I am a firm believer that anyone with a little interest and a moderate helping of self-discipline can be a successful investor. But here’s a warning: no matter what your age, there are some serious obstacles between you and financial […]
Do bonds belong in my portfolio?
For decades, professionals have constructed “balanced” portfolios using the 60/40 stock/bond ratio as a template. Other variations pushed a bond allocation equal to the investor’s age, or other such rules of thumb. These high-bond allocations performed reasonably well in the […]
Answering the top 5 reader questions about BTSX
There is no shortage of investment blogs. You even have your choice of Canadian blogs focusing on dividend paying stocks. What makes dividendstrategy.ca special? Beating the TSX. There is no other simple, freely accessible investing method out there that can […]
Getting personal: Top 5 reader questions about my own investing practices
It’s been almost two years since I started this blog. In that time I’ve received questions from readers on a variety of topics related to DIY investing, dividend investing, and BTSX in particular. Sometimes the questions are personal – How […]
The alpha and beta of dividend investing
Alpha and beta aren’t just letters in the Greek alphabet; they are also commonly misunderstood investing concepts – not to mention part of the vast lexicon of investing jargon that keeps analysts sounding smarter than they are and leaving DIY […]
The most important investment spreadsheet for dividend investors
What is the most important spreadsheet for dividend investors? Does it have reams of metrics from payout ratios to dividend growth rates to up-to-the-minute stock price tracking? Does it sort and tabulate and calculate in all the colours of the […]
10 advantages DIY investors have over the pros
Advice is loud when the person giving it has something to gain – and the financial services industry has a lot to gain by convincing you that the best place for your money is in their hands. To be fair, […]
Lessons from the COVID crash and recovery
Success is not the result of knowledge, talent, or even skill. These things help, to be sure, but the most important determinant of achievement is step-by-step improvement. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, as long as you take […]
Method vs. Madness: the benefits of rules-based investing
There has been a lot of discussion here recently about whether or not certain stocks should be included in the Beating the TSX portfolio. IPL, PPL, and BPY-UN have all landed on the list in the last few months. Some […]
BTSX after bear markets
In a recent post we talked about why investing in the stock market during a market correction can be one of the best investment decisions one can make. But what about dividend paying stocks? Data shows that dividend-paying stocks in […]