Weekend Reading – Dividend raises, giveaways, retirement numbers and more #moneystuff

Weekend Reading – Dividend raises, giveaways, retirement numbers and more #moneystuff

Welcome to my latest Weekend Reading edition – where I share some of my favourite articles from the week that was across the personal finance and investing blogosphere.

These were my posts from the past week:

In golf, the finishing holes are just as important as the front nine to score well.  The same could be said for asset accumulation years and asset drawdown or decumulation years when it comes to money management.  Read on how you can earn retirement income for life and enter a giveaway to receive a copy of a new book about it.

High fund fees and nasty trailer commissions should be a BIG flag to you as an investor!  If someone’s compensation depends on your purchase of a particular fund, then that’s a conflict of interest.  The financial product someone is selling you might not be in your best interest.  It can pad the salesperson’s bank account though.

Here are the juicy dividend increases that just added more than $100 per year in retirement income to our portfolio – by doing nothing – even though the markets are lower this year:

Manulife Financial increased their dividend by 7%.

Brookfield Renewable Energy increased their dividend by 5%.

Suncor increased their dividend by 12.5%.

BCE increased their dividend this week.

Let’s not forget Great West Life increased their dividend by 6%.  As Don Cherry says – beauty.

Enjoy these articles!

Apparently the precise retirement number for an individual, based on a recent survey to Canadians, is $756,000.  From the article:  “Unfortunately, few individuals are close to accumulating even a significant fraction of that $756,000. On average, Canadians have saved $184,000, a figure that’s higher than I might have expected, given the abysmal retirement savings levels south of the border. (According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost half of U.S. families have no savings at all, the median amount is US$5,000 and the median for U.S. families with savings is just US$60,000.)”  This means the majority of Boomers in the U.S. and the next generation (Gen X) living there might be living out retirement years in poverty.

Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) are getting a bum rap as a tax trap.  I guess many Boomers now entering retirement have never realized they didn’t pay any tax on their RRSP contributions – essentially what they had all along was a government loan that had to be paid back at some point. 

This is the linchpin in any TFSA vs. RRSP better debate.

Here are the drawbacks associated with behavioural financial during a market correction – according to Ben Carlson.  Carlson cites Thinking Fast and Slow by Nobel Prize Winner Daniel Kahneman in his article.  I thoroughly enjoyed that book.  One of my favourite takeaways from this book about our general behaviour and how it impacts our investing choices was this:

We are born prepared to perceive the world around us, recognize objects, orient attention, avoid losses, and fear spiders.”–Daniel Kahneman.  How true…

Enjoy the weekend and see you next week!

Mark

My name is Mark Seed - the founder, editor and owner of My Own Advisor. As my own DIY financial advisor, I'm looking to start semi-retirement soon, sooner than most. 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.

36 Responses to "Weekend Reading – Dividend raises, giveaways, retirement numbers and more #moneystuff"

  1. Mark. I never called anyone stupid! and you deleted most of my above comment – and – you should not have. Please delete all my comments from your entire site and block me. Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Lloyd: I do know how it works (just like what you know {as we all can read the CPP website}) – but did not know (and either did you) that if someone took it at age 60 would benefit in this way.

    Just because you did not take your CPP early at 60 – doesn’t mean others need to as well.

    Thanks for hearing me out.

    Reply
    1. Mike, please refrain from calling others’ contributions on this site “stupid” or otherwise – because you will be blocked from this site if that happens again. That type of commentary has no place in public or online. I have edited your comment.

