With more than 2.5 billion users worldwide, YouTube has become a platform where everyone creates and shares content and earns big bucks from it.
As a financially independent person you can leverage the platform not only to share the knowledge you have but also to keep a steady stream of passive income. Well-crafted YouTube videos can be high-performing assets: they make your money work for you rather than the other way around.
However, using YouTube is so much more than creating a channel, grabbing your camera, and uploading videos to the platform. If you want to go the extra mile, it takes extra effort. We’ll break down some handy ways how you can get the most out of your YouTube channel.
Focus on niche topics
Creating a niche channel can be an effective way to attract a dedicated and engaged audience.
While it may seem counterintuitive to limit the scope of your content, focusing on a specific area of personal finance can help you establish yourself as an authority in that area. It can also help you stand out from other personal finance channels and make it easier for viewers to find your content.
For example, you could create a channel focused on investing in dividend stocks or building a real estate portfolio. Whether it’s animated explainer videos or talking-head style video, content that is tailored to a specific audience provides more in-depth analysis and insight that resonates with your viewers.
Share your failures
While it’s natural to want to showcase your successes, sharing your failures can be just as valuable to your audience. Personal finance can be a challenging topic, and sharing your mistakes and what you learned from them can help your viewers avoid making the same mistakes.
Sharing your failures can also help you build trust with your audience. Being honest and transparent about your experiences shows that you are a relatable and authentic creator. This can help you establish a loyal following and create a sense of community around your channel.
Collaborate with other creators
Collaborating with other creators in the personal finance space can be a great way to reach a wider audience and provide a fresh perspective for your viewers.
By partnering with creators who have complementary areas of expertise or a similar target audience, you can create content that is more engaging and informative.
For example, you could collaborate with a creator who focuses on budgeting or debt reduction, while you focus on investing or building passive income streams. This can help you create a more well-rounded channel that appeals to a wider audience.
Use storytelling
While personal finance can be a dry topic, using storytelling can make your content more engaging and memorable. By sharing personal anecdotes or using case studies to illustrate your points, you can connect with your audience on an emotional level. Continue Reading…
By Michael Kovacs, President & CEO of Harvest ETFs
(Sponsor Blog)
The Harvest Diversified Monthly Income ETF (HDIF:TSX) was built to meet Canadian investors’ need for income and sector diversity. We built it with a straightforward thesis, by holding an equal weight portfolio of established Harvest Equity Income ETFs, we could deliver growth potential and high monthly income. That made it one of the most popular Canadian ETFs launched in 2022.
Each of the ETFs held in HDIF captures a portfolio of leading large-cap businesses. They also each employ an active and flexible covered call option strategy to generate high income yields, offset downside, and monetize volatility. HDIF combined those ETFs with modest leverage at approximately 25% to deliver an enhanced income yield.
In April of this year, we launched the Harvest Diversified Equity Income ETF (HRIF:TSX). It holds the same equal-weight portfolio of Harvest ETFs, but without the use of leverage. Put simply, leverage adds a level of risk that some investors are not comfortable with. Therefore HRIF can deliver that same diversified portfolio of underlying ETFs and a high income yield in a package that more risk-averse investors may want to consider.
A truly diversified portfolio
At Harvest ETFs, we always start with portfolios of what we see as high-quality businesses. The ETFs held in HRIF capture companies that lead their sectors. By combining those portfolios into a single ETF, HRIF delivers a very diverse exposure to these companies.
The equal-weight portfolio held by HRIF at launch holds the following six ETFs.
Each ETF holds a portfolio of leading companies in their particular sector and market area. We define that leadership through quantitative and qualitative metrics such as market cap, market share, performance history and — in the case of certain underlying ETFs — dividend payment history. The companies selected in each ETF’s portfolio demonstrate leadership across those metrics.
