Weekend Reading – Kinder Morgan, giveaways, Google finance alternatives 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.
I shared my investment history with this dividend stud: Johnson & Johnson.
Amongst multiple hours of overtime this week, I managed to sneak in an evening presentation about my investing history, lessons learned to date and more with members of the Ottawa Share Club. By all accounts, the 40-member audience that night took to my presentation rather well – so thanks to the Share Club for having me. I’ll try to get out and see you again to discuss investing.
Enjoy these articles I checked out, the following news, another giveaway, and of course…your weekend!
Mark
Congrats to Elizabeth who won a copy of this book in my last giveaway. Your book is on the way!
A reminder about this latest giveaway running for a few more weeks: enter to win my gently used edition of The Quest for Alpha by L. Swedroe. You can find my review of that book here.
After Google Finance shut down recently, lots of investors have been looking for alternatives to manage/follow their portfolio. Dividend Earner has an extensive review of those alternatives here.
Speaking of portfolios, you can read about how I built my DIY stock (and ETF) portfolio here.
Ottawa looks like it wants to go ahead with the Trans Mountain pipeline, despite tons of (annoying) opposition in B.C. about it. The sticky politics of Canada aside, Kinder Morgan raised their dividend by a whopping 60% this week.
Here’s what a spending cleanse might look and feel like – after it crashes and burns.
Dividend Growth Investing & Retirement (I’ll probably type DGI&R for short next time!) wrote about why dividend investing can work. I would agree with his summary: “The number one reason to be a dividend growth investor is that it’s a good strategy that you can stick with LONG TERM. A successful investing strategy requires long-term focus. For almost any legitimate investment strategy to work you need to give it time, ideally, you want to be thinking in terms of decades.”
This might be the solution to Canada’s housing woes and affordability – multi-generational family dwellings and living. Love my parents and in-laws dearly but no thanks.
Here’s why DIY investors should hate class A (advisor-class) funds. I don’t own any and never intend to. The punch-line of this article is really nothing new when it comes to investing:
- Know exactly how much you are paying in fees (and why)
- Understand the long-term impact of fees (and how high fees can kill your portfolio value over time)
- Make sure the services you receive (about any financial advice) is worth it.
Common sense right? 🙂 Easy to say, hard to do sometimes.
Deals and reminders
Save BIG bucks when opening your self-directed TFSA BMO account with my BMO promo code here.
Here is a free trial to unbiased stock and ETF suggestions in Canada. This can help you set-up your new low-cost, self-directed portfolio!
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.
I would like to win to know more about investing and portfolios.
Stay tuned to this channel then Cassandra! Thanks for being a fan.
I am hoping to win your gently used copy of The Quest for Alpha. ?
Good luck!
Thanks for making a presentation at the Ottawa Share Club meeting on Tuesday evening. I enjoyed hearing your story and learning more about DRIPs.
No problem Stuart and thanks for following along 🙂
CNR should be around our entire lifetime. Dividend yield is close to 2% but should increase every year. Still a bit pricey now. When it goes down some more I plan on getting some.
Agreed. I will buy some during the next/upcoming recession.
Thoughts on ENB? Big debts since buying Spectra and interest rates are expected to rise. However, they are selling off their non-core businesses to try to reduce their debt. Dividends are high but can they continue to afford it? I believe they promised 10% DG until 2020. I bought some ENB when it dipped but will continue to monitor it.
Will continue to own like I do other 30+ stocks. Unless the dividend is totally cut, I will consider selling but even if they do trim their dividend by 25%, which is possible in the coming years that will only increase their share price as shareholders react.
Good article. I think what we are learning with Kinder Morgan is the true value of existing pipelines and the pipeline companies. These things are priceless since it’s fricken impossible to build new ones. I think I’ll load up on some more Trans Canada, Enbridge, Pembina, Inter Pipeline, Kinder Morgan, etc. We are going to be on hydro carbons for at least another 1 or 2 generations (40-80 years).
That’s my thinking as well. I like my chances with TRP, Enbridge, Pembina, Inter Pipeline, Kinder Morgan, etc. over the next 40 years. That’s all I need my portfolio to last and pay dividends for.
Haha, Lloyd. I think I’m on that same ship, or is it the SS Minnow with Gilligan?
Mark, nice to see your profile and interest in what you’re doing is rising amongst the financial community. Good job!
LOL, always need to be asked things I guess?! All the best.
Whilst I joke about the issue, I’m really not that concerned. As I’ve stated before, I’ve set up the portfolio that if the market takes a severe hit (prices or dividends) we would be fine. Now if a massive nuclear war starts, or we get a catastrophic asteroid hit, then it really doesn’t matter.
