Saturday Morning Dump: I’m Nude While Writing This

 Uncategorized  12 Responses »
Nov 052011
 

I’m actually not, but I figured that’d be a delightfully awkward image to make you forget about how this dump is about 12 hours late. Have you forgotten yet? How about… NOW?

It snowed here yesterday, the official start of 6 months of dreary, cold, dark Canadian winter. Every November I start thinking about how great it would be to avoid winter forever. It’s really not that hard to do, maybe I’ll write a post on it. Anyway, winter really sucks, especially when you work outside like I do. (well, sort of) There’s been snow for all of a day and I’m already tired of it. What did we ever do to you, Mother Nature? Oh, right, global warming.

I went and watched the local junior hockey team with a buddy last night, and there was popcorn at the game. Oh man, I love popcorn at the hockey game. I don’t know what it is about popcorn from a popcorn machine, but that stuff is better than crack. If given the opportunity, I would eat my weight in that stuff and get fat again. Totally worth it.

Song I Like And Therefore You Should Too

Not that this has anything to do with this week’s song, but I bought a Taylor Swift autographed CD. You’re not surprised, are you? I’ve considered sleeping with it.

If you’re not listening to the Arcade Fire, drop everything and go pick up their first 2 cds. They’re about as good as music gets.

Simpsons Quote Of The Week

I spent a great deal of time watching old Simpsons halloween specials this week, all of which were delightful.

Kang (the alien) My name is Kang, and this is my sister Kudos.

Kudos: (in a very deep voice) Hello!

Gambling Is Fun

I went 0-2-1 last week, further evidence you shouldn’t listen to me about anything.

This week I’m going to pick the Tampa Bay Bucs to cover against the Saints, plus the 8.5 points. I’m also going to take the Jets to cover against the Bills, plus 2. And finally, I’m going with some odd sport, betting on Spanish Primera Division soccer. I’m taking the over in the Real Madrid/Osasuna game at 3.5 goals. Let’s hope for some offense kids!

Overall record: 2-6-1

A Post You Might Have Missed

If my archives were snacks, they’d be delicious potato based. Because all snacks should be potato chips.

Did you know you can hold your mortgage in your RRSP? It’s kind of complicated, but it’s possible. Even if you’re not even remotely interested, you should still click through to the post. I want pageviews, dammit.

The More You Know

This might be my favorite new category. Wikipedia wheel of fortune, show us what you’ve got:

A school bus is a type of bus designed for student and teen transport. The first school bus was horse drawn, introduced by some British guy back in 1827. They’re distinguished from other buses by their yellow color and the fancy stop signs with the flashing lights. Usually, students are transported to and from school for free or next to free. I’m not really sure why school buses don’t have seatbelts, and I’m clearly too lazy to look this information up.

Pick a Stock, Any Stock

I think I’m going to go with Manulife this week, the struggling Canadian life insurer.

Low interest rates and crummy stock markets are not good for life insurers, and Manulife’s results show. They just released 3rd quarter results, losing more than a billion dollars. I’d be looking to pick up some anywhere under 12 bucks a share and collect the juicy dividend while I wait for the price to go up. Business will eventually improve for the insurance business, and we could easily see a double from such depressed levels.

Babe Loosely Related To Finance

Hazel Mae is coming back to Sportsnet. Why should you care? Because she’s pretty damn hot.

She’s over 40. Can you believe it? She looks about 28. Her presence will automatically make Sportsnet 87% more tolerable.

Time For Links

Easily the best post of the week was by MD over at The Financial Blogger, which was a very candid look at his failure launching an e-book. If you ever want blogging to become a very profitable endeavor, I’d recommend that reality check. Well done.

I made my debut over at Sustainable Personal Finance, asking why everyone talks about giving up lattes, but no one ever talks about giving up booze.  Look for me over there every couple of weeks. It just might be the best part of your Friday. Maybe.

Speaking of places I was this week, I also appeared at Canadian Finance Blog yet again, pointing out that not everyone needs life insurance.

This whole link dump is just posts I did for other sites. I had a guest post over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks, which pondered whether it’s better to be attractive. Duh, of course it is. I would know, I’m a beautiful person.

