I’m pleased to announce I am able to share my PowerPoint slides and handout notes from my recent presentation… This presentation is from the Take Control of Your Financial Future Seminar, held on Saturday April 20th, 2013, at the University of British Columbia. The seminar was sponsored by the Canadian MoneySaver. On behalf of Canadian MoneySaver, I would like to thank those who attended the seminar! I’d also like to thank CMS for the opportunity, permission to share my slides, and to those who came up and talked with me during the breaks. It was a pleasure to meet CMS readers! My presentation was titled: Sell Your Mutual Funds: Buy Index Funds and Dividend Stocks, and Start Making Money Now! The presentation was divided into four parts: Part 1 – Mutual Fund Fees and Performance Part 2 – Build Your Own Mutual Fund Part 3 – Buy What the Funds Buy Part 4 – Making the Switch You can download my presentation slides and notes at: Now available to newsletter ...

Read More »

This article was published in the November 2011 edition of the Canadian MoneySaver, and is posted here with permission. For more information visit www.canadianmoneysaver.ca I’ve added some additional copy to my original MoneySaver article and highlighted in blue text. Back in the September Canadian MoneySaver, I reviewed the once prevalent Income trust sector in, What Happened to the Income trusts? Part-1. I provided a review of the conversion of these Income trusts into corporations for the January 1st, 2011, deadline. I also provided a historical reference to why these trusts paid such high dividend yields, and why the dividend yields continued to remain so high, even under a corporate structure. The Illusion of High Yield The low returns of GIC’s (guaranteed investment certificates) over the years have pushed income oriented investors, many of whom are retirees, into higher yielding securities. Income trusts had fit the bill perfectly, because they offered generous yields – ...

Read More »

Tuesday I arrived home after attending the first annual Financial Bloggers Conference in Chicago (aptly named FinCon11). As some of you know I used to run a web company, so networking is one of my favourite past-times! (LOL the 3 drink tickets per night were awesome). I have a stack of 200 business cards from the conference, and I had the chance to meet all these people personally. That’s priceless, and I’ve certainly met some great financial bloggers I will be connecting and collaborating with further. Philip Taylor of PT Money, did an absolute outstanding job of organizing this conference – above and beyond!  And he is also a pretty humble and easy-going guy, a real professional. I can hardly wait to see what he does with FinCon12! One of the first people I met at the conference is Kylie Ofiu, an Australian blogger who has just published her first book – I’ll have more on that in mid October with a book giveaway!  And of course I met so many well know bloggers from ...

Read More »

This article was published in the September 2011 edition of the Canadian MoneySaver, and is posted here with permission. For more information visit www.canadianmoneysaver.ca Part -1 …to be continued in November 2011 January 1st 2011, was the deadline for Canadian income trusts (other than REITs – Real Estate Investment Trusts) to convert to corporations.  In this two-part series, I examine the basic changes of income trusts into corporations, and what’s happened to these high-yield dividend payers. Now that almost all income trusts have converted to corporations, which ones are still worth holding? The Cash Cow In Canada, income trusts were created as an alternative to the corporate structure.  The first income trust was Enerplus Resources, established in December 1985. Income trusts were created to avoid taxation, by paying out all their earnings (dividends) directly to shareholders. This meant that investors would get a higher yield, in exchange for paying all the tax ...

Read More »

This article was published in the July/August 2011 edition of the Canadian MoneySaver, and is posted here with permission. For more information visit www.canadianmoneysaver.ca Many dividend investors go to great lengths to screen dividend stocks. If you stick with the big dividend aristocrats or other big blue chips, you will do just fine. Some of these companies have been paying dividends for over 50 to 100 years! The economic stability of a company like that, which also increases its dividends year after year, is money in the bank. This is what most dividend investors look for, and it is the basis of Dividend Growth Investing. However, many good dividend paying stocks are not big blue chips with a significant dividend history, but may present good investment opportunity. They are usually higher yield stocks with smaller capitalization, but companies with a solid business plan, good management, and several years of operating revenue. The question is whether that company is a sound investment, ...

Read More »