The Dividend Guy

on a yearly basis with the sole purpose of providing me with a stream of passive income upon my “retirement” in 15 – 25 years. Who Am I A luckily married guy with 2 amazing kids, the white picket fence, and everything that I need in life. The Beginning of a Dividend Investor I am pretty much just a regular guy who enjoys many topics surrounding the rather large investing universe. However, I am most passionate about one in particular, and that is stocks that continue to grow dividends. My earliest investing memory that got me hooked on investing would have to be the time I “played” a little micro-stock that I honestly cannot remember the name of, and made $800 over night. This would have been in the mid to late 1990’s when we had discount brokers, but most of the trading was done on the phone. The stock was a tip that I received from a work colleague and it worked. However, being super young and without a lot of money, I did not pursue investing too actively. My investment “career” continued as I made a bit more money and I did what most people do when they start out – they listed to a broker who sells them some high-MER mutual fund that does little more than provide them with ongoing income. I began reading investing books. Strike that, I began devouring investing books. I especially got into books by the guys at the Motley Fool who taught an independent investing philosophy where your goal was not to get hosed by some broker or high mutual fund fees and take control of your own financial future. So I did and began researching stocks and index funds as a way to build my own portfolio. My Dividend Portfolio My investment philosophy obviously circles around me belief in the power of compounding dividends and buying companies that consistently (i.e. yearly) raise their dividend payments every year. You know how happy you are when you get a raise at work – I see it in the same manner, only this way I can do it many times in one year as the stocks I hold all raise their dividends at different times during that year. Dividends are not my only form of investment however, as so of my other investment money is directed to company sponsored programs which do not cater specifically to a dividend based philosophy. My pension plan and employee stock purchase program are not dividend centric. However, when I look closely into my pension plan, many of the strong dividend increasing stocks that I look for are part of the pension funds I hold. As a side note, I participate to the largest extent I possibly can in these employer programs as I receive a match from them for anything that I put in – this is free money. Stocks I hold include large blue chip type companies in Canada and the U.S., such as Coca-Cola, Royal Bank of Canada, and Procter & Gamble. I also make sure I have international exposure through index funds. If you want to see exactly what I hold, I encourage you to check out my portfolio and the buy prices that I keep track of by subscribing to my monthly newsletter – more info is available here. Things That Frustrate Me Blogs are all about displaying your opinion to the world (in a professional manner IMHO). With that in mind, I thought I would use this forum to talk about some of my pet peeves with the investment industry. Here I go… I dislike brokers and investment companies who use the media and slick marketing material to attempt to convince us that we are not smart enough to invest on our own – that we don’t have the brains or the intense background that they do to make wise financial decisions. It becomes pretty clear once you educate yourself through investing books and other research that most “investment specialists” at the banks or your local Edward Jones office did nothing more than take a few day course to become “specialists”. They are salespeople and their jobs are to convince you that you don’t have the ability to take care of your own finances. That is crap and it is something I beleive most people can do themselves. I do beleive that for some people who do not want to do the research themselves that brokers and investment specialists are an important tool, but the best way to use them is to learn as much about the topic yourself to ensure you are not just being sold to. I also don’t like media sensationalism and I especially don’t like the way mutual fund companies hose investors with high fees, even when they cannot even meet the performance of a stock market index. It would be one thing if they could beat the market, but most don’t and that is unacceptable. Visit the blog: The Dividend Guy (http://www.thedividendguyblog.com/)