional Forward Dividend Income
In 2025, I continued tracking my additional forward dividend income generated each month from the trifecta of sources: reinvested dividends, dividend raises, and new capital investment.
I showed 2024 totals as well, so that we could compare as the year progressed.
December was a good month with respect to additional forward dividend income. It added to what was already a record forward dividend income total for 2025.
Accounting for all the sources, I added $188.13 of additional forward dividend income in the final month of 2025. While this failed to equal the total from last month ($266.15), and it pales in comparison to the total from December of last year ($678.92), it helped establish a new annual record for forward dividend income in my Portfolio.
Dividend Raises provided the majority of my additional forward dividend income in December, totaling $108.24.
Reinvested Dividends contributed a healthy amount to my forward dividend income this month as well. I had my 3rd best total for the year at $76.29.
Due to my minimal buying interest in December, I had Investment of Capital bringing up the rear, adding just $3.60 in forward dividend income.
For the year, I tallied a record $3,130.58 in additional forward dividend income. This blew away my all-time high of $2,441.98 that I notched in 2024.
For the first time in 8 years, Dividend Raises were not the largest contributor to my additional forward dividend income total. The $1,230.92 from Investment of Capital in 2025 took home the prize. Dividend Raises slipped to 2nd by providing $1,168.95 in 2025. If Dividend Raises hadn’t retreated relative to last year, they could have remained as my top contributor. While Reinvested Dividends was my 3rd best source in 2025, its record total of $730.71 easily surpassed the $581.56 this source posted last year.
2025 marked my 5th consecutive year of adding more than $2K of forward income for my Portfolio, and my first time topping $3K! It was a big step in 2025, and a lot of it had to do with my purchases of the CEFs over the past year. They provided a real boost to my forward income.
Progress Charts
The following are progress charts, also available on my Dividends page.
Ignoring the month of May (when I had some shifting dividend payments), every month in 2025 provided more dividends than the corresponding month from 2024… just as I would draw it up.
On an annual basis, here’s what the dividend totals look like.
The lovely stair step pattern continued in 2025! I can’t wait to see what 2026 holds for my dividend Portfolio… perhaps I can reach $25K in annual dividends, even though reinvesting dividends and new capital investment will effectively be off the table.
Annual Growth
With 2025 having come to a close, let’s take a look at the YoY growth of my actual dividend income, as well as my forward dividend income.
Actual Dividend Income
The annual numbers for actual dividend income can be seen in the chart just above. I finished 2025 with $22,834.83 in dividends, surpassing the $19,866.60 I collected in 2024. YoY growth for 2025 thus equaled 14.94%. This growth was helped by quarterly special dividends from Main Street Capital (MAIN) during 2025. The 14.94% growth was an acceleration relative to the 2024 change of 12.65%. I like seeing that, as keeping the YoY growth percentage elevated is hard to do as my Portfolio gets bigger each year.
Forward Dividend Income
As for my annual forward dividend income numbers, I finished 2025 with $24,124.80 in forward dividend income ($2,010.40/month), while I finished 2024 with $21,003.31 ($1,750.28/month). So, YoY growth in forward dividend income in 2025 was 14.86%. This translated to an average of an additional $260.12 in monthly dividend income thanks to my progress in 2025!
Summary
I collected nearly $2,296 in dividends this December. This was my 4th best monthly showing ever. YoY dividend income growth eclipsed my 15% monthly target, too, as it finished just over 18%.
I raked in 25 dividend payments this month. Ten of those payments exceeded $107, with the $201.81 from AFL being the largest.
Reinvested dividends topped $76 in additional forward dividend income in December, allowing me to reach a record of nearly $731 from this source for the year.
My dividend raises dropped to 5 in December, yet still brought my total to 63 for the year. AVGO delivered my largest raise in December, providing a hike just north of 10%. In total, my December raises boosted my additional forward dividend income by more than $108, bringing my yearly total to almost $1,169.
As for my Portfolio transactions, there was only one in December. I invested what little cash I had remaining in my brokerage account into VICI. The net investment was only a tad more than $58, and it added less than $4 to my forward dividend income.
Tallying the contributions from all sources, over $188 in forward dividend income was added my Portfolio in December! For the year, forward dividend income rose to a total of $3,130. This annual total also eclipsed my previous record annual total of almost $2,442 set just last year.
My Portfolio closed out 2025 by collecting $22,834.83 (or an average of $1,902.90/month) in paid dividends for the year. This equated to 14.94% YoY growth.
As for forward dividend income, I finished 2025 with a total of $24,124.80 (or $2,010.40/month). This translated to 14.86% YoY growth.
How did your portfolio perform in 2025? Did you establish one or more new dividend records? What developments were you most astonished by? Please share in the Comments!
I have updated the Portfolio & Dividends pages in conjunction with this monthly update.