Weekend Reading – More dividend raises and vacation edition

Posted on February 4, 2023 by | 32 Comments

Weekend Reading – More dividend raises and vacation edition

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to a new Weekend Reading edition – highlighting some more dividend raises in our portfolio!

Once again, before I share some good news, other recent reads on my site:

I shared my long-term love for Telus stock here, as part of my portfolio, including index-beating returns over the last 10+ years.

I shared a few dividend raises last week as well with more flowing in below!

This is the taxation of investment income inside a corporation and what you need to consider with that. 

Weekend Reading – More dividend raises and vacation edition

Well, again, indexing fans will continue to say dividends aren’t everything of course but the facts are the facts: dividends are part of some important investor total returns and I’m a fan of them for my/our ever growing income.

I even get raises and our income goes higher when we’re on vacation!!

Beyond Canadian National Railway (CNR) and BlackRock (BLK) raises last week we received dividend raises from the following companies this week!

    • Bell Canada (BCE) increased their dividend by 5%.
    • Brookfield Infrastructure (BIP.UN / BIPC) raised their dividend by 6%.
    • Brookfield Renewable (BEP.UN / BEPC) raised their dividend by just over 5%.

via GIPHY

Ha.

Not quite…

Getting there!

More Weekend Reading…

Well, at the time of this post, I’m on vacation. 

We are very fortunate to have this as our morning view over coffee for the next week…

PuraVida - Weekend Reading February 3, 2023

#PuraVida folks. 

And when I’m ready for a swim…

Pura Vida - Swim - February 3, 2023

While travelling I found these articles, this week:

Have you wondered what a massive stress test the Global Financial Crisis would trigger, if it happened again to your retirement portfolio? Well, this is the answer below. 

Could You Retire if the Global Financial Crisis Happened Again?

A recent Ipsos Public Affairs poll conducted exclusively for Global News suggested a growing proportion of Canadians (22 per cent) are “completely out of money” to the degree that they would not be able to pay more for household necessities – thanks to higher inflation. Yikes. Debt and leverage can be a wealth killer. 

How might you consider investing for higher inflation?

Rob Carrick answered this question for commuters: how common is it to get a flat tire?

Rob was also very kind to highlight this previous post on my site:

IN RETIREMENT, HOW MUCH INCOME IS ENOUGH?

An investing blogger works through the question of how much income is enough in retirement. A key step here is estimating your retirement income needs. Some good news – you’ll need less than in your working years because you won’t be saving for retirement any more.

Dale Roberts told us the Bank of Canada is now going on an interest rate hiatus, after their most recent rate hike. 

Incredible video about energy from Mark Mills below. Yes, I’m all for renewable energy (and support it with my wallet/investing choices in fact) but I’ve been puzzled about any “transition” to a greener economy for some time now. This video distilled things for me.

The reality is, near-term, it’s not quite possible. At all. Zero chance.

The current economics and policymakers can’t make it happen even if they tried. Watch below. 

Great tips, guidance and more from my friends at MoneySense who continue to deliver the goods when it comes to making some smart tax time decisions. Check out this 2022 Income Tax Guide for Canadians.

On the dividend income journey file, some bloggers have already reported some amazing stuff – and it’s only early February!

Congrats to Rommel for this year-over-year growth:

“January brought us $1,076.98 in passive income from our TFSA accounts, representing a 12.03% year-over-year increase from January 2022.”

Another congrats to Dividend Daddy and this investing milestone:

Have a great weekend and I’ll be back next week with a new post!

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.

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32 Responses to "Weekend Reading – More dividend raises and vacation edition"

  2. DividendsOn · Edit

    For those who haven’t seen it yet, a few days ago Norm Rothery posted his Graphing Canadian Dividends 2023 using data from Professor Kenneth French showing returns from 1977 to the end of 2022.

    http://www.ndir.com/SI/articles/GraphingDividends23.pdf

    (Updated link by Mark 🙂 – thanks for the additional comment 🙂 )

    ——————————————————

    My favourite video this week on wise financial planning that I obtained from a news feed, and no, I’m not a football fan.

