Dividend Portfolio 2023
What Is A Dividend – A dividend is a payment made by a corporation to its shareholders, usually as a distribution of profits. When a corporation earns a profit or surplus, the corporation is able to re-invest the profit in the business and pay a proportion of the profit as a dividend to shareholders. (Source – Wikipedia)
Is a dividend portfolio a good idea?
I believe dividend investing is the easiest and simplest way for the average person to start generating a passive income. It really doesn’t require much money to get started either. If you are new to investing, I think dividend stocks are a great way to start. Hopefully the stock appreciates in value, meanwhile the company gives you money for holding their stock. That first time you see money get deposited into your account without you doing anything, its a wonderful feeling.
The power of the dividend stock price appreciation combined with Dividend Reinvestment (aka Drip Program) and finally dividend raises can create a massive pile of cash for retirement in the future.
This is our current dividend portfolio, to give you a general idea of what stocks others hold.
Who do We Purchase Stocks With?
We buy and sell stocks in our dividend portfolio with questrade and Rbc. Questrade fees are some of the lowest in Canada and charge $0 commissions on etf purchases. We may transfer our existing rbc holdings to questrade.
Our dividend portfolio is strictly for entertainment. While I hold these stocks , they may not be a good buy at the moment. Things change and prices are always fluctuating. Do your own research before you make any purchases. I can’t be held for responsible for any losses you may incur.
Here’s a list of our current dividend portfolio we own in our Registered accounts.
Legend
- M = Monthly Dividend
- JAJO = January, April, July, October Dividend
- FMAN = February, May, August, November Dividend
- MJSD = March, June, September, December Dividend
Note – I try my best to update this monthly but may not include our recent purchases or drips.
If you are curious to see what kind of income our portfolio creates, feel free to check out our past dividend incomes.
Sectors
The stock market is full of different sectors. Which ones will do better in the future? No one really knows, so its a great idea to stay diversified. This is my current dividend portfolio weighing by sector. (Updated November 22,2018)
- Industrials – 14.5%
- Financials – 12.6%
- Energy – 12%
- Utilities – 11.3%
- Communications – 10.7%
- Real Estate – 10.5%
- Health Care – 8%
- Consumer defensive – 7.9%
- Tech – 7.3%
- Consumer cyclical – 3.4%
- Basic Materials – 1.7%
While our basic materials sector is the lowest, we do own a bunch of physical precious metals. For a couple years after we became debt free I used to be a metal “stacker” before learning about dividends. Precious metals return on investment isn’t good but we keep our physical position as a insurance on the markets and further diversification.
Looking back, I wish I didn’t go through this stage. If I would of started a dividend portfolio back then, we would be a lot further along in our financial journey. Stocks were cheaper at that time, but I had the mentality that things were going to get a lot worse.
If I have one word of advice. Get rid of that negative mindset, it truly doesn’t benefit you at all and no one likes to hear you complaining about everything. I used to be that guy and while that time period was good, Gold and Silver has 0 cash flow… Zero! It’s all about that cash flow.
Current Global Diversification of our Dividend Portfolio
- 61.17% – Canadian Dividend Stocks
- 38.83% – US Dividend Stocks
- 0% – Cash
- 0% – International Market
I would eventually like 40% Canadian dividend stocks, 40% US dividend stocks, 20% International dividend stocks. The Tfsa is a fantastic account for Canadian’s which I want to max out first. Generally speaking you want to be all Canadian investments in the tfsa to ensure the best tax efficiency and simplicity.
Plan of Action
Since I have started investing in stocks it has been pretty clear how much better the U.S stock market performs than the Canadian Market. Obviously the tax reforms Trump has created has helped the American business’s but the dividend history of some U.S. companies is incredible.
Once the Canadian Dollar rebounds a bit, (its currently worth 75 cents usd) I will be trying to buy a lot more U.S stocks, to help diversify our dividend portfolio.
For instance, stocks like Proctor and Gamble with over 60 years of dividend increases definitely help you sleep better at night.They have went through wars, recessions etc and kept on increasing that dividend! Those are the companies that will cut their dividend as a last ditch effort to fix their books. It will take a long time to get that kind of reputation again. Dividend Kings!
