Must Reads on Financial Literacy

These are five must reads on financial literacy for anyone attempting to start saving or investing. They will change your perspective on money and on life in more ways than one.

Derek Foster - The Idiot Millionaire
David Chilton - The Wealthy Barber
Rober Kiyosaki - Rich Dad Poor Dad
Gail Vaz-Oxlade - Money Rules: Rule Your Money, Or Your Money Will Rule You
Kevin O'Leary - Cold Hard Truth on Men, Women and Money

What to look for in a dividend paying stock? Part 1

Choosing the right stock is certainly the most difficult part of starting an investment account. There are many factors that need to be weighed.

One of the key factors that you first need to consider is before even choosing a particular stock is your risk tolerance. Generally, speaking the higher the risk the higher the potential reward and all investments entail some degree of risk. So how do you gauge your appetite for risk....

Well I remember reading an anecdotal story about a finance account manger who would first ask his clients this very question. Their response would typically be that they are willing to accept a loss of up to 20% per quarter. As it turned out those same individuals would panic and demand that their holdings be sold if they lost just 5% in value during a quarter. 

What this story teaches us is that we don't know how we will react to having lost money in the market until we are put in that position ourselves. Knowing that historically the market has fluctuated we will all undoubtedly at some point find ourselves in the red. How we react at that point in time is critical, as markets tend to recover and the worst thing that you can do is buy high and sell low, or in other words buy on the way up and sell when a stock is on the way down.

So in evaluating whether or not you wish to purchase a particular stock, ask yourself how risky is this investment and should it go south, can I live with that.

Remember: Never invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

Factors that may impact your risk tolerance:
1 - Your age - the younger you are the more time you have to make the money back
2 - Your income - the more income you make the fast you can make any loss back
3 - Your Savings - the more money/ assets you hold outside of a particular investment the better
4 - Your Mentality - A financial loss may impact individuals differently

An American Dream

Living in Canada and working to earn an income of Canadian dollarettes it has been a challenge to buy American stocks. The biggest hurdle is the cost of converting Canadian dollarettes to American dollars. Questrade is currently charging a 2.5% fee on the exchange.

So to avoid paying this fee I have been dreaming up some ways of getting American dollars without paying these exuberant fees.

Dream 1
To find a more cost effective currency converter and then deposit the American dollars into the account.

Dream 2
To buy quality dividend paying stocks that pay their dividend in US dollars

Once I follow through on one of these dreams I will be ready to make my first American stock purchase. This in turn will result in more cold hard American cash from dividends..

As I have started leaning towards dream number 2 I have researched stocks that trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE) and pay dividends in US dollars. In order to expedite the process of gaining US dollars I am looking principally for stocks that pay a higher yield.

Current Portfolio

Stocks that I currently hold in my investment portfolio:

Financial 

BNS - Scotiabank 

TD - TD Canada Trust

Insurance 

SLF - Sunlife Financial

Utility 

EMA - Emera Energy

RNW - Transalta Renewable Energy 

ENF - Enbridge Income Fund Holdings 

Real Estate (REIT) 

NVU.UN - Northview Apartment REIT 

Manufacturing 

NFI - New Flyer Industries 

SIS - Savaria Corp. 

ZCL - ZCL Composities 

Consumer 

PZA - Pizza Pizza Royalty

The Divy Dollar Blog Story

Started this Blog to take you on a journey with me to earn a comfortable passive income from stock dividends.


Compound Interest Magic

1) If I have $60,000 by the end of 2017
2) Deposits of $3,000 per month
3) Gain 7% annually

In 10 Years...
With a modest yield of 3.5% I will earn $22,100 a year in dividends

 In 20 Years...

 In 30 Years...

2017 DIVY GOAL

MARKET VALUE: $60,000+
AVERAGE DIVIDEND INCOME PER MONTH: $200

January 2017 Update

As of Jan. 31 my 2017 TARGET is LOCKED

Questrade TFSA - $3,992.40
Questrade Margin - $17,084.10
Questrade TFSA 2 - $10,476.72
DRIP Computershare - $888.23
DRIP CST - 1,717.20

TOTAL MARKET VALUE: 34,158.65

DIVIDENDS EARNED IN JANUARY 2017 = $187.79

TOTAL CONTRIBUTION FOR MONTH = $1,750