    Chad Johnson saved 83% of his salary by flying Spirit Airlines and wearing fake jewelry.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPfi2gKQd_w

    ——————————————————————————–

    Have a great vacation, Mark.

    Reply
  3. RONALD S. TUTHILL · Edit

    Hi Alex: When I started out I didn’t make much money so slowly invested in the ’70’s. I was lucky or as I tell everyone you make your own luck. The Arab oil crises in ’73-’74 put a damper on stocks and so I bought bonds. Boy was that a mistake as bonds pay interest and fully taxable. Also by ’79 – ’80 the bonds I bought for $94 – $99 were worth $62.625 so I wasn’t going to sell them so held them to maturity. The ’80’s I increased my stock holdings and have ever since. the dividends where high as preferreds were going for 9%. The yields have gradually dropped but I did buy Fortis in ’94 at $24.625 and 6%. As you can see the yields of my blue chip stocks was fairly high compared to today. That is why I laugh when I see analysts or bloggers talking about a stock with a juicy 3.4% yield. BAM now BN was acquired when they took over Great Lakes Power and since has split 5 times plus spinning off their platform companies and now the Manager. It doesn’t pay a great yield but the capital gain has increased exponentially. An example of what yields used to be is I was looking through my book and noticed B.C. Telecom 4.84% pre. I was curious so asked my dad when were interest rates ever down to 4.84%. He said I don’t know but they must have been at some point. Those shares that I bought between $14-$15 were recalled at $25.00. I had 1000 of each so I was sad to lose the dividend but happy with the capital gain.

    Reply
  4. RONALD S. TUTHILL · Edit

    Hi Alex: 1.5% is nothing to write home about. As a long term investor myself one example I can give is NA. I bought it when it was down in ’86 and ’87 at prices from $9.50 – $12.375 with the average being $10.875. the stock went up and so did the dividend and in ’14 they split the stock 2/1 in the $80.00 range. Now it is close to $100.00 and it has raised the dividend twice a year of late. As for gold I thought that electronic circuit boards usually used silver but I may be mistaken.

    Reply
    1. Alex · Edit

      Hi Ronald,

      This is why you have a balance between low and medium-high yielding stocks. I understand that if you are retired or in the final stage of your retirement preparation, you want yield greater than 2.5%. As a newly retired, this is my actual strategy. In a 30-40 years horizon, you might like the 1.5-2.5% yielder that grows its dividend 10%+ a year. YMMV.

      I’m also an owner of NA since the late 90s and benefited form their bi-annual increases. However, my biggest dividend improvement from NA was due to acquiring them in 2009 in my TFSA, in the middle of the great financial crisis.

      Gold is used a lot in electronics working in very high frequency ranges (MHz, GHz) since its surface doesn’t oxydize.

      Reply
  5. David · Edit

    Mark, great link to the Mark Mills talk, this theme is something I’m seeing more of in the past 6 months. The idea that the green transition doesn’t pencil out, $5 Trillion invested in green energy to move the needle from 2% Total energy usage to 3%, damn. Highlights a number of things, money isn’t real, our societies need for dense highly portable energy isn’t going away, and replacing it with diffuse energy sources, ie wind and solar is not going to work out.

    David

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      Totally, David. That Mark Mills video was outstanding and I learned a lot. It validated the blended energy solution we will need, not a massive “transition” that is actually fully unrealistic. I will still support some greener energy solutions with my wallet and personal behavioural choices of course since I want to support our planet but the reality is, nothing is going fully green anytime soon. Far from it.

