Reader Questions – More Saving and Investing Updates

Posted on March 14, 2023 by | 2 Comments

Reader Questions – More Saving and Investing Updates

With more thanks to so many fine readers and subscribers, welcome to more reader questions – more saving and investing updates with my answers.

I’ll remind all readers today that I’ll be the first person to acknowledge our saving and investing approach might not be suitable to everyone – we are just not perfect people!

However, I will say that things are working out in our financial favour so far thanks to year-over-year goal discipline, including these recent objectives for this year.

Reader Questions:Reader Questions

Over the last few months, including some emails recently, I’ve received various emails and questions from readers about how we invest the way we do, my thoughts on bonds, the current market, and much more.

So, with that in mind I thought I would answer these specific questions below. 

(Reader questions are in bold, my answers follow, questions adapted only slightly for the site.)

Mark, I appreciated the change to your monthly dividend income updates, how you are projecting your annual dividend income. Very clear how and why you’re going to drawdown certain accounts over time which makes sense to me. Can you clarify your intentions for part-time work, what does that mean – I assume you’ll need that income in addition to your $40k per year you need for your living “basics?” Can you expand that that?

You bet!

For reference, this is what the reader was referring to:

My January 2023 dividend income update – projected annual dividend income (PADI) for the year – and the more recent February below:

February 2023 Dividend Income Update

Some co-workers (I know for sure…) and I believe my manager reads this site, so I need to be careful about what I write (!) while being honest but essentially I can share this when it comes to my intentions for part-time work, what that could mean:

  • My wife and I believe after all mortgage debt is gone, likely by mid-2024, we could consider scaling back a bit from our current roles as full-time employees – and work part-time. That would be nice. Nothing is assured nor even planned at this point with our employer but working more on our own terms – to provide a better work/lifestyle balance – is absolutely where we are headed. We are both hopeful that our employer will want to retain our work, in similar jobs, given our experience and skills but nothing in life (nor work) is guaranteed. We remain optimistic of course for these future discussions!
  • In addition to my part-time work with my employer, I hope to continue running My Own Advisor in addition to taking on some expanded blog/services work, including my efforts over at Cashflows & Portfolios. I really enjoy running both sites and engaging with like-minded people 🙂

So, part-time work, in some manner, will be supplemental to the annual dividend income above. 

I hope that helps clarify!

Mark, you have mentioned before you’re not anti-bond per se but you don’t own any bonds in your portfolio. Have you changed your position on that with higher interest rates of late?

Nope. Ha.

I still have no plans to own any bonds near-term. 

There is a case to be made to own bonds IMO, a few reasons, I just don’t have these reasons in my plan.

Let me know if you agree with those three (3) key reasons in that post. Curious!

Mark, are you going to buy more stocks this year? If so, what ones?

Well, I really haven’t decided much beyond my TFSA investments already made. If Canadian banks continue to get hit, I might buy more of those. RY, TD and BMO are pretty much always on my buy list.

Hello Mark, I have read some of your posts quite carefully. Could you share the following/confirm the following:
1. In TFSA account, one should have Canadian stocks and REITs?
2. In the RRSP/RRIF, one should consider U.S. stocks and REITs?
3. In a taxable account, one should consider Canadian stocks and lower-yielding U.S. stocks?
Finally, is there a recommended list of Canadian and U.S. dividend stocks to start my research with?
 
Generally speaking, yes, that’s how I generally invest in asset location terms. You can read more on My Dividends page. Yes, I like personally, generally speaking:
  • CDN stocks + CDN REITs = Taxable, TFSAs, RRSPs, LIRAs
  • U.S. stocks and U.S. ETFs = RRSPs, LIRAs.

I don’t keep any recommendations lists myself but I like using the ETFs like XIU (Canada) and NOBL (U.S.) for skimming ideas.

Mark, once I max out my tax sheltered / registered accounts (TFSA, RRSP in that order, like you have done), I’d like to put the rest into a non-registered account and ramp-up taxable investing. I know you’re biased to Canadian dividend paying stocks in a non-registered account but if you had to go back in time, and they were available then, would you use Horizons ETFs? Does that not make more sense from a tax perspective?

Yes, thanks to the Canadian dividend tax credit, it may make sense for an investor to hold Canadian dividend stocks in a non-registered account – like I do. 

That said, there are risks with individual stocks and on top of that, it might not be as tax efficient as other choices. Enter in Horizons ETFs as a great tax efficient option. 

Check out this post:

Tax treatment of Canadian dividend paying stocks

And then compare that information with this post:

Tax Efficient Investing – Horizons ETFs

If I didn’t have lots of capital gains to deal with (to sell any stocks that I now own in my taxable account….), then going back in time, I would probably invest in MORE lower-yielding Canadian dividend paying stocks for capital gains and/or own some Horizons ETFs. I still might invest in some Horizons ETFs in the coming years anyhow that follow a total return approach. I will keep you posted. 

Mark, what BTSX stocks do you own this year, from the 2023 list – right now?

All of them 🙂

Beat the TSX

I enjoyed your “Then and Now” post on Telus. Have you done one for TD Bank or other bank stocks?

I have, but not TD Bank yet! I will add TD to my list – that assumes I still own it?!

I’ve linked to other “Then and Now” posts and stocks I’ve owned over the years, in the Telus post. 

Let me know if you have any questions!

Reader Questions – Saving and Investing Updates Summary

Readers, keep your questions coming. I enjoy trying to keep up to every email, every comment and every interaction on Twitter with me as well.

Thanks for reading and sharing. Drop me a comment below!

Mark

My name is Mark Seed - the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I've surpassed my goal and now investing beyond the 7-figure portfolio to start semi-retirement with. Find out how, what I did, and what you can learn to tailor your own financial independence path. Join the newsletter read by thousands each day, always FREE.

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2 Responses to "Reader Questions – More Saving and Investing Updates"

  1. RICARDO · Edit

    Although AQN has paid $0.18 previously they have announced a dividend cut which will show up next month
    “Effective for its first quarter 2023 dividend (expected to be payable in April 2023), AQN intends to lower its quarterly dividend from $0.1808 to $0.1085 per common share, improving financial flexibility” – from the AQN website. Company Release – 1/12/2023
    I am surprised that this has not seemingly been taken in to account when variolas bloggers discuss AQN.
    As usual dividends are paid out at management’s discretion and this cut has been well advertised by AQN.
    AQN will disappear, for now, from the BTSX listing. I realize that Matt updates the BTSX in January so obviously the caveat of doing your due diligence before committing any money comes to mind in this situation
    I hold some AQN myself but do not plan to sell at present.

    RICARDO

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