Build a Pumping Passive Income Portfolio With $35K

A $35,000 starting point is great for building a passive income portfolio. It’s big enough to generate meaningful cash flow right away, yet small enough that it still feels achievable and motivating. With that amount, you can spread your money across stable dividend stocks or monthly-paying stocks and immediately see deposits landing in your account. It’s proof that your money is finally working for you instead of the other way around. It also creates a strong foundation that compounds quickly: reinvested dividends grow the portfolio faster, and future contributions stack on top. Suddenly, you’re building real, lifelong income from a pot of money that once felt like “just savings.” So what stocks can get you there?

POW

Power Corporation of Canada (TSX:POW) is a diversified financial holding company with deep roots in Canada’s wealth and insurance sectors. It owns major stakes in businesses such as Great-West Lifeco, IGM Financial, and Wealthsimple. This gives investors exposure to life insurance, asset management, and digital finance all in one dividend stock. Its structure allows it to collect stable cash flows from mature financial businesses while also participating in long-term growth through innovative platforms.

In its most recent earnings, Power reported steady growth in adjusted net earnings thanks to strong performance from Great-West Lifeco and improved contributions from IGM Financial. The dividend stock continued to strengthen its balance sheet, maintain disciplined capital allocation, and grow book value per share. Management also reaffirmed its commitment to returning capital to shareholders, supported by robust cash flows from its core holdings. While quarter-to-quarter results tend to be stable rather than flashy, the consistency of its subsidiaries provides predictable profitability.

POW is a perfect long-term passive income choice for a $35,000 portfolio as it offers high stability, a strong yield, and exposure to essential financial services – ones Canadians rely on regardless of economic cycles. Its businesses generate predictable cash flow, which supports a dependable dividend that has grown steadily over time. Unlike more volatile sectors, financial conglomerates like POW enjoy long-term tailwinds from population growth, wealth accumulation, and insurance demand. These are all factors that help dividends compound for decades.

VXC

Yet one dividend stock won’t be enough. Another option should be the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap ex-Canada ETF (TSX:VXC), designed to give Canadians one-stop exposure to the entire world outside Canada. It holds thousands of companies across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and emerging markets, making it one of the most diversified exchange-traded funds (ETF) on the TSX. Because it excludes Canada, it pairs perfectly with a Canadian-heavy portfolio and gives investors access to sectors Canada lacks, especially global tech, healthcare, and consumer innovation. It’s a simple, low-cost way to own nearly the entire global economy in a single fund.

Its performance reflects the returns of its underlying global index. Recently, VXC has benefited from strong U.S. equity markets, particularly the growth of large-cap tech, while also capturing steady gains from international and emerging-market holdings. Distribution payouts have remained consistent, and the ETF continues to track its benchmark tightly with a low management fee. Its growth profile has been strong in periods of global market strength, making it a reliable long-term performer.

VXC is a perfect long-term passive income and growth investment for a $35,000 portfolio as it gives you global diversification, low fees, and decades of compounding potential – all without requiring any stock picking or rebalancing. While its yield is modest, its real power comes from long-term capital appreciation across thousands of world-leading companies, all working quietly inside your portfolio for the next 20 to 30 years.

Bottom line

Not only is saving towards $35,000 doable, that number can absolutely balloon over decades. Don’t think it can’t. And when you have two powerful dividend stocks behind you, those numbers rise higher sooner as opposed to later. Even now, here’s what $35,000 could create in dividends from an investment in these two dividend stocks.

COMPANYRECENT PRICENUMBER OF SHARESDIVIDENDTOTAL ANNUAL PAYOUTFREQUENCYTOTAL INVESTMENTVXC$74.17235$1.04$244.40Quarterly$17,434.00POW$70.31248$2.45$607.60Quarterly$17,437.00

So don’t wait another second. Let compounding do the work and get started on your own passive income portfolio.

The post Build a Pumping Passive Income Portfolio With $35K appeared first on The Motley Fool Canada.

Should you invest $1,000 in Great-West Lifeco Inc. right now?

Before you buy stock in Great-West Lifeco Inc., consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor Canada analyst team identified what they believe are the 15 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Great-West Lifeco Inc. wasn’t one of them. The 15 stocks that made the cut could potentially produce monster returns in the coming years.

Consider MercadoLibre, which we first recommended on January 8, 2014 … if you invested $1,000 in the “eBay of Latin America” at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $21,105.89!*

Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor Canada’s total average return is 95%* – a market-crushing outperformance compared to 72%* for the S&P/TSX Composite Index. Don’t miss out on our top 15 list, available when you join Stock Advisor Canada.

See the 15 Stocks #start_btn6 { background: #0e6d04 none repeat scroll 0 0; color: #fff; font-size: 1.2em; font-family: 'Montserrat', sans-serif; font-weight: 600; height: auto; line-height: 1.2em; margin: 30px 0; max-width: 350px; text-align: center; width: auto; box-shadow: 0 1px 0 rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5), 0 1px 0 #fff inset, 0 0 2px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2); border-radius: 5px; } #start_btn6 a { color: #fff; display: block; padding: 20px; padding-right:1em; padding-left:1em; } #start_btn6 a:hover { background: #FFE300 none repeat scroll 0 0; color: #000; } @media (max-width: 480px) { div#start_btn6 { font-size:1.1em; max-width: 320px;} } margin_bottom_5 { margin-bottom:5px; } margin_top_10 { margin-top:10px; }

* Returns as of November 17th, 2025

More reading

• How to Use Your TFSA to Earn Ultimate Passive Income
• 2 Dead-Easy Canadian Stocks to Buy With $1,000 Right Now
• A 3.4% Dividend Yield Today! Here’s Why I’m Buying This TSX Stock for the Long Term
• TFSA: 2 Dividend Stocks I’d Happily Buy and Hold for Life
• A Canadian Dividend Knight to Hold Through Any Market Crash

Fool contributor Amy Legate-Wolfe has positions in Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Ex Canada Index ETF. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.