Okay, onto posts that I didn’t write. The cheapskate Sandy writes about creating niche sites and her competition with some other bloggers to make the most on their particular sites. If the competition was being awesome, Sandy would clearly win.

Paula from Afford Anything got the point of my Friday post… on Wednesday. Go read her post on finding a niche and conquering it. It’s solid advice, like most everything she writes.

This post from Finance… Say What shows why you should never argue with Occupy Wall Street types. Or have a Facebook account.

Boomer and Echo thinks we should eliminate the penny. I tend to agree.

Via Money Mamba, a great article about now anal Steve Jobs was.

Carnivals

#1 at the Best of Money Carnival! Go me!

An editors pick over at the Carnival of Personal Finance? Nice.

And finally, I was only included in the Totally Money Carnival. Oh well, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

Have a good week everyone.

 Posted by Nelson Smith at 6:19 pm

10 Canadian Stocks With A Yield Over 5%

 Uncategorized  10 Responses »
Sep 212011
 

Yesterday, I went to the fine credit union where I do my banking. I’m such an exciting person.

Now, as I’ve discussed before, there’s basically only one reason why I continue to go to this particular credit union. They continue to hire the hottest chicks. That’s it. The girls are relatively competent, but not impressively so. The service charges are no better than any other bank. As long as I continue to enjoy the scenery, I will continue to do my banking there.

So while I was there yesterday, I was checking out the big board at the front of the building, the board that shows you the interest rates charged for mortgages and the interest rate paid on GICs. I know interest rates are really low right now, so I didn’t expect much from the GIC rates. It’s a good thing I didn’t expect much, because wow are GIC rates really bad. My credit union is paying out 2.25%/year only if you lock up your money for 5 years. I just checked on the internet, and that’s the best rate in town.

As you probably guessed by the title, this post is going to take a look at some stocks that yield more than twice as much as a 5 year GIC. Before we get to it though, I just want to say that you need to just suck it up and put your cash in a GIC (that’s a CD for my American readers, but you probably already knew that) if you’re going to need that cash in the next 2 years.

Anyway, let’s get to it. Your obsessive quest for yield has almost been quenched.

1. Roger’s Sugar (current yield 6.56%)

Being in the sugar business in Canada is awesome. To protect the domestic producers, the feds have ruled that any imported sugar be hit with a steep tariff, thereby making any imported sugar automatically uncompetitive. So the business is shared by Roger’s and their lesser competitor, Redpath. It’s a remarkably steady business, and Roger’s just passes any price increases in sugar onto it’s customers. I’ve been a happy shareholder of Roger’s for years.

2. Husky Energy (current yield 5.12%)

One of Canada’s largest energy producers, Husky has been plagued with some operational issues lately. That, combined with a weaker oil price has pushed the value of the shares down to the $23 range, thereby pushing the dividend yield above our magic 5% threshold. If you’re a believer in higher oil prices long term, this could be a great time to pick up shares in Husky. The dividend will warm your cold, cold heart as you wait for the stock to appreciate.

3. Reitmans (current yield 5.21%)

Reitmans is a chain of women’s clothing stores, operating in just about every shopping mall across Canada. They also own other banners such as Smart Set, Penningtons and Addition Elle (that last one is for fat chicks). The recession obviously hurt Reitmans, but women will continue to shop for clothes. Just as long as they don’t use my money to do so. I’ve owned the stock for a few years, and it’s done nothing in that time. But I have collected a nice 5% dividend as I’ve waited.

4. Great West Life (current yield 6.01%)

One of Canada’s largest insurance companies, Great West Life has gotten hammered lately, as any weakness in the stock market translates into weaker results for any life insurance company, since they invest the premiums they get each month. Low interest rates are negative as well, for the same reasons. So if you buy it now and forget about it, you’re getting 6% just to wait. It’ll bounce back when the market does.

5. BCE (current yield 5.44%)

Canada’s oldest telecom is next on the list. This bad boy isn’t going to give you a whole lot of growth, but offers a steady, highly profitable business, and a dividend that’ll just keep on chugging upwards. They are getting some growth from their media division, and we all know that text messaging is ridiculously profitable.