But I really don’t see the downside of being stranded with Mary Anne or Ginger. 😉
LOL!!
Probably most investors, 90% or more agree with the “Modern Portfolio Theory”
https://www.investopedia.com/walkthrough/fund-guide/introduction/1/modern-portfolio-theory-mpt.aspx
and measure their success by the “Expected Rate of Return:”
Expected return is the amount of profit or loss an investor anticipates on an investment that has various known or expected rates of return. It is calculated by multiplying potential outcomes by the chances of them occurring and then summing these results. For example, if an investment has a 50% chance of gaining 20% (that’s price) and a 50% change of losing 10%, the expected return is (50% * 20% + 50% * -10%), or 5%.
I’m more of a “Titanic Portfolio Theory” guy.
I hope to heck the ship don’t hit an iceberg whilst I’m on it.
DGI&R article was certainly interesting but I doubt it will sway many Indexers.
For us the #1 reason to be a DG investor is: “One can see the results of their strategy each month or quarter, when the companies pay their dividend.” Did the company continue to pay the dividend, did it grow the dividend and is ones income Growing? It’s that simple.
Who cares whether one is doing as well as the Index, various benchmarks or if the price of the stock is up or down.
The other problem with DGI&R’s article is that it doesn’t allow for one to add funds to buy more shares over the periods or that one reinvests the dividends. That would change the charts considerably, but would be almost impossible to present. John might have done much better, but Mary’s income would also be much higher.
Agreed. I’m a big fan of reinvesting dividends but I know some investors are not. To each their own!
That’s OK. Like you cannew, until my basket of 30-CDN and 10-U.S. dividend paying stocks stop increasing my income every month, I probably won’t switch my investing approach.
CDN:
-7 major banks + 3 major telcos + 3 major lifecos + 4 major pipelines + 4 major utilities + SU.
I also own about 10 individual REITs.
Add in Brookfields BEP.UN and BIP.UN and BPY.UN.
Almost all of those stocks are DRIPping every quarter, some of them x2 shares or more every quarter.
U.S.:
-JNJ, PG, PFE, ABBV, SO, DUK, T, VZ, KMI. A few hundred shares of VYM and HDV for good measure. I might eventually sell VYM and HDV to own just stocks. We’ll see. Maybe I’ll just index everything in the U.S. eventually. No idea.
re: Did the company continue to pay the dividend, did it grow the dividend and is ones income Growing? It’s that simple.
It’s not really that simple. One should read the story behind the dividend to see if it’s a worthwhile place for your money.
If three multi-millionaires approached you for investment in their new company, would it matter to you how exactly each of them acquired their wealth or only that they were wealthy? Which multi-millionaire would you trust to manage your investment money: a) the ex-welfare recipient who won the lottery, b) the criminal who ran online scams and fraud, or c) the entrepreneur who parlayed hard work, diligence, and business acumen to build a successful company?
Some times face value isn’t all that valuable.
SST: Certainly one can use all sorts of checks to confirm that the dividend is sound, but where the companies have paid/raised the dividend for years, as with ours, we pass on doing much more. For example: ENB is down a lot, has high debt, lots of negative news, etc. but we are content to let it ride.
re: Kinder Morgan
Wondering why you think opposition to the pipeline is “annoying”?
re: DGI&R…long term strategy…
Best to think about stocks as a 20-25 year bond instead of some 90’s style get-rich-quick vehicle. With that in mind, it only makes sense that one will be best off if investing early (i.e. before the age of 50).
re: multi-generational family dwellings and living…no thanks
North America/”The West” is perhaps the only culture which does not live like this. It’s probably more detrimental to our society across the board than living multi-generational. Especially so when it comes to finances. I once knew a Korean businessman who sponsored Korean immigrants. There would always be perhaps three (or more) families who, upon arrival in Canada, would buy one house and all live in it. There would be at least six incomes paying off the mortgage. Once the first house was paid for, one family would move into another house but all three would contribute to pay off that mortgage. In very short order all three families would wind up living in their own mortgage-free dwelling whilst their native Canadian neighbours still had years of labouring in front of them to pay off their mortgage by themselves.
Just that regardless of rail or truck or pipeline transportation, the oil is going to move across the country. I don’t understand folks lobbying against pipelines yet they want to drive a car (with gas power). Not everyone in B.C. mind you…just annoying we cannot work in the best interests of our country. Alas, politics will never end 🙂
Some families in Canada do this but I would agree with you, it’s not the norm in the western world.
Cheers.