      Reply
  3. Done further investigation on CPP that I thought many would be interested in.
    As many of you know – I have always stated taking CPP at age 60 was better than waiting to age 65. I gave many reasons why here https://www.myownadvisor.ca/should-you-defer-your-canada-pension-plan-to-age-65-or-70/ and here https://www.myownadvisor.ca/when-to-take-your-canada-pension-plan-benefit/
    Now I have learned that when your spouse dies and you get 60% of his/her CPP – IT’S ON WHAT THE DECEASED WOULD HAVE MADE AT AGE 65! (regardless if he/she took it at age 60).
    CPP said:
    “We first calculate the amount that the CPP retirement pension is, or would have been if the deceased had been age 65 at the time of death”. and there is more……….. The max any one person can collect is $1,134.17 monthly. This includes your CPP and the 60% from your spouse (together). So if you were collecting the max CPP $1,134.17 and your spouse was collecting the max CPP $1,134.17 – then when one dies – you lose $1,134.17 monthly and there is no 60% to collect. So why bother trying to collect the max? or better yet – Why wait to age 65 to collect your CPP?

    Reply
    1. “Now I have learned”

      You make me laugh Mike…you freely admit you didn’t know how CPP works in some instances yet feel that we should consider your advice on how we should utilize our CPP? Got any medical advice for us too? 🙂

      Reply
    1. He has made the attempt. Unfortunately, I am far too non-committal, lazy, and unfocused to submit the required information. That’s not a bad thing, however, as I’d rather not add even more noise to the internet (I fail most of the time). People should expend their resources wisely & reading about a screwball is not wise usage. 😉 Perhaps Mark should contact you…

      Reply
  4. re: According to the Economic Policy Institute, almost half of U.S. families have no savings at all, the median amount is US$5,000 and the median for U.S. families with savings is just US$60,000. This means the majority of Boomers in the U.S. and the next generation (Gen X) living there might be living out retirement years in poverty.

    Retire in poverty? More than half their population is already living in poverty. America has the greatest material wealth in the world; it also has the greatest degree of wealth inequality. Most people own nothing, a few people own almost everything. The top 20% own 90% of the wealth in America; the bottom 80% own 10% of the wealth. The average net worth of the bottom 60% is $1,000.

    Being that it’s Black History Month, if you think not too hard, it’s easy to conclude as to why America has developed this type of financial scenario as opposed to a country like Canada.

    Reply
    1. Oh I know why America is the way it is…very sad history really…and they are just starting to wrap their heads around the problem!

      The few owning and controlling the wealth and the majority owning most of the debt, is only accelerating in that country.

      Reply
  5. Hi Mark. Thanks for all the links in your message above, I will read all of them. This FIRE journey is fun!!! I am enjoying it. The FIRE blogs I’ve been reading are from people living in the U.S. I decided that FIRE Canadian blogs will be even more useful for me and so I found your blog. You have an excellent blog. Thanks for sharing your info with everyone. I’ve learned so much reading your blog and I’m looking forward to learning even more. I just read about index fund investing ever since I discovered the FIRE community recently (Where have I been?). Wished I had known about this at the beginning of our careers. All the money we have paid in MER mutual fund fees is sad. I will be diligently reading your blog from now on. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    1. Thanks for the kind words. I’m not overly FIRE-focused. Sure, my wife and I could liquidate our assets and home and rent somewhere for the rest of our lives, now, and never work again; that lifestyle is not for us.

      “I just read about index fund investing ever since I discovered the FIRE community recently (Where have I been?).”

      Not sure 🙂

      The key thing about indexing is – what goes up (over the last 10 years in the markets) must also come down. Up and down the market will go and you will need to be comfortable with gaining 20%, losing 30% and gaining 15% back again over the ebbs of flows of years of investing.

      Please do read diligently and tell others to do the same. Happy to post any particular content you are looking for.

      Reply
  6. All my investments are ETFs (huge diversification national/north american/international and all sectors) includes bonds, fixed income, stocks. I can sit back and relax all the time, no matter how crazy the stock exchanges go up and down. My plan is to use only the dividend/interest on my monies, so I never have to use the principal. Technically it won’t matter what the price of any shares are if I have no interest in cashing them in, just collecting the monthly income they earn. Any loss/gain is only on paper.

