All posts by Financial Independence Hub

Low-Cost Core ETFs just got more accessible

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Getty Images, courtesy BMO ETFs

By Michelle Allen, BMO ETFs

(Sponsor Blog)

Canadian investors have increasingly been turning to all-in-one ETF solutions that offer built-in diversification and periodic rebalancing. BMO is proud to deliver on our commitment to make our Asset Allocation ETFs even more accessible to Canadian investors. To deliver even greater value, we recently announced a reduction to the annual management fee from 0.18% to 0.15% for our most popular Asset Allocation ETFs.

Now we’re Splitting to serve you Better

It’s important for us to continually evolve and support Canadian investors in reaching their unique financial goals.

With lower fees, and now, a stock split beginning on August 18, you can put more of your money to work in the portfolio that fits you best. Stock splits reduce the price per unit, making it easier to invest smaller amounts, rebalance with precision, and build diversified portfolios over time.

This change was inspired by feedback from our do-it-yourself investors and reflects our ongoing commitment to offering one of the lowest-cost, most accessible all-in-one ETF solutions in Canada.

Consider ‘Zed’ instead with solutions like ZEQT (BMO All Equity ETF), ZGRO (BMO Growth ETF), ZBAL (BMO Balanced ETF) and ZCON (BMO Conservative ETF).

Learn more in our press release here.

Q: What is a stock split in the context of an ETF?

A stock split occurs when an ETF increases the number of its units outstanding by issuing additional units to existing unitholders. In a 3-for-1 split, each unitholder receives two additional units for every unit they already own:  tripling the number of units while reducing the price per unit to one-third of its original value. This makes it easier to invest smaller amounts and manage portfolios with greater precision.

Q: Does a stock split change the value of my investment?

No, a stock split does not change the total dollar value of your investment.
If you owned 10 shares at $90 each before a 3-for-1 split, you would own 30 shares at $30 each after the split.
The total value remains $900.

Q: Why do ETF providers do stock splits?

Stock splits are typically done to:

  • Lower the Net Asset Value (NAV) per unit, making the ETF more affordable and accessible to a broader range of investors.
  • Improve liquidity by increasing the number of units available for trading.
  • Encourage participation from newer or smaller investors who may be deterred by high unit prices.

Q: What are the benefits of a lower NAV for investors?

  • Affordability: Lower NAVs make it easier for investors to buy full units without needing large amounts of capital. Continue Reading…

Dogs of the TSX Dividend Stock Picks

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By Frugal Trader, MillionDollarJourney

Special to Financial Independence Hub

The “Dogs of the TSX” dividend investing strategy for Canadian stocks has been a focus of mine for the past 13 years. I don’t follow the “Dogs” strategy with 100% of my portfolio, but it is a key factor when I look at my relative weighting of Canadian stocks at the end of each year.

I want to make it clear that the Dogs of the TSX is not something that I created. In fact, it’s actually an American idea. Michael B. O’Higgins wrote a book called the Dogs of the Dow back in 1991, and the idea was later adapted to the Canadian market. I first came across the “Dogs” method of stock picking when MoneySaver magazine started a column titled BTTSX – short for Beating the TSX – dividend stock strategy.(Click here to skip directly to my 2025 picks).

The theory behind the Dogs of the TSX strategy is to look for solid cash-flow positive stocks that have fallen out of favour for one reason or another. In other words, you’re looking to take advantage of short-term market inefficiency when it comes to the pricing of blue-chip Canadian stocks.

While the Dogs of the TSX investments finished 2024 a little over 3% behind the overall TSX 60 index, if we go back to 2022, the 3-yr performance favours the BTTSX stocks. If we go back even further, we can see that over the last three decades, the Dogs of the TSX stock-picking strategy has outperformed the average of the TSX 60 once by about 2.6% annually. All numbers include dividends in overall returns.

