If you hold any companies that have a dual-class share structure, prepare yourself for mediocracy. In the Winter 2007 edition of the Canadian Investment Review, which is periodical aimed at fund managers and pension plan administrators, they highlight just how bad these stocks typically performs. Before I get into the specifics, let's talk about what a dual-class share is. Dual-class shares mean simply that a company has two versions of its stock available to the market. One is typically …
Pension Fund Asset Allocations You Can Use
If you are trying to figure out an asset allocation to use in your own portfolio, pension funds are good places to look for ideas. In fact, some experts suggest that individual investors would be wise to follow the lead of the pension plans. The reasons are pretty simple if you think about it. First, pension plans are invested for the best balance between risk and reward. The cannot be too risk adverse, or they run the risk of not being able to meet the future withdrawal requirements of …
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Dividend Stock Wednesday: Altria (MO – NYSE)
This is an analysis completed by The Dividend Guy. It is not to be used as investment advice or a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell any stocks discussed. Please ensure you complete your own analysis. At the request of a reader, I am having a look at Altria this week. However, I fear it is a bit early to do so considering the fact that the company is in the process of spinning off Philip Morris. In addition, last year at this time the company spun off its Kraft Foods holdings. This …
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What Music Band Nine Inch Nails Taught Me About Investing
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (NIN) fame kicked some music label butt in this past couple of weeks by releasing a 36 track album on his own using only the web as a means of distribution. He racked up sales of a cool $1.6 million. I think this is a strong message for the record companies that things are changing and the middle-man is not required anymore. As usual, I looked at this from an individual investor perspective and came away with this learning: The more people involved with …
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The Tweedy, Browne Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value Fund and It’s Holdings
There are a lot of different funds out there that focus on high yield dividend stocks. Not all of them are good and a lot of them charge very high management fees for the "privilege" of investing in them. One fund that doesn't charge a super high expense ratio is the Tweedy, Browne Worldwide High Dividend Yield Value Fund. The MER is not low at 1.53%, compared to Vanguard's funds. However, my purpose here is to not suggest investing in this fund. Instead, my purpose is to see what this fund …
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Trick Your Brain into Making More Money
There are certain things investors can do to trick our brains into making smarter financial decisions. I was reading the latest edition of Best Life (April 2008) and an article by Harry Hurt III caught my attention. In his article he had a sidebar box that listed a number of Do's and Dont's to help investors deal with the emotional side of investing. As I have discussed before, emotions and investing do not mix. Emotional investing has cost me in the past and I have proclaimed that I …
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