I plan on getting a international etf soon to get more international exposure without the need to research those stocks. I currently only hold one etf in our portfolio, but they are a fantastic way to diversify your portfolio with really low costs. Warren Buffett himself, says the average retail investor should invest in great etf funds.
We will keep all our Canadian dividend stocks in our tfsa’s & resp accounts. The rrsp will be full of Us dividend stocks and international companies. This will ensure our dividend portfolio takes advantage of the current tax treaty’s.
Conclusion
I really do believe building a great dividend portfolio is quite easy. With the internet now, any information you want is a search away. You can find out anything about a company. There are even sheets out there with the best Canadian and U.S dividend paying stocks.
In addition, online banking makes buying and selling stocks so simple these days. I couldn’t imagine it 20 years ago. Open a brokerage account somewhere and you can start your dividend portfolio with only a couple hundred bucks.
The longer I invest, the more I realize not to chase high yields. Buying dividend Aristocrats and Kings, seems like a solid way to go!
What do you think of our current portfolio? Would you sell any of these positions and why?
Cheers!
The allocation looks pretty good. For me I also have som infrastructure such as SNC Lavlin. You have aecon, so I guess it’s almost the same.
Hey Leo, thanks I try to keep it pretty even among all sectors. I picked up Aecon when it dipped 8$ in a couple days. That was a great pickup. Will look into SNC tho. Thanks
First time stopping by! Hope to follow your journey! Keep it up!
-The Dividend Mogul
Very interesting to see some canadian DGI stocks. Most are US, and for us non-americans, the dollar is another factor that one need to think about. Americans are so lucky in that way. Great blog!
Hey Stockles thanks for coming by. It’s Soooooo true. Id be scoping up canadian companies at the current conversion rate!
Nice looking portfolio, PCI. A couple of new names that I am not familiar with — i’ll have to take a look at those.
Best wishes
R2R
Portfolio looks good. Nice site overall. I may stop by here and there. Good luck.
DS
Thanks seedling. Sounds good
Nice to see that this is slowly growing, exciting for you.
Thanks
Enjoy reading your blog and that you have gone from a negative in 2011 to where you are today – well done & hope it continues for you.
Is there any reason why you are holding almost individual stocks rather than going with an ETF, a closed end fund (CEF), a mutual fund or a ‘slit share corp’?
For any of the positions, have you or would you consider selling ‘covered call’ options on anything so as to give yourself an income boost with a maybe downside protection?
On the positions how did you select what you have and do you have a strategy to add to or at some point sell?
Appreciate any response
Hey John thanks for swinging by. Appreciate the comment. I honestly never even heard of a closed end fund or a split share Corp. As for mutual funds their fees are insane and lately haven’t done as well as my portfolio. My sons resp is a mutual fund and averaged 9% last yr with a 2.3% fee. So it only returned 6.7%. Last year my stock portfolio averaged 30% including dividends. That was a massive difference. I met with my banker and they stated the fund went heavy bonds when the us election was taking place because they thought the market would of pulled back I’d trump won. Boy were they wrong! I went in to transfer to a direct investing fund for his resp a couple months back but they convinced me against it. I think I will go back and switch to my own investments. Warren buffet even stated recently people should just buy index funds vs mutual funds since the fees are dramatically lower.
As for covered calls and options I would love to but don’t know enough about it and from what I understand can’t do them in a tfsa or rrsp.
As for my portfolio I try to keep it somewhat balanced and buy when people hate the company or if I feel they are a great company. Being a dividend investor I look at their payout ratio, dividend yeild, dividend history and dividend increases. I’m long on most of them. Corus dividend scares me a bit and tv is dying Imo but when I listen to the radio most stations i like are corus entertainment! I have thought of selling Sienna Senior and adding to extendicare but it’s a small position and retirement homes will do very well either way. (With all the baby boomer retiring) That is probably the biggest response I have ever written. Ha haha hope I answered all your questions
thanks for the reply
You can do covered calls in the TFSA & RRSP, speak to your broker & read up on them on the investopedia website.
also on the TMX options page http://www.m-x.ca/nego_cotes_en.php?symbol=CJR*
As for corus, I’ll give you my 2 cents worth. I do not hold a position on it nor am I affiliated with the company in any way
Corus stock is currently discounted 50%
Future cash flow value is around $30 from its present $13
next 3 years estimate 20% return on equity
That said, stock trading is a crap shoot. Every analyst & his brother cannot predict the future.
