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Just like hiking, investing is much funnier with a buddy by your side to help you stay the course. Today, we use Mike’s hiking buddy talent to answer the most frequently asked questions investors have.
Selling stocks at a loss? Protection against inflation? Another tech bubble ahead? DRIPs? Using stop sells? These are all questions answered… and much more!
You’ll Learn
- Mike’s thoughts on Canadian Banks’ most recent earnings.
- Why Sylogist has been losing.
- Why are utilities going down when they should thrive with the pandemic.
- Should you hold preferred shares in a cash reserve at retirement.
- Mike’s opinion on mutual funds and ETFs.
- Why selling your winners or should you sell weak stocks at a loss.
- Should Canadian investors convert their currency before buying U.S. stocks and how can they benefit from strong Canadian money.
- Is low growth considered as an absence of growth in the dividend triangle.
- What’s going on with InterPipeline, Brookfield Infrastructure and Pembina?
Related Content
As promised, here are a few links that would greatly complement the content of this episode.
What’s the Norbert’s Gambit Strategy?
You can download the full article here.
A financial advisor named Norbert Schlenker from Libra Investment Management, a B.C. investment firm found a solution for his clients. According to the online “legend”, this creative advisor established a strategy to skip the middleman and not pay conversion fees. Here’s how it works:
Some companies trade on both Canadian and U.S. stock markets. You can think of Canadian Banks for example. Therefore, if you purchase shares of Royal Bank (RY.TO) through your online brokerage account, you can then call your broker and ask him to journal (transfer) the shares over to the same listing in the foreign currency, at the market exchange rate, and then sell the shares in the currency you want to end up with.
This strategy would convert money invested in the Canadian dollar in Royal Bank shares into U.S. dollars once you sold the same shares on the U.S. markets. The only fee paid would be the one charged on the buy and sell transactions. Depending on the amount converted, the transaction fee would be minimal.
In the podcast, I’ve discussed how to use Horizons US Dollar Currency ETF (DLR and DLR.U) to convert your currency. This is the one I personally use on a regular basis.
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Hi Mike. I’m 25 living in the US and started investing in dividend stocks a couple of years ago. I just recently found your blog and think that you have some really good insights. I like that you used your dividend income to fund travel as this is also a goal of mine.
When you were talking about Microsoft and Apple this hit home for me because I have been very focused on getting a decent yield from my portfolio and it’s hard to buy into stocks that yield under 1%, although recently I bit the bullet and starting building positions in these two companies to help round things out.
My question for you – what do you think is the uppermost limit to target for portfolio dividend yield and still sleep soundly at night? I’m looking to have my basic expenses covered by dividends as soon as possible but still want to see capital appreciation and dividend growth that outpaces inflation.
Early on, I was targeting something around a 4.5% yield and now I am more inclined to say that 4% may be more reasonable.
Hey Colton,
Thank you for your question!
My portfolio currently generates about 2% yield since the portfolio value keeps increasing (I know, it’s a nice problem to have).
I rather focus on my total return while using dividend growth metrics to identify companies that should do well in the future.
It is possible to build a strong portfolio with a high yield though. I’m more careful with stocks with yield over 5% :-).
Cheers,
Mike