    Reply
  7. Look at the ETF “FIE” primarily all Canadian banks and major insurance companies.
    Ranges $6.00 to $7.75 per share and pays $0.04 per share per month.
    Fabulous deal (no matter what price you buy it at) because you get so many share for the price and that $0.04/share adds up quickly.
    IE: $40/month dividend on 1,000 shares (try getting that much from an ETF or stock valued over $20/share, not easy to find).

    Reply
    1. I’ve looked at FIE and decided to buy a lot of the actual stocks that are in that fund. I’m not wild about the fees (MER .94%) and I’ve seen numerous increases in the individual stock’s dividends but FIE has not changed their payout. Leads me to wonder.

      Reply
    2. I prefer to own the banks and lifecos outright KH. Avoid the fees and avoid the fluctuations in ETF distributions over time. I looked at FIE and with 0.65% management fee and 0.94% MER that wouldn’t be a product I would own personally but I can appreciate the distribution yield for some investors. Just be mindful you’re getting some of your own money back 🙂

      https://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investor-education/is-my-etfs-yield-too-good-to-be-true/article32373227/

      Reply
        1. You’re absolutely correct. I have updated my comment, I was simply looking at the first information I saw on the right of the table. That’s WAY too high for me to own that fund! Besides, I own most of those stocks directly.

          Reply
  8. Hi,
    I’m thinking of revising up my portfolio so that I mostly buy index funds but also buy Canadian stocks that will generate dividends. The popular dividend generating Canadian stocks are mostly in the banking, oil (including oil pipeline companies), insurance companies and utilities sectors. I’ve read other blogs say that with this approach if one or more sectors is in trouble then in your retirement years your dividend income will drastically decrease or some of your stocks might even go to zero. They instead recommend getting your dividends from a 50/50 allocation whereby you try to live on bond income during your retirement years. The idea with both approaches above is so that you don’t have to sell your assets for income (e.g. 4% withdrawal concept). What are the pros/cons of the above approaches and which approach do you plan on taking in your retirement years. This topic will be a good idea for a new post/article.

    Thanks.

    Reply
    1. Nothing wrong whatsover with mostly indexed funds. Smart.

      “They” are experts, yes, but these are general rules of thumb that do not always apply to all investors. Personally, I’m planning on living off dividends to some degree.
      https://www.myownadvisor.ca/why-living-off-your-dividends-or-distributions-works/

      Here are some of our assumptions for retirement:
      https://www.myownadvisor.ca/revisiting-financial-freedom-assumptions/

      Here is another take on dividends in retirement:
      https://www.myownadvisor.ca/can-you-have-too-much-income-from-dividends/

      Lastly, this is what I think about the 50/50 bond stuff. I prefer to have a cash wedge:
      https://www.myownadvisor.ca/cash-wedge-opening-investment-taps/

      At some point I will write about Variable Percentage Withdrawal since I believe it is the ideal retirement asset drawdown approach.

      Thanks for being a fan. How is your journey coming along?
      Mark

      Reply
  9. Dear SST:
    What is your take on this market pull back/crash!
    Your friend in investing.
    Gary

    Just a little humour to pass the time Mark! (:
    (I know your take. “IGNORE”)

    Reply
    1. Hi Gare!
      To be honest, I didn’t even know there was one until a co-worker who is due to retire this year made mention of it. I kinda have better things to do than follow sensationalist headlines like “Dow’s Biggest Ever One Day Loss!”. C’est la vie.

      Reply
  10. You can add BIP.UN to the list of dividend increases as they just announced a $.035 increase to the quarterly payments. It’s been a good week despite the market pull back.

    Reply
      1. Absolutely sweet! I’m up a bundle in increased dividends just this week with the vast majority being DRIPped. Still have BAM.A to go next week and the banks towards the end of the month.

        Reply
            1. I’ll give TD an almost certainty to $0.63 per share.

              I’ll give CM and RY a solid should be. CM will finally split their stock 2:1.

              BNS will raise to $0.81 per share.

              Let’s see and hope 🙂

              Reply

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