Many folks are convinced that investing in equities is the same as gambling. And it is, if you focus on share prices and share price movements in an attempt to realize capital gains. Fortunately, there is a much more reliable and less stressful investing strategy and it begins by focusing your attention on a small number of financially stable companies that have a history of paying their shareholders growing dividends. Since implementing this strategy in 2010, my portfolio has generated a stable dividend income that is much higher than paid by comparable dividend index funds, that increases with time and, most importantly, is immune to the gyrations of the stock market.

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The following chart compares the dividends paid by the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index (XIU) exchange traded fund with those generated by my portfolio, from 2010 to the end of 2024, an interval of 15 years. (The XIU exchange traded fund emulates the performance of the S&P/TSX 60 Index whose components include 60 of the largest Canadian companies that trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange.) ​​

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For example, if on January 2, 2010, I had invested $100 in the iShares S&P/TSX 60 Index exchange traded fund (XIU), I would have received a dividend of $2.50 in 2010 which gradually increased to $6.25 in 2024, as indicated by the blue line on the chart. ​In contrast, an investment of $100 in my portfolio paid an annual dividend of $4.20 in 2010 which increased to $18.30 in 2024, 4.6 times the dividend paid by XIU in that same year.  Moreover, the difference between the dividend incomes paid by the two portfolios can be expected to increase each year into the future.

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