7% Income Growth and Counting: The Real Story Behind the DGI Scorecard
MP Market Review - October 31, 2025
Summary
Welcome to this week’s MP Market Review – your go-to source for insights and updates on the Canadian dividend growth companies we track on The List! While we’ve expanded our watchlists to include U.S. companies, The List-USA, our Canadian lineup remains the cornerstone of our coaching approach.
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Last week, dividend growth of The List was up with an average return of +7.1% YTD (income).
Last week, the price of The List was down from the previous week with an average return of +10.0% YTD (capital).
Last week, there was one dividend announcement from a company on The List.
Last week, there were four earnings reports from companies on The List.
This week, fourteen companies from The List will report on earnings.
DGI Clipboard
“The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.”
- Warren Buffett
7% Income Growth and Counting: The Real Story Behind the DGI Scorecard
Intro
DGI Scorecard Review
In the final newsletter of each month, we feature both our Canadian and American watchlists in the DGI Scorecard section below. A quick glance at the averages at the bottom of each list shows that year-to-date price returns are not spectacular, especially when compared to high-flying AI stocks, gold miners, or tech-heavy indexes. But this should not discourage you.
Remember, these are equally weighted watchlists, not portfolios. They are designed to track high-quality dividend growth companies, not chase short-term trends. More importantly, the year-to-date dividend growth performance of both watchlists continues to impress, averaging over 7% again this year. That is the real story.
For dividend growth investors, the ultimate goal is to own enough high-quality companies that the income your portfolio produces covers your living expenses. At that point, your dividends effectively become your paycheque in retirement, and the best part is that you can look forward to a raise every year as those companies continue to increase their payouts, no matter what the stock market is doing.
While our strategy emphasizes steady income growth, we never lose sight of capital appreciation. The beauty of compounding is that it often works quietly in the background, gaining momentum over time. Its full impact is rarely visible in the short term but becomes increasingly powerful as dividends are reinvested and earnings grow. Patience is essential during these early phases, as compounding tends to reward consistency rather than speed.
We will take a closer look at how this dynamic is unfolding inside our model portfolios when we release our quarterly performance updates later in November.
Takeaway
Even though prices may fluctuate, the dependable growth in our income does not. Stay the course. You will be happy you did.
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DGI Scorecard
The List (2025)
The Magic Pants 2025 list includes 29 Canadian dividend growth stocks. Here are the criteria to be considered a candidate on The List:
Dividend growth streak: 10 years or more.
Market cap: Minimum one billion dollars.
Diversification: Limit of five companies per sector, preferably two per industry.
Cyclicality: Exclude REITs and pure-play energy companies due to high cyclicality.
Based on these criteria, companies are added or removed from The List annually on January 1. Prices and dividends are updated weekly.
The List is not a portfolio but a coaching tool that helps us think about ideas and risk manage our model portfolio. We own some but not all the companies on The List. In other words, we might want to buy these companies when valuation looks attractive.
Our newsletter provides readers with a comprehensive insight into the implementation and advantages of our dividend growth investing strategy. This evidence-based, unbiased approach empowers DIY investors to outperform both actively managed dividend funds and passively managed indexes and dividend ETFs over longer-term horizons.
Note: In the last week of every month, I will show the updated watchlist for our American dividend growers, The List-USA. It will be shown after the Canadian watchlist below.
Performance of 'The List'
Last week, dividend growth was up, with an average return of +7.1% YTD (income).
The price of ‘The List’ was down from the previous week, with an average YTD return of +10.0% (capital).
Last week’s best performers on ‘The List’ were Toromont Industries (TIH-T), up +3.63%.; Magna (MGA-N), up +2.16%; and TD Bank (TD-T) up +1.60%.
Canadian Tire (CTC-A-T) was the worst performer last week, down -6.86%.
From breaking news to quarterly earnings reports, we break down the week’s biggest headlines to help you make sense of the market. The full newsletter has even more insights and analysis, don’t miss out!