      How is the investing coming these days? Any travel plans coming up?
      Mark

      Reply
      1. David · Edit

        Investing wise, surprisingly we are positive for 2023, where the markets have been negative. Not by much mind you. Dividend increases plus added money invested saw our income increase over 20%, which like Tawcan we are hitting “the law of big numbers” So no complaints, not that it would help nor would anyone listen. =)

        Mark I’m sure you and your readership are aware of the 4 R’s. Reduce, Reuse, Repair and lastly Recycle. The Repair R seems to have been forgotten by the propaganda machine for a long time, coming a bit more in vogue. If you can reduce your energy needs, that helps more than anything, similar to reducing your expenses can be easier than increasing your income.

        Travel wise, some big plans for the summer with the family. Looking forward to that, enjoy your time in the sun.

        David

        Reply
        1. Mark · Edit

          Thanks David. Very hot here!

          Smart stuff on the 4 Rs. One of the reasons why we downsized to our condo. Energy consumption is next to nothing and smaller environmental footprint.

          Any destinations booked for those travel plans?

          Back out to the Costa Rican sun now!
          Mark

          Reply
  6. RONALD S. TUTHILL · Edit

    Hi Mark: A while ago you wrote a blog on biases. I have a few. Grocers make tremendous profits but don’t give much out to shareholders as dividends. Miners are the same and you can’t eat gold. It is basically used for jewelry and dentil work or as a bar to put in your safety deposit box. The same can be said for retailers and restaurants as the prices are high but the dividends low. In the metals space I prefer the intermediates such as RUS and the REIT’s. I prefer companies that pay mid to high dividends and are solid companies. At one point BCE wanted to switch to an income trust but the government wouldn’t go for it. I think this is what brought to an end most income trusts in 2006.

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      Nothing wrong with that, Ronald, re: “I prefer companies that pay mid to high dividends and are solid companies.” – that bias and discipline has served you well!
      Mark

      Reply
    2. Alex · Edit

      Hi Ronald,

      I can’t talk about every grocer but I own Metro (MRU) shares since 2000. The average yield year over year is around 1.5% but, if you are patient, the 10%+ annual raises stack up. After 22.5 years, I get a yield on cost of 12%. Long term holding is the key. I tend to have a combination of low yield/fast growth and medium yield/medium growth.

      Regarding gold, it is heavily used in electronics, for internal wiring in integrated circuits and external contact points.

      Reply
  7. Alice Lawless · Edit

    Great post as always Mark, have a blast in paradise.
    Really enjoyed the Mark Mills video, makes me wonder if you have ever researched any ETFs (Canadian or International) dedicated to the type of resources he focused on eg lithium, copper, nickel etc for a long term play? Thanks much, Alice

    Reply
      1. Alice Lawless · Edit

        Hi Mark,
        Since you did my retirement review (which was a really great experience, so very helpful), I have bought some good Canadian Dividend stocks in a new non-registered account. I am just trying to wrap my head around the ACBs. I have ETFs XIC, XUU & XAW and am trying to keep things as simple as possible but Mark Mills really got my attention about the needed minerals for all the green initiatives. It’s something to ponder, but it may be better for a longer timeline like that of my son in his TFSA. I’ll check out the XIU too. Look forward to your next post, cheers, Alice

        Reply
        1. Mark · Edit

          Thanks again for the kind words, Alice – I remember 🙂 Happy to help you out!

          XIC, XUU and XAW is a very great set of ETFs – if it ain’t broke don’t fix it 🙂

          That said, there are some good mineral ETFs out there but a reminder that over long periods of investment returns, XIU is likely going to be very good for you; very good inside a TFSA, RRSP, and be very tax-efficient (in a taxable account) AND will own some mining stocks as well from Canada at least.

