Investing

How to Bake a Potato (Ninja Style)

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If you found this post because you don’t know how long to put a potato in the microwave for, then you are definitely on the wrong blog! I’m talking about the Couch Potato investment strategy, or basically “Passive Index Investing”, made popular by the Canadian Couch Potato. Why Bother Baking a Potato? Recently, Andrew Hallam (a well respected investment blogger) made a large scale move in his portfolio, selling some 700K of winning stocks to reinvest into Index ETF’s. Why? Good question. Basically he feels he cannot continue to beat the market year after year with an “Active” stock picking …

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Max Out Your TFSA, and Forget the RRSP!

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With RRSP season approaching, and the chaotic frenzy that ensues in January and February, I thought I would jump to the front of the queue and get the RRSP ball rolling for 2011. The premise of this article is that everyone should max out their TFSA’s first, and then consider whether they need to contribute to an RRSP.  Both investment vehicles grow tax free. The main advantage of the TFSA over the RRSP is you don’t have to pay taxes on the amounts you withdraw.   Conventional Wisdom Conventional wisdom says to make the maximum contribution you are able to …

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Back to Basics (Fed Up with Mutual Funds)

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I received an email from a reader this afternoon. Like anyone who invested in mutual funds for years, they discovered  they weren’t making money. Surprise! They wrote how “Fed up with Mutual Funds” they were, but didn’t know how to get started in Dividend Investing. There are so many questions for the new Dividend Investor. If you have been investing in mutual funds, then a lot of this can seem complex and overwhelming. But once you make the start you are well on the road to keeping your own money and getting paid regular dividends, instead of paying mutual fund …

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Stock Trades ~ November 2010

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[adsenseLeft] A Stop Loss was triggered for Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN-T) @ $12.75 on November 9th, for a net profit of $308.25 . A few more of those trades and I’m getting some good returns, and reduced commissions as well. I really liked Pengrowth since it has great growth potential, and an excellent dividend yield. So I was sad to see it sold, but I stick to my plan. Stop Losses help prevent real losses and maximize profits. I will buy Pengrowth again should the price decline or there is a breakout. From the proceeds of Pengrowth I purchased 50 …

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