When picking any investment use your own judgement & take what anyone tells you as ‘just information’ & go from there.
As an investor buying stocks, my take is to get the dividend & try to protect any downside, usually selling options on the stock is one way. There are posters on your blog above that do this.
If you are a long hold on any of the good quality Canadian companies, then in the long run you will likely do OK collecting dividends. Consider at some point if you have a ‘pop’ to maybe sell some of what you are holding or maybe the lot & move to something else.
The above is not a recommendation, nor is it a stock tip – just a discussion
Good luck to you
Hey John thanks for the quick reply. Good to know about the options. The more you know! (In that tv sound voice) I believe corus to be a good buy just wondering about the dividend with the shaw deal. I watch the options trades on a couple bloggers pages and gets me really intrested for sure. Again I don’t know much about options trading but should learn more
Its easy to buy a position, not always easy to sell…. right?
So, you have corus (or any other stock) at a certain price believing the stock will keep on going up & continue to pay dividends?
At what point do you sell, add to the position or simply sit & do nothing?
There are no rules, everyone has a different take on what they do, folks will give you all kinds of recommendations when its not their money.
What does your gut tell you to do with corus?
Corus I’ll hold and see what happens after the shaw deal is fully completed (I think there was something like the stocks shaw got in the deal don’t pay dividends until day x) and see how the dividend payout percentages are. If they are unsustainable probably sell my position. Time will tell.
Good to learn some colleagues strategies! Thanks for sharing. However, I see that you’re not too much in to the higher dividend yields? Cheers!
Hey Dutch. I got a couple but prefer the 4% area for security.
Nice looking portfolio we share a few names, and you have some stocks that I am interested in buying. Keep up the good work.
Thank alot Matt! I noticed that too
Best Wishes. Some ideas below for the portfolio:
1. You have SIA and EXE – might as well add CSH.UN considering the demographics – Chartwell is also the best among the bunch.
2. Would high recommend BAM.A or BIP.UN as a long term core position in the portfolio.
3. Sun Life has been coming down and is getting cheaper – not a bad idea to take profits in Manulife and move to Sun Life.
4. Would be a good trade to sell Altagas shares (ALA) and buy the subscription receipts (ALA.R) which are trading below the $31 issue price – today traded around $29.50 or so – collect the dividends and if deal does not go through you get $31 back otherwise in 2018 if deal goes through for WGL then the receipts convert to shares (outside of TFSA or RRSP – part of distribution could be interest)
5. Some high yielding names with some risk worth looking at – Dream Global (DRG.UN) – Diversified Royalty (DIV) – Alaris Royalty (AD) – Inter Pipleline (IPL)
Hey may. Love the opinions thanks alot! I have thought about selling Sienna and stocking up on just Chartwell and exe. I’ll look into the others that you mentioned. Thanks again
We talked a bit about the Canadian utilities on my blog. I see you own Algonquin and Hydro One. But you don’t own Fortis. Is there a specific reason for that?
I’m researching the company now. So far I like the dividend history and the future dividend growth prospects. A utility would also fit well in the portfolio since I don’t have them yet.
Hey pursuit. Honestly i have thought of getting into either fortis or canadian utilities. Just never have seen a good price when im looking at buying a utility. Hydro one could be biased since I live in Ontario and all the power is hydro one. Algonquin dipped way down when i bought them but also are in the water business. My favorite thing about algonquin though is the 5% discount on drips… Thats huge. I dont think you really can go wrong with fortis though. Lets see what you decide. Cheers
Nicely diversified portfolio, aiming to do the same with my portfolio. Potash, I sold my holdings in Potash when they reduced dividends twice about two years ago. As for me it becomes not reliable source of income when a company reduces its dividends and I am trying to replace it in my portfolio.
Hey income.
I held potash during one of the cuts. That hurt, But kept adding to it. Actually up 18% before the nutrien merger. I like buying stuff down and out when the market is this high. The merge between the 2 companys is going to be great too once the dust settles.