If you had $100,000 invested 30 years ago, the constant difference in compounding would have left you about $2 million richer today had you followed the Dogs of the TSX BTTSX strategy.

dogs of tsx vs benchmark

The highlights for “Dogs 2024” included pipelines being much more profitable than many feared, with Enbridge and TC Energy having excellent years up about 28% and 42% respectively. The other big winner was unloved bank CIBC: which had been a perennial underperformer for quite a long time (exactly the type of company that the Dogs strategy is meant to systematically select).

The laggards included Algonquin (which continued its freefall), Bell, and Telus, which all saw substantial losses in a real bull market of a year.

In its pure original form, the Dogs the TSX strategy simply involved ranking the companies in the Toronto Stock Exchange 60 index (aka: TSX 60) by their dividend yield. The highest yield gets the top spot. Then you simply choose to invest equal amounts in all ten stocks. Continue Reading…

Access Canada’s Best with Harvest High Income Shares: Built for High Yield, Every Month

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Image courtesy of Harvest ETFs

By Ambrose O’Callaghan, Harvest ETFs

(Sponsor Blog)

Harvest High Income Shares™ turned a year old this week. This rounds out 12 months of continued success, as the single-stock ETF suite has accumulated more than $2.5 billion in total assets under management (AUM). The Harvest Diversified High Income Shares ETF (TSX: HHIS) has made a huge splash among investors with its combination of access to the growth of top U.S. stocks and high monthly cash distributions. HHIS and its corresponding single-stock ETFs target trending U.S. companies that have high growth prospects.

Now investors can access top Canadian issuers using Harvest Canadian High-Income Shares. In August Harvest launched the Harvest Canadian High Income Shares ETF (TSX: HHIC), and 10 new Canadian single-stock High Income Shares ETFs. Canadian High Income Shares are designed to generate high monthly cash distributions from an active covered call writing strategy and use of modest leverage.

Affordable Access to Canada’s Best Companies

Canada is home to many great companies that investors have been able to rely on to generate consistent earnings for the long term. Many of these companies operate as oligopolies. This means they have very little competition and are also able to generate large and steady cashflows. Many of these names are price setters with the ability to change prices to their benefit.

These companies are dominant players in their respective sectors.  With Harvest Canadian Single-stock ETFs, investors now have a straightforward and affordable way to make some of these Canadian giants part of their portfolio. Investors will be able to tap into their growth potential while benefiting from high monthly income supported by an active covered call strategy.

In this blog we will review each new ETF and examine, in general, the quality characteristics of the company in which each invests.

*Initial distribution announced on August 21, 2025. Payable on October 9 to unitholders on record as of September 29, 2025.

Shopify | A Canadian Tech Darling

The Harvest Shopify Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: SHPE) invests all its assets in shares of Shopify. SHPE overlays an active covered call writing strategy and employs modest leverage at approximately 25% to generate higher monthly income and boost growth potential.

The Canadian technology space has lacked a name with the ability to punch with U.S.  heavyweights since the fall of Blackberry. Fortunately, Shopify has proven capable of filling that void, quickly developing into one of the most exciting Canadian technology stories.

Shopify snapshot:

  • Profitability: Shopify posted strong recent earnings, with net income of $906 million in Q2 2025
  • Balance sheet: The company boasts a healthy cash position with nearly US$6 billion in liquid assets and minimal debt
  • Long-Term potential: Shopify has pursued aggressive investment in AI, enterprise, and international growth to propel its business forward

Getting Income from Canadian Banks

The Harvest Royal Bank Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: RYHE) and the Harvest TD Bank Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: TDHE) invest all their assets in shares of Royal Bank and TD Bank, respectively. Both are overlayed with an active covered call writing strategy and employ modest leverage at approximately 25% to generate higher income and growth prospects.

The Royal Bank of Canada and Toronto-Dominion Bank are the two largest banks in Canada, by market capitalization and by total assets. Indeed, RBC and TD Bank are the number one and the number three stocks on the S&P/TSX Composite Index by market cap.

