Weekend Reading – Dividend hikes, giveaways and great blogs

Many Canadian banks released their earnings this week and even though some profits dropped for some of them, dividends were up for most.  At the time of this post:

• Royal Bank (RY) announced a dividend increase of 5%, to $0.63 per share,
• Bank of Montreal (BMO) declared their dividend will be $0.74 per share in Q2, and
• TD Bank (TD) announced their dividend will be $0.81 per share, payable on April 30, 2013.

Whether you’ve chosen to own these stocks directly, indirectly via an ETF or mutual fund or someone has chosen to own these stocks for you (re: Canada Pension Plan), I think this is good news folks.

Before we get to the Weekend Reading list, I want to remind you about the free point of purchase code I’m giving away to H&R Block’s online tax program this year.  Make sure you enter soon to be included in draw # 1.  This point of purchase code is up to a $30 value.  Who doesn’t like free stuff?

On that note, make sure you subscribe to my blog and continue to follow along – I’ve got more stuff to giveaway over the next few weeks and months.

Here are some articles I checked out this week, I hope you like them as well.

Canadian Finance Blog reviewed More Money for Beer and Textbooks.

For the same book, Sustainable Personal Finance provided a nice review as well.

Money Smarts Blog provided some saving account alternatives because of Ally’s demise.

Retire Happy told us what you should not use RRSPs for.

Carl Richards told us why we fear simple money solutions.  I like Carl’s comment about how we often confuse simple with easy.  I’m definitely guilty of that one, in many of life’s aspects.

Dividend Ninja informed us where to hold our international dividend-paying stocks.

Million Dollar Journey explained the differences between permanent and term insurance.

Beating The Index stated Canadian oil and gas stocks are hitting some new lows.  Time to buy?

Freedom Thirty Five Blog is thinking like the rich.

Canadian Personal Finance said – know your interest rate.

Boomer & Echo told us about 3 credit card products you should avoid.

Preet Banerjee on WhereDoesAllMyMoneyGo.com had a great podcast with one reader who became a DIY investor.  His savings rate was outstanding.  Regarding the intro to the podcast, I actually liked the new speech synthesizer but without it, I do find Preet swears more often, so the synthesizer can’t really compete.  “A” for effort though.

The Financial Post said more Canadian companies might hop on the dividend bandwagon.

The Dividend Pig said there are opportunities in the Canadian mining sector.

Canadian Couch Potato shared some estimates about future stock returns.  In Dan’s post he wrote:  “As of December, the data predict future real returns (after inflation) of 5.7% for Canada, 4.7% for the US, and 6.6% for international and emerging markets.”

The Big Cajun Man offered a few things to do with your tax refund.  I wonder what I’ll do with my $100?

Larry MacDonald told us a few things we do can with our RRSPs.

Michael James on Money had an interesting case study for managing RRSPs and RRIFs.

I enjoyed reading how one blogger turned his investments around.  Nicely done Eric.

My University Money had me at “beer”, as in the best discount beers in Canada.  He missed Maclays though.

Modest Money had the oddest financial claims of all time.