Agrium will add to the stability and then once potash prices shooot up again, watch out!
Anyways thats just my opinion cuts always make me debate the stock.
Cheers!
Recently found out you can have US stocks in your Tfsa. TD Waterhouse just added it with a phone call. You can also contibute US$ if you have them. Also, these don’t count towards your 100k of foreign property.
Hey Max
Yes you can have them but will get charged the withholding tax having them in your tfsa. They are better in your rrsp.
Cheers
How much do u have to invest to get annual returns like these? 10k? 20k?
hey Invest
I really dont get the question.
my entire portfolio is just north of 125k which brings in 5200 yearly in dividends currently.
hope thats what you meant
cheers
Nice blog. I wanted to invest some money into precious metals. I’m just wondering where do you buy precious metals? Is it in minted coins? Thanks
hey Rolan
I would buy from local bullion dealers or online. I do prefer local though as you come out with the product.
I personally liked buying 10 oz silver bars but also have a bunch of rcm maples and brittanias etc.
cheers!
What are your thoughts on the other LifeCos in Canada (e.g. POW/PWF which owns a lot of the other LifeCos like Great-West and Wealth Management cos.)?
hey Mark
I think both of those are great. I really like wealthsimple at the moment and i think pow owns them.
Personally though I would like to up my position in manulife first for their exposure in Asia. (its also a absolutely tiny position)
My financial sector is one of my highest at the moment, and when i add to it Lately its been bns! haha.
Either way with rising interest rates insurance companies should do better.
Hope that helps, thanks for stopping by.
cheers
Hi
I am from Australia
we are looking at passive investing and have been looking at different blogs around the world and have come across your blog.
We were looking at different shares around the world but most blogs seem to be going for eft’s.
My question for you why shares not eft’s
Regards
Leonard
hey Leonard
Welcome to the site!
Personal finance is different for everyone. So I don’t think there is a right or wrong way of doing things. Etfs are great as they can be low fee and very diversified. Warren Buffet even says the average investor should just buy a total market etf. I look at what certain etf’s are holding and if they are a great dividend stock I tend to buy them. This way I pay no fees other than the trading fee.
I try to buy stocks at lower prices (52 week lows) and that tend to raise their dividend every year. Etfs hold some stocks that I may not want to own myself for many reasons. I have really been thinking of adding x north America etf though, so I get more global exposure. Or maybe a tech etf as that world is constantly changing.
Again everyone is different but etf’s are definitely a great place to start
cheers Leonard!
Hello Rob,
Enjoy reading your blog. Hope more people would pick up investing in dividend stocks or any passive income generating assets. I meet a lot of people heading or already in retirement with their fingers crossed, hoping their savings will last them during their golden years.
Curious what you’re take is on doing margin. I am currently planning to take an investment loan via our HELOC. This will be to supplement the our existing portfolios.
I am planning to distribute the borrowed funds on Alaris Royalty, Inter Pipeline, H & R REIT, Enbridge, Transcontinental and lastly Bank of Nova Scotia.
cheers,
Chris
hey Chris
Welcome. Thanks glad you enjoy it. It’s a very real problem these days and I think one that may actually get worse as everything gets automated and less companies offer pensions etc. I work for a bunch of seniors who simply state they cant afford things these days, pretty sad to see.
A heloc is an option. We actually refinanced our house and pulled out some equity in it, you can read about it here. https://www.passivecanadianincome.ca/2018/01/13/how-we-increased-our-forward-passive-income-by-over-12000-in-one-year/
Now it isn’t a move for everyone, but it did really help us get the snowball going. Would you be comfortable taking on more debt? I dunno your age, if your close to retirement.
I also don’t know the rate the bank would give you these days to refinance but those names should pay higher yields. Transcontinental definitely is high risk high reward at these levels. I keep debating adding to our position but have been burnt chasing yield in the past. I do prefer investing in bluechip’s at this point.
Enbridge is probably my favourite on your list there. (its my #1 holding)
As always do your own research especially if your using “borrowed” money. No one knows when the market may pullback, if it does, but there is some risk involved in this approach.
Best of luck, cheers!
Would love to know more about how you manage current holdings, like when to sell, substitute better prospects, hedge against potential downturns, etc., as part of your risk management plan? TIA
hey Michael
welcome to the site.