RBC and TD Bank snapshot:

  • Profitability: In fiscal 2024, RBC reported adjusted net income over $16 billion. TD Bank reported adjusted net income over $14 billion
  • Well capitalized: RBC & TD Bank both possess total assets over $2 trillion
  • Dividend history: RBC & TD 10+ years of dividend growth, respectively
  • Long-term potential: Strong earnings & revenue growth and long-term catalysts like population growth

Higher Monthly Income from Communications

The Harvest BCE Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: BCEE) and the Harvest TELUS Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: TEHE) invest all their respective assets in shares of BCE and TELUS. These ETFs are overlayed with an active covered call strategy and both employ modest leverage at about 25% to enhance cashflow and growth potential.

Canadian telecommunication companies like BCE and TELUS are often described as oligopolies due to their concentration of market power in this space.

TELUS and BCE snapshot:

  • Profitability: In 2024, TELUS delivered adjusted basic earnings per share (EPS) growth of 9.5% to $1.04 | BCE posted adjusted EPS of $0.63
  • Infrastructure Investment: TELUS has pledged over $70 billion through 2029 to expand its network infrastructure, including two AI data centers | BCE is redirecting capital toward the Ziply Fiber acquisition and $1.2 billion towards “Bell AI Fabric”, which promotes AI infrastructure
  • Dividend history: TELUS boasts a 20-year consecutive dividend-growth streak | BCE has hiked its dividend for 15 straight years
  • Long-Term potential: Both TELUS and BCE well-positioned due to emerging AI growth and telecom infrastructure upgrades

Fuel with Higher Income  

The Harvest Enbridge Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: ENBE), the Harvest Suncor Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: SUHE), and the Harvest CNQ Enhanced High Income Shares ETF (TSX: CNQE) offer access to Canada’s energy giants. All three are overlayed with Harvest’s proven covered call writing strategy and employ modest leverage to generate high levels of monthly income. Continue Reading…

Losing an Illusion makes you Wiser than finding a Truth

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Image courtesy Outcome/Shutterstock

There must be some misunderstanding
There must be some kind of mistake

  • Misunderstanding, by Genesis

 

By Noah Solomon

Special to Financial Independence Hub

In conversations with clients, there is barely a month that goes by that I don’t learn something new about some widely held views on investing. While some of these views are rooted in reason, logic, and evidence, others are not. In this month’s commentary, I will address some of these common beliefs and offer some analysis of their respective validities.

Active vs. Passive Management: A No-Brainer

There is a growing sentiment among investors that passive funds (i.e., index-tracking mutual funds or ETFs) are generally a superior alternative to actively managed portfolios. To be blunt, there is no reasonable counterargument to this assertion.

According to the most recent S&P Index vs. Active (SPIVA) Canada scorecard, the vast majority of managers have underperformed their benchmarks in almost every single investment category.

Percentage of Funds Underperforming their Benchmarks (Based on Absolute Return)

 

What about Risk?

Many investors are not focused solely on return but are also concerned with volatility and risk-adjusted returns. They are often willing to sacrifice some return in exchange for lower volatility (particularly in challenging environments). As such, condemning a manager for lower returns may be unjust in instances where their clients are compensated in the form of reduced volatility.

However, even when volatility is factored in, the facts remain extremely damning. The percentage of funds that underperform their benchmarks on a risk-adjusted basis is similarly high to that based on simple returns.

Percentage of Funds Underperforming their Benchmarks (based on Risk-Adjusted Return)

The one anomaly lies in Canadian Dividend Focused and Income Equity. Although 88.06% of managers have underperformed their benchmark over the past 10 years in terms of absolute return, only 51.92% have done so on a risk-adjusted basis. In other words, although most managers in the category have underperformed the TSX Dividend Aristocrats Index, almost half of them have done so with commensurately lower volatility. However, a higher rate of return can result in materially greater wealth when compounded over the long term. As such, accepting a lower rate of return in exchange for marginally lower volatility is less than desirable, in my view.

