Looking over the built up of my portfolio I can see how important income generated by my investments were. Of course, when I was starting to build my portfolio, interest rates were quite high. Interest rates peaked at just over 19%. I had stocks also, but the real money was in interest. I had some bonds, GICs and mortgage mutual funds.
Even as recent as the early 1990's you could get GICs with 10% plus interest rates. However, times have changed. The place to make income today is in dividend growth companies. I have talked about this a number of times and looked at Dividend Yields on Original Investments. Nothing beats Canadian Banks on good yields and good growth in dividends.
If you have a company which is increasing their dividends, one way of looking at what you are earning is to determine what your yield is on your original investment money. I expect that most of my income will come from such stocks now and into the future still.
I do not currently expect much for capital gains as we are in a secular bear market and this will be around for a while. It is like the 1970's when the stock market just seem to only go sideways for a long time.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
My Market Trading
I was asked if I ever bought stock for trading purposes. Yes, I do, but lately they have generally all been special situations. At the moment I only have one stock that I bought for purely capital gain and trading purposes. This stock is Barrick Gold Corp (TSX-ABX). I wrote about this recently on my blog. I bought this stock because I felt that it was unfairly dumped recently. This was because of the drop in the price of gold and also because of trouble the company was having. The market does tend to over react.
Another company I bought for purely capital gain and trading was Canam Group Inc. (TSX-CAM). I bought this in November 2011 and sold it in March 2013. I took a small position and I doubled my money. This company was in construction and was having problems. It cut its dividend 2011. I sold when it was on its way to recovery.
Another company I bought for trading was Teck Comino now Teck Resources Ltd. (TSTCK.B). This company bought Fording Canadian Coal Trust and had cash flow problems in 2008. It was bad timing for this purchase, but company would not have known that we were going to have a financial crisis. I bought this stock in November 2008 and sold May 2009 for 3 times what I paid.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Another company I bought for purely capital gain and trading was Canam Group Inc. (TSX-CAM). I bought this in November 2011 and sold it in March 2013. I took a small position and I doubled my money. This company was in construction and was having problems. It cut its dividend 2011. I sold when it was on its way to recovery.
Another company I bought for trading was Teck Comino now Teck Resources Ltd. (TSTCK.B). This company bought Fording Canadian Coal Trust and had cash flow problems in 2008. It was bad timing for this purchase, but company would not have known that we were going to have a financial crisis. I bought this stock in November 2008 and sold May 2009 for 3 times what I paid.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Selling? Attitude Maybe Everything
What if you got a stock that is not doing well, but you hate to sell and incur a loss. Maybe the first thing you need to do is change your attitude, or how you view this stock and your portfolio. When considering changes to your portfolio, especially selling, the question you need to ask is "What is best for my portfolio from here?"
I usually sell a stock and buy another one when I think that from now into the future I will be better off with this trade. That is I want to replace a stock in my portfolio with something I like better. This is a positive change.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
I usually sell a stock and buy another one when I think that from now into the future I will be better off with this trade. That is I want to replace a stock in my portfolio with something I like better. This is a positive change.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Who will pay for the Boomers?
We baby boomers have been busy voting for great pensions and great health care systems for ourselves. Some of us have also been at work instituting work rules that benefit only boomers and make it hard for them to be fired so that they can retain great paying jobs for life.
The results of all this is that in we have huge governmental debts, little to no economic growth and high youth unemployment. We also seem to be very unwilling to change anything to solve current problems. I wonder how this will all end. At some point, we are going to have to deal with ours problems because this cannot go on forever.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
The results of all this is that in we have huge governmental debts, little to no economic growth and high youth unemployment. We also seem to be very unwilling to change anything to solve current problems. I wonder how this will all end. At some point, we are going to have to deal with ours problems because this cannot go on forever.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Buy and Hold and Dividends
This has been my experience since 2000. Market crashed and so did the value of my portfolio. My dividend income went up. Market started to recover and so did my portfolio. My dividend income went up. The market again crashed in 2008 and so did the value of my portfolio. My dividend income went up. The market recovered from 2008 and so did the value of my portfolio. My dividend income went up.
Since 2000 my income has increased by 109%. The median increase of my income is 7.8% per year. I still had interest bearing financial vehicles in 2000, so just looking at dividend increases only does not tell the whole story. (By the way my median dividend increase since 2000 was 11.5% per year.) My 5 and 10 year median dividend growth is 9.6% and 11.5% per year to the end of 2012.
I sort of practice buy and hold in order to have a portfolio producing dividends for me live off of. I have had no salary since I stopped working in 1999, so any purchases of stocks was using money from my portfolio income or because of a sale of a currently owned stock. I do some buying and selling.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Since 2000 my income has increased by 109%. The median increase of my income is 7.8% per year. I still had interest bearing financial vehicles in 2000, so just looking at dividend increases only does not tell the whole story. (By the way my median dividend increase since 2000 was 11.5% per year.) My 5 and 10 year median dividend growth is 9.6% and 11.5% per year to the end of 2012.
I sort of practice buy and hold in order to have a portfolio producing dividends for me live off of. I have had no salary since I stopped working in 1999, so any purchases of stocks was using money from my portfolio income or because of a sale of a currently owned stock. I do some buying and selling.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Money is Freedom
I look at having money as a way of having freedom. I need a certain amount in order to live the life I want to live. However, there is a limit. I only need so much money. I stopped working because I had enough. I do not have a lot, but I do have enough to provide an income so I can do what I want.