I watch them all the time and if there’s a big swing I look into it further. Generally speaking most of the portfolio is blue chips and I don’t need to worry about them too much.
I’ll sell if there’s a dividend cut or the reason I bought the stock changes. There are still a couple in my portfolio who don’t raise the dividend yearly which I may cut but I feel they have some potential moving forward.
My portfolio is pretty utility heavy at the moment which are great during recessions as people move to yields and really steady companies. We all will still need power during a recession. I loaded up on these when they were cheap as I thought (think) the lower interest environment is here to stay.
Being a dividend investor things are a little different in that world as well. If prices fall I drip them cheaper and also buy more stock at higher starting yields. I think I’m disciplined enough now to sit back and possibly enjoy a recession.(sounds weird eh?) Some companies I own have been raising their dividend each year for over 62 years. So they should be fine in bad times. Say the market drops 50% (a really massive crash) I currently drip 1 share each dividend payment but at 50% cheaper I now get 2. pretty sweet!
Of course I have many years left, maybe 20 id say before I need the money for retirement. So I feel the market would recover. If I was closer to retirement this may be a different situation. Right now I buy stocks 1-2 times a month, so a drop would be ok as I dollar cost average down on my positions.
If your a long term investor, I wouldn’t worry about the noise too much. Buy great companies at good prices and enjoy those dividends.
Hope that helps, cheers!
Great job on your well diversified dividend portfolio! I also used to own some physical metals, but would rather buy gold companies with low production cost and low debt (that is if I own any commodity stocks at all). Can be great if you buy at the low end of the cycle, but highly unpredictable.
Thanks for sharing your investment ideas.
hey Family Saver
Welcome to the site
Thanks a lot! Yeah if I were to get into the space it probably be with a streamer like wheaton precious metals or franco nevada. A lot less risk. Wish you all the best during these times.
cheers
One flaw about dividend investing is the over emphasis on dividend amount and not much on growing value of the investment. I am currently investing in a lot of gold and silver stock which is giving me great percentage gain. Good that you have those physical metals. Keep it don’t sell it as the excessive printing by central banks will the prices of precious metals to go up.
hey Tim
Everything has it’s time. Currently for precious metals it’s their time.. Unforetunatly there is not much cashflow from bullion.
The weird thing about the market currently is the market and precious metals are both going up at the same time.
I’ll hold them and watch their gains but plan to eventually sell as I dont think money as we know it will be gone.
It’s interesting though how you mentioned not to buy tech due to their runup and are now buying pm stocks after they have ran up sooo much as well though..
I dunno I have seen this bull run of precious metals in the past and it quickly turned bearish as well.
Best of luck
cheers
nice stocks I wonder how much capital is needed to get that kind of return in dividends.
Hey Sam
slowly but surely the portfolio grows. It all starts with that first purchase. I dont share my exact portfolio value, but its probably lower than what you would think.
Best of luck on your investing journey
cheers
Hi Rob
Nice diversification of your portfolio, a few businesses I did not have on my radar. Always interesting to see different portfolios.
I have a strong focus on European stocks, consumer staples in particular like Nestle, L‘Oreal, Diageo, Unilever, Heineken, Campari etc. The second largest group are techs, I like Amazon, Shopify, Facebook, Alphabet etc. Most of the techs don’t pay dividends but they provide my investment portfolio with growth. The third large group are insurances, commodities, oil etc. with their huge dividends. Constructing a dividend portfolio is an extremely rewarding thing. It takes time and patience, but once it’s running, there is a compound machine moving fast.
Keep it up! 👍
Cheers
hey Shape, thats a great list of companies for sure! I need more tech and currently am focusing on Manulife to increase our insurance exposure. Keep it up!
cheers
Awesome site Rob and a well-diversified portfolio. The stock market crash last year lead me to understand that I was not well diversified. I am now focusing on building solid dividend growth stocks in my portfolio. Congrats and keep it up.
hey Rommel
Thanks! Honestly that was the biggest crash I experienced and I think it helped us. I got rid of alot of noncore holdings and focused on beefing up the better positions since. Those are great learning experiences.
cheers Rommel