6. Transalta (current yield 5.25%)

As I type this, the light is on in the living room, my laptop is plugged in and the TV is on. I just got done eating toast and drinking chocolate milk. All of this stuff requires power to run, meaning power generator Transalta’s business looks pretty secure. Plus, like Roger’s Sugar, they can just pass on any cost increases to their customers. What are you supposed to do, sit in the dark?

7. Inter Pipeline (current yield 6.02%)

Okay, so maybe you don’t want to own a business like Husky that’s exposed to oil prices. So why not own a pipeline then? The “toll roads” of the oil business, pipelines get paid a fixed fee, no matter how low the price of oil gets. Building the pipeline takes a huge upfront cost, and then it collects a small fee over and over again. This is a great business model to invest in, it almost acts like a bond. This stock has done quite well for me.

8. AGF Management (current yield 6.81%)

AGF is one of Canada’s largest mutual fund companies. Yes, I know, I hate mutual funds. And hopefully, you do too. Their high fees make them a bad idea for investors. As long as there’s the current network of mutual fund salespeople (who are solely compensated by commission) who continue to push these funds, they’re not going to go away. So why not invest in the company that charges the outrageous fees? Besides, you probably held some of these crummy mutual funds at some point. You’re just getting your money back.

9. Chartwell Senior’s Housing REIT (current yield 7.35%)

Not me personally, but the rest of you are getting old, especially those pesky baby boomers. There will come a point where you will not be able to control your bowels anymore, and will therefore be a burden to your family. Luckily for all of us, we can just put you into a home once you become an inconvenience. Until that happens, invest in Chartwell, where hopefully you’ll get some of that dividend money, which will eventually be paid to them for taking care of you. It’s a full circle.

10. Groupe Aeroplan (current yield 5.02%)

You’re a sucker for Aeroplan points, so why not invest in the company? A warning on this one though, it doesn’t look like the company is earning enough to cover that dividend.

So, there you go, you can stop whining about minuscule GIC yields. Finding a 5% yield is pretty easy.

 

 Posted by Nelson Smith at 8:53 am

Should Investors Care About Dividends?

 Stocks, Uncategorized  1 Response »
Jun 212011
 

Dividends have been said to be the only free lunch in investing. For many investors, getting their quarterly dividend cheques is almost the best part of investing in a stock. These type of investors tend to be long term buy and hold types, rarely selling their positions. Some of them even have blogs, touting the glorious dividend every opportunity they get. I imagine these people would be boring dinner party guests.

I make fun of dividend lovers, but I’m basically one myself. I enjoy getting a dividend off my investments. As Benj Gallander says, dividends allow me to be stupider, longer. As a contrarian investor, I can often hold investments for years while I wait for the fundamentals of the business to turn around. Getting paid to wait is a nice bonus while killing time for that catalyst that’s needed to increase the share price.

Even though I like dividends, they aren’t a mandatory thing for me. I’m happy to hold a company that doesn’t pay a dividend. I’m usually investing in beaten up names, companies that may not be terrifically profitable for whatever reason. I’m much more interested in the condition of the balance sheet than the condition of the dividend. I’ve invested in companies that have recently cut their dividends. What I care about is whether the company’s balance sheet is strong enough to whether the hardship that any contrarian investment is going through.

Saying that, I understand that most investors don’t invest like me. For dividend investors, they like the stability of putting their money in stable companies that have been around for a long time. These companies have predictable earnings and dividends. A lot of time though, even mature companies have better things to do with their money than to pay out dividends. Let’s look at a few.

Pay Down Debt

When I’m screening names to put on my watchlist, I’ll often come up with a couple hundred that pass all the criteria. Out of these couple hundred, 10 or 15 names may make the list. Companies will get eliminated from consideration for all sorts of reasons, but one reason stands out from the others: debt.

A company will often pay a dividend for years as it begins a slow demise. General Motors did. So have all sorts of others I can’t think of right now. This dividend money could be much better spent on paying down debt, yet it’s given out to shareholders. Even though the dividend might not be in the best long term interest of the company, management knows that the share price will get hammered if the dividend gets cut.