          No right or wrong, just considerations of course!
          Mark

          Reply
  8. RONALD S. TUTHILL · Edit

    Hi Mark: Nice spot and definitely warmer than yesterday here. I had an appointment with a doctor at the hospital and when I came out to go to the car my glasses didn’t fog up, they frosted over. My niece has been to Costa Rica and said she really liked it. A lot of greenery and pretty flowers. Once when we vacationed to Aruba a member of our bowling team and his wife took the cruise from Miami, to Panama, to Costa Rica, to Aruba and then back to Miami. Like all ‘ planners’ and financial analysts you tell the % raise but not what the raise is actually. %5 and 6% doesn’t tell me much. I did the math and divided by 4 to get .3825 for BIP.UN which is higher than .36. After being laid off for over 31 years I have come through the dot com bubble and the great recession unscathed and the latter I could have made a mint but snoozed and didn’t make as much as I could have. The stock in question is Teck Resources which was trading at $3.25 when I first saw it. I knew the story. Teck had borrowed money in the late ’90’s to buy Fording Coal and now had a large debt coming due but found itself in a credit or cash crunch as banks where not lending money. Teck is owned by the Keevil family and they wouldn’t let their company go down the drain. In the fall it was $3.85. If you had bought 10000 shares it would have cost you $38500.00 plus commission. That is not too much. In the second week of April of 2010 it was worth $45.625. on 1000 shares that is $456250.00 – commission. As you can see you would have been in over $400000.00 capital gain. This goes under the heading coulda, woulda, shoulda. The company sold a small slice to a Chinese company and used what they got to pay off the debt. After that the stock took off. During the recession I bought 1000 shares each of Manulife and BNS.

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      This is our third time in Costa Rica. Very nice here. Like any country, some challenges but the scenery is amazing…

      TECK stock has done very, very well since the COVID-19 pandemic began. I don’t own any but I wish I had that capital gain 🙂
      Mark

      Reply
  9. Gus · Edit

    Amazing pictures Mark ! nice and relaxing is what we need to re-energize and keep going.
    The video of Mark mills is so intresting and true the amount of money and materials that’s taken for greening and perhaps not greening the planet because I’ve read a while ago how much materials it will take to build one EV battery for a car , not sure what the real solution would be.
    Good raises rolled in last couple of weeks and hope to hear about more in the coming ones.
    Enjoy your Vacation.

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      Yes, that Mark Mills video was excellent. Definitely a blended energy solution ahead, and I’m fine with that, but oil and gas will be here for decades and generations to come in some form.

      Vacation is great so far, thanks very much!
      Mark

      Reply
  12. Rommel · Edit

    Hi Mark,

    That’s quite a view you have right there! Enjoy your vacation. One of our bucket lists of places to see. Thank you for including me in this edition of your weekend reading. Once again a ton of valuable information for folks building wealth and into retirement.

    Love those divvy raises. While we don’t post our RRSP portfolio I own BIP.UN while my wife hold BEP.UN and BCE both in our registered accounts. Also interesting to see how many companies will be able to increase this year. From here on we just keep our core holdings ~30 CAD & US moving forward.

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      Yes, I don’t list my entire portfolio either. Privacy and other reasons! More to come on that soon though 🙂

      As for BCE, BIPC, BEPC, I’m more than happy to own those!

      Keep up the great work with your TFSA investing – you’re doing great and the snowball is growing!
      Mark

      Reply
  13. Deane Hennigar (RBull) · Edit

    Life is good Mark. Wonderful looking spot. Looks great after we just got through the worst of our cold snap last night. Enjoy your holiday.

    Interesting juxtapose with link on so many Canadians in financial dire straits and references to a couple of DIY investors doing very well building their future retirement income. Congratulations to them, and best wishes to those struggling.

    That video with Mark Mills is an eye opener. Should be a must view for all. It would be interesting to have comments from our leaders on their take after viewing it, if they haven’t already.

    Reply
    1. Mark · Edit

      Yes, very interesting juxtapose for sure. Some folks are really feeling it, sadly. Others seem to be thriving.

      It’s not easy “out there” but for those folks that have been living well below their means for years, with higher rates now here, it doesn’t change their ways much.

      Yes, that Mark Mills video was outstanding.

      Have a great weekend, I’m going back to the pool! Sorry 🙂
      Mark

      Reply

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