What I'm Reading | August 2018

After my father passed last year, I asked my siblings if I could inherit two things; my father's investment books and his coffee machine. They graciously agreed and I am forever grateful. The boxes of books had been sitting in my little Québecois home for the past few months. Finding time to unpack and then read with four little kids is a challenge. Hats off to any parent who can achieve this!

However, this month I was able to crack open a book. I picked a classic, Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits by Philip A. Fisher (This is an affiliate link). I had flipped through this book before but never got around to reading it in detail. With the help of an audiobook, I will hopefully be done reading it by the end of this decade. Wish me luck!

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Curious Experiment | Heather's Dividends

In the beginning of 2009, I was twenty-two years old, just out of University and the American sub-prime mortgage kerfuffle was well underway. I had a little money to spare, but back in 2009 in order to set up a self-directed discount brokerage account one needed a large deposit. Something I did not have. Except at Canadian Shareowners a co-operative investing service. I bought two companies, Royal Bank of Canada and Berkshire Hathaway Class B. Royal Bank (at the advice of my dad) was chosen since I did not have any banking stocks. Berkshire was my choice. I did not choose it for dividends since there are none, but because I wanted to be a part of the "club." Being a part of the "club" meant I would receive the annual shareholder's package and an invitation to the annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Nebraska (I was hopeful that one day I would go before Charlie Munger and Warren Buffet die, but alas, it has yet to happen). At the time I purchased them, Royal ...

Cominar | Dividend Cut

I logged into Twitter on Saturday to see what was going on in the world and I noticed a lot of tweets about the REIT Cominar. It ends up management has decided to decrease the stock's dividend to $0.06 cents per unit. The few dividend investors that I follow online (and who probably own more stocks than I do) were visibly upset about the dividend cut and threatened to sell their shares the following Monday when the stock market opens again. Although I don't currently own any shares in Cominar, I started looking into what their management was trying to achieve with these dividend cuts. For one, they need to get their debt ratio below 50%. As of December 31st, 2017 it was at 57.4%, up from 52.4%. But I get it. They need to stop the financial bleeding. Too much is going out in dividends compared to what they actually earn. My husband and I had the same problem while we were paying for our son's ABA therapy. We were hemorrhaging money it was so expensive. Think $6k per month ...

Marginal Tax Rate & Low Income Families | What I'm Reading

Worth the read! http://business.financialpost.com/personal-finance/taxes/its-time-to-pay-more-attention-to-marginal-effective-tax-rates This is a great explanation on why I'm a stay-at-home mom. Yes, I love my kids but I would love to work too. Except the cost of working is prohibitive and way more expensive than staying home with my kids. This article is also a great explanation why I could care less about RRSPs and am focusing on my TFSA. There is almost virtually no benefit to my husband or I contributing to an RRSP. The income I would earn in my TFSA has a greater positive impact on my family's wellbeing. Take a look, and share your thoughts. Heather

Heather's Dividends

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