Usually a company will eventually cut the dividend. By that time though, the market has clearly priced in a dividend cut. The bottom line is a company with lots of debt shouldn’t be paying a dividend. They should be using that money to improve the balance sheet.

Better Opportunities

In many situations, it’s better for a company to reinvest any money they would have paid out in a dividend back into the business.

If a company pays a 3% dividend, investors like it. But if a company doesn’t pay the dividend, they can reinvest that back in the business. If the business can generate a return on equity of say 10%, then the company can grow the earnings over time simply by reinvesting the dividend.

That 3% dividend might represent 25 or 50 percent of total earnings. This reinvestment can create a significant compounding effect quite quickly.

As a bit of an aside, one area I generally don’t like companies spending money on is acquisitions. Some work out quite well. Others fail miserably. This crapshoot is one reason I don’t really like companies to do them. The other is companies are usually pretty bad at buying underpriced assets. They’ll pay fair price and then some for a competitor that often does things very differently, meaning the synergies are weak at best.

I Don’t Hate Dividends

Dividend lovers sometimes forget that all of a company’s earnings belong to the shareholders, whether those earnings are paid out in the form of dividends or whether they stay with the company in the form of retained earnings. Each of these has value. The value of each depends on all sorts of factors, from the investor’s point of view or the company’s point of view. My Dad should view dividends more positively than I should, since his portfolio should be more conservative, as an example.

I like getting dividends just as much as the next guy. If a company is mature, has minimal debt, and doesn’t see any glaring opportunities to spend all of their capital, then by all means they should pay a dividend. There are many companies out there that should be much more aggressive in paying out dividends, like major tech players. Others though, like Yellow Pages, really have no business paying out such aggressive dividends.

And just maybe, some of those dividend investors will buy something that doesn’t have a dividend.

 

 Posted by Nelson Smith at 12:15 am

Saturday Morning Dump: Linky And The Brain

 Saturday Link Dump, Uncategorized  12 Responses »
May 212011
 

Oh man, that title is clever. Is it the most clever thing I’ve ever written? Yes. Yes it is.

This is an actual conversation with my Dad, after I received the excellent Moneysense Retirement Guide in the mail:

Uproar: Check it out Dad, my very own retirement guide.

Dad: Big deal.

Uproar: You’re just jealous that I’m going to retire early, probably with mountains of money. (A very ironic statement, considering he isn’t suffering for money)

Dad: I don’t think so.

Uproar: Oh really?

Dad: You’re never going to retire early if you keep working for (that chip company). In fact, the only way you’re going to be able to retire early is if you start your own business and get at the plan.

Uproar: (flabbergasted) Wow… I… Uh… That’s just so wrong… I don’t even know where to begin arguing with that.

Dad: Whatever.

Uproar: Are you just saying that to get my goat? If so, well done.

Dad: You know it’s true. Haven’t you read the books?

Uproar: Uh, I think we’re reading different books.

Dad: Whatever. (My Dad says that a lot) Keep working for (that chip company). But you’ll never get wealthy doing it.

Uproar: (Steam shoots from ears)

Anyway kids, let that be a lesson to you. If you’re not an entrepreneur, you’re pretty much screwed when it comes to saving money. Hey, it’s gotta be true, my Dad said so.

Random Thing I Enjoyed This Week

It was kind of a big step for me this week, I actually met another blogger. Kayla from Finance… Say What and I met up for lunch, and while it was a fun experience, it was a little weird at the same time.

First of all, nobody in my real life knows about the blog. Not even my parents or my best friends know about this secret online world I have. So it was kinda weird talking about blog stuff with somebody in real life. And on the same sort of subject, it was weird talking about other blogs and bloggers to someone in real life.

All in all, it was pretty fun. She was clearly wowed by my handsomeness because, really, how can you not be?

Random Thing That Irritated Me This Week

It’s been almost two weeks since my eye exam, and I’m still waiting for my contacts to show up. How hard should this be, eye place?

