- Pays: quarterly — usually going ex-dividend in the third week of March, June, September, and December.
- Paying since: 2006 — one of the longest ETF dividend records anywhere.
- What it is: Vanguard's high-dividend index fund — roughly 500+ U.S. companies with above-average yields, weighted by size, at a rock-bottom fee.
- The record: the annual payout has grown in most years since 2006 — up about 23% over the last six years alone — the tortoise pace that compounds quietly.
- The trade-off: breadth over selectivity. VYM owns nearly every decent yielder; funds like SCHD screen harder for quality and have grown their payout faster.
VYM tracks an index of higher-yielding U.S. stocks; its dividend moves with what those ~500 companies collectively pay, so it wobbles quarter to quarter but has trended up for nearly two decades.
VYM pays quarterly. Each point below is one dividend since 2006. Quarterly amounts wobble — index funds pass through whatever their holdings paid — so watch the yearly totals in the table below for the real trend.
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Each point is one payment; the line ends at the most recent payout. The table below totals them by year.
| Recent Ex-Dividend Dates | Dividend / Share |
|---|
"Next expected" is estimated from VYM's recent payment rhythm — the fund announces exact dates shortly before each payout, and the data feed can lag a few days. You must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout; the cash typically arrives days later. See every fund's upcoming date on the live dividend calendar.
A real total-return estimate, assuming every payout was reinvested — including what happened to the share price. Before taxes and fees. Past performance does not predict the future.
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These are assumptions, not a prediction. Want the full chart and tax options? Open the full calculator →
VYM's payment history is what you get when you simply own the high-yield half of corporate America and let it do its thing: quarterly checks that wobble (holdings shift, payment calendars drift) around an annual total that has climbed steadily for nearly twenty years. There's no screen for dividend growth, no quality filter beyond the market's own — just breadth, a famously low fee, and yields meaningfully above the S&P 500's.
Its natural rival is SCHD, which screens ~100 companies for quality and payout strength — historically producing faster dividend growth from fewer names. VYM counters with twice the diversification and fewer concentration surprises. Both are legitimate foundations; the estimator below and the full calculator let you model either with real numbers.
| Year | Total Dividends / Share | Payments | Change vs Prior Year |
|---|
Data source: Yahoo Finance. Figures are per share; the current year may be partial and figures should be verified against official sources.
Calculated from complete calendar years in the data above. Past results don't guarantee future payments.
When Is VYM's Next Ex-Dividend Date?
VYM pays quarterly, usually going ex-dividend in the third week of March, June, September, and December. The exact date of each payout is announced by the fund only shortly beforehand, so no site can promise the next date — but the live schedule box above shows the most recent ex-dividend date and the expected window for the next one, computed from VYM's actual payment rhythm. Remember: you must own shares before the ex-dividend date to receive that payout.
VYM's Record: Two Decades of Compounding Quietly
VYM — the Vanguard High Dividend Yield ETF — has paid quarterly dividends since 2006, long enough to have compounded through the financial crisis, a zero-rate decade, and a pandemic. The yearly table below shows the signature Vanguard pattern: no drama, occasional flat or down years when corporate America stumbled, and a payout that nonetheless climbed from year to year — up roughly 23% over just the past six, with the share price compounding alongside.
The Case for Breadth
VYM's method is almost aggressively simple: rank U.S. stocks by expected yield, keep the higher half, weight by market value, charge almost nothing. That means it owns essentially every serious dividend payer in America — banks, pharma, energy, staples — with no opinion about which deserve more weight. The result is a fund that will never top a single-year leaderboard but is structurally incapable of the concentrated mistakes that sink narrower strategies. For a certain kind of investor — diversify everything, minimize decisions, let decades do the work — that's precisely the point.
VYM in a Dividend Portfolio
VYM competes directly with SCHD for the "core dividend holding" slot, and the comparison is genuinely close — SCHD's tighter quality screen has delivered faster payout growth; VYM's breadth delivers steadier sector balance. Either pairs well with the income-now funds on this site (JEPI, SPYI) for investors blending growth and yield. Run your own numbers in the estimator above or the full dividend calculator — with qualified-dividend tax treatment, VYM's after-tax story is one of the best in the high-yield aisle.
How to Choose Dividend Stocks (and Funds)
Yield traps, payout ratios, quality screens — the plain-English framework for picking income investments that last.
Read: How to Choose Dividend Stocks