Yeah! It feels good to see the oil companies bouncing back this week! I’m still up by almost 10% ytd and now showing positive return on my purchase of BlackDiamond (BDI.TO). Remember that I sold McDonald’s (MCD) to buy it ;-). I guess this is the year of bold move and so far, it pays off! Speaking of which, in case you missed it, while half of the dividend blogger planet is buying, I sold ScotiaBank (BNS) and bought SNC Lavalin (SNC) instead.
It was a techno week for me as I also analyzed Apple (AAPL) but with a dividend perspective and Garmin (GRMN) which is another bold play that could pay very good return.
On the personal side, we are now three weeks away to put the house for sale and we will finish most of our renovation and home staging this weekend. Next week, I’ll write more about my plan to financial freedom at the young age of 35. Yup, I’m really going to retire next year!
Interesting Reads:
Dividend Family Guy saw his wealth increased dramatically. The guy doesn’t talk about money, but about babies! He’s really the Dividend FAMILY Guy with 5 children (the latest one is coming this August). I guess I just earn the title of “Dividend Guy” since I *only* have three children… hahaha! More seriously, I already refused a VP position and two other jobs paying in the 200K for the sake of spending more time with my kids. I truly value family as opposed to income. You know what? Your children will be young only once, and when this time is gone, it’s gone forever. Money can wait ;-).
Dividend Yield makes a good list of 11 dividend stocks you should have in your portfolio. I’m not convinced about the whole “food” industry as many of his picks are related to food from one way or another.
My Own Advisor makes a list of 5 great Canadian dividend stocks. My favorite one in this list is definitely National Bank (NA.TO). Canadians always talk about the big 5, but the 6th bank is the one brining most return on the table over the past 10 years. Definitely a great pick. I’m surprised Mark picked BCE instead of Telus (T.TO) though…
Becton, Dickinson (BDX) is review by Dividend Growth Investor. That’s a medical technology company that seems to be slightly overvalued but with a solid dividend growth history (43 consecutive years with a dividend increase). The yield is small, but the stock is solid.
Dividend Mantra finally put AAPL on his stock watch list. He listed three other companies, but really, AAPL is the one to follow. I don’t even care how great the stock was in the past years, I’m looking forward and I see a bright future. Their product ecosystem is just perfect.
Sure Dividend makes a list of 5 dividend snowball examples. I’ve heard about the debt snowball effect and the snowball my son keeps throwing at me all the time when we play outside, but I never heard of the dividend snowball effect. The other name for this phenomenon is more common, it’s called compound interest.
The Conservative Income Investor writes about controversial Google growth strategy. The whole goal is to raise capital through stock split but keeping voting power within the hand of the two founders… pretty interesting read!
You can’t get anything done properly if you don’t follow-up on your goal. Lanny at Dividend Diplomats makes his goal checks for the quarter. What I like about his list is that it’s not only about money goals. He also pursue the goal of going on a road trip, joining a new group and… learning a new language OR a musical instrument. I bet you Lanny is going to have a great year!
Dividend Earner reviews Magna International (MG.TO). The dividend yield is small, but this auto piece seller is on track for solid growth. It was part of one of my “Best Dividend Stock Picks” book a few years ago and it did very well.
And a Special Mention To…
Why You Should Spend Your Money on Experiences, Not Things @ Fast Company. This truly resonate with me as I’m about to sell almost everything I have to spend my money on the biggest experience of my life. Here’s a small quote I want to share with you before you leave for the weekend:
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the mention. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
DGI
Mike,
Retirement at the ripe age of 35. Living the dream! 🙂
Thanks for the mention. Have a great weekend over there.
Cheers!
Hey Jason,
I just can’t wait! working at my day job has become quite difficult lately since I’m thinking of working on my own stuff more than anything else!
How do you handle currency exchange fluctuations? There are a bunch of US companies I want to invest in, but at the moment the CAD-US rate is not great. I don’t want to lose 20% if I buy a stock now and the cad and us dollar become at par again in the distant future. How have you handles this so far?
Hello Alex,
this is a very good point! I bought most of my US stocks when the CAD was at trading at pair (I got lucky). If I was starting my portfolio today, I would start with Canadian stocks and wait a little to buy US stocks. All we need is the oil back up and the CAD will gain 5% to 10%. At $0.85, I think it’s worth to buy US stock. Right now, it may not be the perfect timing.
However, over the long run, the 10% difference you may lose or gain in currency rate won’t affect much your portfolio. For example, I’m roughly +100% with AAPL and DIS and + 50% with LMT right now. I wouldn’t mind being +90% and +40% if the US dollar dropped by 10%, those are still investments I couldn’t make on the Canadian market.
I hope it helps!
Mike.
Mike,
You sound like you are living just a terrible life (If you didn’t pick up on it, that is extremely sarcastic haha). Getting ready to retire a year early, spending time with your kids while they are young, investing in a growing income stream, etc. You have no idea how pumped I am for you. I love your mentality and I wish there were more people and companies that reflected your mentality…money can wait! There will always be time to make money and as you said, your kids are only young once. The young years are the most fun as you watch your kids grow at such a rapid pace.
I am so happy that you joined the community and I have been able to follow your blog. You are an inspiration to me and others that have been told their whole career that you need to sacrifice your life now for the future. I am looking forward to following your journey for the next year and keep track of how you spend your financially free time.
Bert
Nice list of links. Thanks for sharing and recommending for reading. They were quite inspirational. It is good to have posts like this. Sometimes people ask me how do you start investing, where do you get all the information to start, what stocks to choose, etc. I always tell them to go to websites like yours to read what other investors and bloggers do.
Hey Bert!
thx for the kind words! Our project is going forward rapidly right now and I can’t wait for next year to finally leave! this is lots of work and preparation before we do. cheers,
Mike
Hey Martin,
Thx for sending some traffic over 🙂 I really appreciate it!