I went in and visited them, asking where the hell my ‘tacts were. Their response was that they didn’t know, and all they could do is call me when they show up. I am pretty darn close to just ordering some online and seeing if they work. I’m a little scared to do this, just in case I screw something up, so I’m giving them a few more days.

Song I Like And Therefore You Should Too

I think Bono is a bit of a pretentious douche, but I have to give credit where credit is due.

The first minute and a half of this song give me goosebumps every single time I listen to it. What a terrific intro, building up to a crescendo of awesomeness. Back before he was better than all of us, Bono wrote some pretty good stuff.

Simpsons Quote Of The week

Troy McClure: Don’t kid yourself Jimmy. If a cow ever got the chance, he’d eat you and everyone you care about.

Blogging Snack Of The Week

I got myself a big thing of Timbits this week, and took them over to a buddy’s place to share.

I’ve decided that every Timbit except the chocolate ones or the apple fritters are bad. Therefore, they will be eliminated. The ones with icing sugar on them are particularly bad. The icing sugar always ends up on my shirt. Something always ends up on my shirt.

Sports TV You Should Watch This Week

I watched another documentary on the financial crisis this week, this one was called Inside Job and featured the narration of a hunky Matt Damon. At least I’m assuming he’s hunky, since they don’t actually show him.

It was okay, but save your $5 rental fee and just watch one of the excellent documentaries I told you to watch earlier.

As for what you should watch this week… Take your pick between the hockey playoffs or baseball. Or, considering it’s a long weekend, spend some time outside. It’s okay, you have my permission.

Blogging Babe Of The Week

In honour of my first blog meetup, let’s go with the hottest girl named Kayla I could find on Google. Ladies and gentlemen, (mostly gentlemen) let me present Kayla Collins:

 

Very nice. She’s only famous for dating some British soccer player, but do we care?

Oh Right, Time For Links

Frank Voisin draws our attention to an excellent letter wrote by Warren Buffett about the jewelery business. Whenever the Oracle of Omaha speaks, we should listen.

According to the Dividend Pig, I’m not contrarian and I don’t know squat. Look for a more detailed rebuttal to this in the coming days. You’d think I’d be angry about this post, but he’s actually mostly right.

Just in case you needed some tips on how to kill the joy of giving, Boomer and Echo have you covered.

Andrew Hallam takes exception to those investors who think they can beat the market using just dividend stocks. He’s just really nice about it.

Moving is damn expensive, and a pain in the ass. Canadian Finance Blog gives some tips on how to make it less painful.

This is from a while ago, Larry McDonald asks if people should sell their house and rent. He came to pretty much the same conclusion I did.

Mike from Moneysmartsblog actually didn’t write about RESPs for once, covering the E-Myth Revisited book. Sounds like a pretty solid read.

Wondering why your financial new years’ resolutions failed? My Own Advisor has some ideas. I’m just lazy, that’s my problem.

The Economist thinks the U.S. real estate market may have bottomed. If it’s in The Economist, it’s gotta be true.

Young and Thrifty had a really douchey ex-bf. For the record, that wasn’t me. I know you were all thinking it was…

Have you entered the contest to be Moneyville’s next blogger? I just might…

Carnivals I Was In This Week

I’m a week late with this, but I was in the Carnival of Wealth over at Personal Dividends.

Have a good week everyone.

 

 Posted by Nelson Smith at 12:14 am

Saturday Morning Dump- Link Style

 Uncategorized  20 Responses »
Jan 082011
 

I know I should be doing link posts every week- after all, they’re a great way to build relationships with other bloggers, plus usually they’re kind enough to link back when they do their link posts. I know, I know, I get all that. The problem is they’re, well, boring. How many link posts have you actually read and enjoyed? If the answer is more than 0, you’re lying. LIAR!

(Actually, Len Penzo’s are pretty good. I usually enjoy his, except he bashes the democrats EVERY WEEK.)

That’s all gonna change kids. Rather than doing the usual link stuff, I’m going to throw in all sorts of extras that you’ll go bananas over. Simpsons quotes? You betcha. Music videos? Oh yeah. Sports? You better believe it baby. There’s gonna be so much cool stuff that I might just end up forgetting the finance links.

