Over the last few weeks various bloggers and financial experts have been kind to respond to my question: what’s in your portfolio? I asked this question to find out what goals these investors had, learn a little about their investing strategies, uncover some of the products they own and see what advice they might have for other investors. So far, here is what these investors shared:
The Passive Income Earner portfolio
Today’s blogpost will feature some insight into Robb Engen’s portfolio, blogger of the popular Canadian personal finance blog called Boomer & Echo.
1. Describe your investing goals in one or two sentences:
My goal is to accumulate enough assets so that I can reach financial independence (i.e. live off my investments without having to earn employment income). Since I still have no idea when that will be or how much money I’ll need, right now I’m focused on increasing my savings rate and building my portfolio.
2. Describe your investing strategy that helps you fulfill your goals in one or two sentences:
I buy dividend growth stocks when they are value priced and hold them for the long term. I expect these types of stocks to return 8-10% per year over the long term (including dividends).
3. List some of the investing products you own that help you with your investing strategy:
Bank of Montreal (BMO)
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)
Bell Canada (BCE)
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)
Canadian Oil Sands (COS)
Empire (EMP.A)
Fortis (FTS)
Great West Life (GWO)
Liquor Stores Ltd. (LIQ)
Potash Corporation (POT)
RioCan (REI.UN)
Rocky Mountain Dealership (RME)
Rogers Sugar (RSI)
SNC-Lavalin (SNC)
Shaw (SJR.B)
Telus (T)
TransCanada (TRP)
4. What advice do you have for other investors based on what’s working with your approach?
There will be times when blue-chip dividend growth stocks will fall out of favour and underperform compared with other stocks. My advice is to stick with your strategy over the long term, rather than hopping around trying to chase the next hot investment. Boring is good, exciting is potentially fatal.
Based on my knowledge of Robb’s portfolio, his investing style is similar to mine. There is a bias to buying and owning blue-chip dividend stocks that have a history of paying dividends and increasing dividends over time. This approach works well for another reason; studies have shown dividend-paying stocks tend to outperform non-dividend payers.
As Robb says, boring stocks can be great investments, certainly if you own enough companies to be diversified across many industries and even better, many countries.
A big thanks to Robb Engen from Boomer & Echo for participating in my series and running a fantastic personal finance site that provides sound guidance to many Canadian investors. Join thousands of other readers on Boomer & Echo if you haven’t already done so.
**UPDATES** Robb has since left the dividend investing world behind. You can read about this decisions and smart family choices to simplify his portfolio, to move into more indexed products on his blog.
Disclaimer: The contents of this post are not recommendations for any individual investor but have been shared to educate readers and provide insight into how others are managing their portfolios. My Own Advisor is not a financial professional. Every reader is encouraged to seek help from a financial professional before making any important investment decisions.