All things considered, the evidence is brutally compelling: arguing that active management is generally preferable to passive investing is akin to insisting that the earth is flat.

It’s not about the Wrapper … It’s What’s inside that Counts

A growing number of investors have been ditching fund investments in favour of index-tracking ETFs. This shift is in no small part due to the media, which has established the term “mutual fund” as a dirty word.

All else being equal, the only difference between a mutual fund and an ETF is the wrapper (i.e., the legal structure). If a mutual fund and an ETF have the same underlying portfolios and charge the same fees, then investors should be indifferent between the two. However, most mutual fund assets are actively managed, whereas most ETF assets are in passive, index-tracking mandates. As such, the problem isn’t that mutual funds are inferior to ETFs per se, but rather that most actively managed portfolios underperform their index-tracking counterparts. Alternatively stated, it’s not the wrapper that’s the problem, but what’s inside. Continue Reading…

Selling my U.S. stocks

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Image from Pixabay

By Mark Seed, myownadvisor

Special to Financial Independence Hub

For many years on this site, I have highlighted various portfolio buys, sells and holds. Given those changes over the years related to How We Invest, I figured it might be interesting to share how I’ve actually sold off most of our U.S. stocks over the years in favour of a different approach.

Your mileage may vary – read on!

Is there an optimal mix of stocks for your portfolio?

In my book, there are many ways to build a responsible investment portfolio – there is no one-size fits all.

Here are some approaches to consider before we get to my answer on this question.

An Income Portfolio

An income portfolio may consist primarily of dividend-paying stocks, which are stocks from companies that pay out a portion of their profits to their shareholders. I like those companies and own many of those companies in Canada:

  • Banks
  • Utilities
  • Pipelines/energy
  • And more…

See chart. 🙂

July 2025 Dividend Income Update - Dividends Page

A Balanced Portfolio

A balanced portfolio invests in both stocks and bonds to reduce potential volatility.

Investors who are looking to navigate short-term stock market price fluctuations with moderate growth, might be well suited to this approach. An example would be something like owning 60% stocks and 40% bonds or fixed income. You can build a retirement portfolio with that blend. I’ve done some math on that based on a reader question.

A Growth Portfolio

This means investment income from your portfolio is not the main goal – almost at the other end of the income portfolio spectrum.

So, is there an optimal mix of stocks for your portfolio?

I believe the answer is “yes” and that answer is at the heart of your investment objectives.

These are the two key answers I’ve worked through over the years to land on our investment objectives as we approach full retirement in a few short years.

1. What are our financial goals?

One of our long-standing financial goals was the ability to live off dividends and distributions from part of our portfolio.

Our portfolio is designed to do just that.

2. What is our tolerance for risk?

Fairly high.

Our investment timeline has been measured in decades so….we’ve been close to 90% equities for a few years now. 

Otherwise, I’ve been on record many times on this site to share our near-term spending will be in cash / cash equivalents. That will be true for 2026 spending and it is our hope that will occur once again for 2027 spending as well – whereby we hope to avoid selling any part of our portfolio to fund living expenses in early retirement.

Selling my U.S. stocks

Years ago, I learned some important lessons in diversification. I learned some more U.S. stocks are better (to offset the Canadian stocks I continue to own) but not necessarily via individual U.S. stocks.

Gone are:

  • Procter & Gamble (PG)
  • Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
  • Berkshire (BRK.B)
  • BlackRock (BLK)
  • NextEra (NEE)
  • And many more!

I’ve kicked most of our individual U.S. stocks to the curb over time in favour of owning more low-cost ex-Canada ETF XAW and tech ETF QQQ as my main equity ETFs in registered accounts for growth.

We only have a few remaining individual U.S. stocks left at the time of this post.

We own ETFs instead of individual U.S. stocks for these reasons: Continue Reading…