Weekend Reading – Top Canadian investment sites, buying at all-time highs, #HNY edition!

Weekend Reading – Top Canadian investment sites, buying at all-time highs, #HNY edition!

Hey Folks!

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 know you’ve been busy with family and likely some well-deserved downtime during the holiday season, so I’ve linked to my recent Weekend Reading editions below for your future perusal!

Weekend Reading – The Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Edition!

Weekend Reading – Saving $62,000, investing lessons learned, XUU for TFSA, and more #moneystuff

I want to wish you a VERY Happy New Year – including much health and happiness to you and your families. 2020 has been a trying year but 2021 brings some optimism and some new beginnings. 

Best wishes to all,

Mark

Weekend Reads

Dividend Growth Investing & Retirement said you could double your dividend income with dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) and strong dividend growth rates. 

Yes. That is true…kinda like the Rule of 72. Assuming about a 7.2% or so return over the coming decade, you will double your money. Same goes for your dividend growth. From the article:

“Your dividends grow from the initial $4,000/year to $7,869/year after a decade.

Ok, so 7% dividend growth doesn’t quite double in 10 years, but you get close.

You’d actually need an average of 7.2%/year dividend growth to double your dividend income in 10 years.”

I know this is true myself. I’ve seen a steady rise in our income stream over the years thanks to maxing out our two Tax Free Savings Accounts and holding the existing non-registered assets I do. I hope to update my chart in the coming weeks for final 2020 results. Again, ~ 50% of this income stream is tax-free!!

Should you buy at all time high? Ideally, no. But even if you do, even if you consistently “buy high” you’re not going to do as nearly as bad as you think. This is because it’s better to invest than not invest at all and over time, the stock market tends to have “more good days” than bad days.

From Nick’s post:

“As investors our goal is to grow our wealth so that we can live the life we want.  Unless you are investing your entire nest egg into one asset class at a market peak, it is unlikely that buying near an all-time high will ever prevent you from living the life you want.”

Kudos to the team at Tangerine for launching some new low-cost global ETFs for Canadian investors.

What’s to like about this launch?

• Modest fee: Although not rock-bottom, 0.65% money management fee. 
• Hands off approach: For the fee, they will execute your automatic contributions, automatic rebalancing, and dividend reinvesting.
• Globally diversified: Each portfolio invests in stocks and/or bonds from over 45 countries across the world, offering a whole lot of opportunity for growth.
• Start with as little as $25: You don’t need a fortune to start investing. Get going with as little as $25. Millennials – you can get wealthy eventually by starting small. I know. Been there!

Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly – If You Can

Jordan is correct, I do like my dividends, total returns, craft beer and the odd dram of scotch on a cold winter night. Thanks to Jordan and his continued support of my site naming yours truly as one of his favourite sites to follow in 2021. All the best to Jordan – and to my readers – consider taking a page from Jordan’s investing book: he owns thousands of units of low-cost ex-Canada ETF XAW if you’re ever in doubt about how to invest beyond Canadian borders.

I intend to invest in some XAW myself within the next week as part of my lessons learned in diversification.

Congrats to Mike from Ontario who won a copy of The Grumpy Accountant and thanks to the 670 entries!

Mike, your book will be the snail mail soon when I get out for more walks this weekend…

Canadians looking for deals and incentives to park some money in 2021 have these top savings accounts to consider thanks to MoneySense.

Dale Roberts shared some fine Weekend Reading material of late, including some Beat the TSX (BTSX) stocks from this past year.

Thanks to Matt Poyner’s site, here are the current BTSX stocks to consider for 2021:

(I already own a few of these stocks myself and I believe most look like decent candidates to bounce back in 2021.)

Speaking of stocks, these are just some of the stocks I bought more of in 2020. I hope to release a similar post in early 2021.

GenYMoney shared some discount brokerage promotions for 2021. 

Some aspiring early retirees enjoyed my post last week (see Weekend Reading edition above) about a couple who had lived well below their means and wondered if they had “enough” to retire on by their early-50s with no pension. (Hint: they did!)

Well, I have another case study you might enjoy as well…

For the early 2021 investing inspiration file!

Samantha is 60 and wants to know if she can meet her spending goals. Find out here in this bulletproof retirement plan how much she can spend and what accounts to draw down first. 

Spend more or retire earlier in this bulletproof retirement plan

Happy investing and see you in the comments section!

See you next year!!!!

Mark