Let’s do this thang!

Random Thing that Irritated Me This Week

People who wave at me while I drive, YET I HAVE NO IDEA WHO THEY ARE. Why are you waving at me? We’re obviously not pals, I don’t even recognize you. Are you doing it to be polite because we made brief eye contact? If that’s the case, stop trying so hard!

People from Saskatchewan do this ALL THE TIME. When you go there the highways are filled with people who don’t even know each other waving back and forth. Naturally, such a display of friendliness and comraderie pisses me off.

Random Thing I Enjoyed This Week

Apple juice boxes. Oh man, I love apple juice. Since juice boxes only come in kid sized containers, adults never think to drink it. Apple juice immediately takes me back to about 1991 whenever I drink it. It is truly delightful.

Song I Like and Therefore You Should Too

Ha! You all thought I was going to crack out Taylor Swift for this one, didn’t you? Well, I fooled all you suckers.

Glory Days has to be my favorite Bruce Springsteen song and is a suitable choice for the first song of the week. My ex girlfriend’s mom and her friend used to get together once every six months or so and talk about how they used to run this camp’s kitchen together. Every single time they got together the conversation would make its way to this fact. And once they got talking this song always crept into my head.

Simpsons Quote of the Week

“You’ll have to speak up, I’m wearing a towel”

Sports You Should Watch This Week

Honestly, the beginning of January is pretty thin for sports. The NFL playoffs are on, you know you want to watch New Orleans at Seattle to see if the 7-9 Seahawks can actually win a playoff game. Please Seattle, at least keep it close. I’d love to see Drew Brees get beat by a team of morons. That’ll show him for being the only nice guy in the whole league.

The BCS championship game is on this week, meaning guys like me will tune in for about half a quarter because we think we better watch the championship. Then, realizing why we don’t watch college football all year, we change the channel to re-runs of Dragon’s Den or something.

Somehow I ended up on the front page of Google results for the search “I hate Kevin O’Leary”. Because of this, I get decent traffic on every Wednesday night Dragon’s Den is on. It amuses me that so many people hate Kevin O’Leary.

Blogging Snack of the Week

Looking for a snack to keep you fueled while you blog/read blogs? We’ve got ya covered.

This week’s snack is ketchup flavoured Crispy Mini’s from Quaker. My goodness are those things good. It’s a good thing they only come in a package that’s 142g or else I would eat a metric ton of them in one sitting. The ketchup flavour is sweet and doesn’t overwhelm at all. Plus, Wal-Mart had them on sale this week for only $1 per package. I was in gluttony heaven!

I used to really like the Barb-q flavour, but then they went ahead and changed it. BASTARDS! I hate it when companies decide to do that. I’ve come accustomed to a certain barb-q taste. If you want me to try a competing snack, then go ahead and change the flavour.

And then they put some BS on the outside of the package saying “New improved flavour!”. Everybody already knows the new flavour is crap, but try it anyway on the slight hope it isn’t.

Babe Loosely Related to Finance

This week we’re going to go with Money Rabbit, who was foolish enough to put this picture on her site.

Why do I say foolish? Let’s have a closer look, shall we…

OH MY GOD MONEY RABBIT! SOMEONE IS PEEKING OVER THE FENCE! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!!!!!!

Oh Right, Time For Links

Money Smarts, Million Dollar Journey and The Financial Blogger each got their picks in for the 2011 stock picking contest. And since those jerks won’t let me in on their fun, I decided to make my own stock picking contest. Take that!

Aww! Canadian Mortgage Trends and Garth Turner are fighting. Blog wars always amuse me. Play nice fellas!

Echo explains why he cancelled his gym membership. Sorry Echo, no ketchup flavoured crispy mini’s for you this week. Fatty.

Rachelle from Landlord Rescue doesn’t care for basement suites. I, on the other hand, think they’re quite lovely.

Carnivals this week

Turns out I wasn’t in any. Next week though, totally different story.

Have a good week everyone.

 Posted by Nelson Smith at 12:15 am
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