The things I like to do are things like blogging and going out for lunch or dinner with friends or other sorts of socializing. My income gives me the ability to enjoy life and isn't this what we should be doing? Enjoying life?
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
The things I like to do are things like blogging and going out for lunch or dinner with friends or other sorts of socializing. My income gives me the ability to enjoy life and isn't this what we should be doing? Enjoying life?
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Online Advertising
I think that the sites that put up a loud video on web page are just annoying people. I turn off the sound if anything comes in really loud. However, when at the side or top of a page that has a silent video, I often watch. It catches my eye.
I know a lot of sites are trying to make money online, especially newspapers. However, they are probably going about it the wrong way. I wonder if they ever have tried focus groups. They might set them straight on loud videos.
I do not think that having an ad on the side works. I think that if an ad has some interesting movement going on that people might pay more attention. Or, maybe it is just me.
My son is of the opinion that some people think that they will get more attention if they annoy people. Personally, I do not think that annoying people gets you anywhere, but others think different. They think that annoying ads do accomplish what the advertisers want.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
I know a lot of sites are trying to make money online, especially newspapers. However, they are probably going about it the wrong way. I wonder if they ever have tried focus groups. They might set them straight on loud videos.
I do not think that having an ad on the side works. I think that if an ad has some interesting movement going on that people might pay more attention. Or, maybe it is just me.
My son is of the opinion that some people think that they will get more attention if they annoy people. Personally, I do not think that annoying people gets you anywhere, but others think different. They think that annoying ads do accomplish what the advertisers want.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Monday, May 6, 2013
Best Spell Checker
I am an absolute atrocious speller. If you cannot get the first 3 letters of a word you will never find it in a dictionary. I used to use a word list book to find a word that I wanted to use. Now I use Google Search. At least Word will tell me when I have an incorrectly spelt word. It seldom gives a suggestion.
Google Search is so much better at trying to figure out what I am trying to spell. Not only that, but Google Search will spell things in context. So if you give it a few words in the sentence around what you are trying to spell, it will get the right word.
It would help if I pronounced words properly. I think that is my main problem. People think I have an accent, but I am just not pronouncing words correctly. I get close, but close does not help in spelling. We all have our faults; you just cannot let them slow you down. I have given lots of talks on specialized subjects as I used to work in IT.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Google Search is so much better at trying to figure out what I am trying to spell. Not only that, but Google Search will spell things in context. So if you give it a few words in the sentence around what you are trying to spell, it will get the right word.
It would help if I pronounced words properly. I think that is my main problem. People think I have an accent, but I am just not pronouncing words correctly. I get close, but close does not help in spelling. We all have our faults; you just cannot let them slow you down. I have given lots of talks on specialized subjects as I used to work in IT.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Mutual Funds
There has been a lot of discussion lately about the high cost of mutual funds in Canada. First of all I do not much buy mutual funds and when I do, I buy low costs ones. Secondly, I think that if you want someone else to work for you, you have to pay them. In buying mutual funds, you need to pay the fund company and in some cases you need to pay both the fund company and an advisor.
What I have in mutual funds is TD MMF with a MER of 0.77% and with a current yield of 0.36%. Not a great deal, but this is for cash in my RRSP accounts and I need this money to be safe. The other Mutual fund I have is TD Dow Jones Industrial Avg Index - e U$TDB953 to soak up extra money in the US Trading account. This has a MER of 0.33%.
I think that people have a responsibility to know what they are paying for mutual funds. They can ask and make sure that they get an answer. There is also a number of different ways to get the information on the internet. Most mutual fund companies have internet sites and there is Sedar.
I used TD Waterhouse site to get information on my funds. Most Mutual Fund companies have web sites that tell you about their different funds. You can also go to Sedar to get information on various Mutual funds. You go to "Search Data" base and then, "Search for Investment Fund" Documents. I could get information on my TD DJIA fund by inserting "TD Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Fund" in the Investment Fund Name box and then search for documents.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
What I have in mutual funds is TD MMF with a MER of 0.77% and with a current yield of 0.36%. Not a great deal, but this is for cash in my RRSP accounts and I need this money to be safe. The other Mutual fund I have is TD Dow Jones Industrial Avg Index - e U$TDB953 to soak up extra money in the US Trading account. This has a MER of 0.33%.
I think that people have a responsibility to know what they are paying for mutual funds. They can ask and make sure that they get an answer. There is also a number of different ways to get the information on the internet. Most mutual fund companies have internet sites and there is Sedar.
I used TD Waterhouse site to get information on my funds. Most Mutual Fund companies have web sites that tell you about their different funds. You can also go to Sedar to get information on various Mutual funds. You go to "Search Data" base and then, "Search for Investment Fund" Documents. I could get information on my TD DJIA fund by inserting "TD Dow Jones Industrial Average Index Fund" in the Investment Fund Name box and then search for documents.
This blog is meant for educational purposes only, and is not to provide investment advice. Before making any investment decision, you should always do your own research or consult an investment professional. See my site for an index to these blog entries and for stocks followed. Follow me on Twitter.
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