HRIF also delivers a diverse set of performance drivers. Tech has been a market growth leader for over a decade and remains a key allocation for investors. Healthcare shows significant defensive qualities, especially during inflationary and recessionary times. The brand leaders in HBF and Canadian leaders in HLIF are selected in large part due to their resilience across market cycles, market shares, and dividend payment history. US banks have faced headwinds lately but have long-term positive exposure to interest rate increases and remain structurally important to the global economy. Utilities are an almost textbook definition of defensiveness, providing stability and ballast for the ETF.
Taken together, HRIF delivers leadership from a wide set of companies which, combined with its high income yield, makes it an attractive ETF for many investors.
HRIF’s High Income Yield Explained
HRIF launched with an initial target yield of 8.0% annually, paid as monthly cash distributions. That yield is earned by combining the underlying yields of its component ETFs, each of which employ an active & flexible covered call option strategy.
Covered call option ETFs effectively trade some upside potential for earned income premiums by ‘writing’ calls on a percentage of the ETF’s holdings. Where many covered call option ETFs use a passive strategy, writing calls on the same percentage of holdings each month, the Harvest ETFs held in HRIF use an active strategy. Continue Reading…
Are you trying to succeed with investments? Our Successful Investor approach teaches these 3 key rules we teach to subscribers.
TSInetwork.ca
Successful investors try to arrange their portfolios so that they more-or-less automatically tap into the profit and long-term growth that inevitably comes with well-established companies.
And now is a particularly good time to follow our Successful Investor investment approach. Our system of the most successful investment strategies has three key rules:
Rule #1: Invest mainly in well-established, profitable, dividend-paying stocks.
Our first rule in the most successful investment strategies will help you stay out of high-risk, low-quality investments. These investments are always available, in good and bad markets. They come with hidden risks due to conflicts of interest and other negatives. Every year, they lead many inexperienced investors to substantial losses.
Recent standout losers include bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies; a disappointing crop of new issues (IPOs), which tend to come to market when it’s a good time for the new-issue company or its insiders to sell, but not a good time for you to buy; and slapped-together promotional stocks that hit the market thanks to the SPAC phenomenon, which offers a short cut to IPO status.
Rule #2: Spread your money out across most if not all of the five main economic sectors.
This is our key to successful diversification. The widely disparaged resource sector turned out to have some major winners last year, in Canadian oil and gas stocks. Nutrien Ltd., our top fertilizer recommendation, shot up in early 2022 as the Russian invaded Ukraine, which put a big dent in world grain supplies.
On the other hand, if you had disregarded resource stocks with the intention of doubling down on tech stocks, you might have wound up with excessive holdings in tech stocks just as they entered a plunge.
Rule # 3: Downplay or avoid stocks in the broker/media limelight.
We’ve recommended a handful of tech stocks and other broker/media favourites in the past few years, but we always advised against concentrating on them.
Rather than zero in on broker/media favourites, we prefer to apply our first and second rules. If you build a balanced, diversified portfolio of high-quality stocks, it’s hard to go too far wrong, even in a challenging year like 2022 that we’ve recently experienced.
Understanding successful investments
A successful investment is one that provides long-term gains for its investors. Profitability will mean different things to many investors. One key to making a successful investment is you need to disregard or at least downplay investment marketing messages. Continue Reading…
Well, a great deal of time has passed on that post by my thinking and goals remain the same – as least in part for semi-retirement!
Read on to learn why my approach to live off dividends remains alive and well this year in this updated post.
Why my goal to live off dividends remains alive and well
First, let’s back up to the controversy and offer a list why some investors couldn’t care less about my approach and why dividends may not matter at all to some people:
The trouble with any “live off the dividends” approach is that you’d need to save too much to generate your desired income. Fair.
Dividends are not magical – there is nothing special about them. Sure.
A dollar of dividends is = a one-dollar increase in the stock price. True, a dollar is a dollar.
Stock picking (with dividend stocks) is fraught with under performance of the index long-term. I’m not convinced about that.
You can never possibly know long-term how dividends may or may not be paid by any company. Fair.
In many respects these investors are not wrong.
You do need a bunch of capital to generate income.
Dividends are part of total return. [See image at the top of this blog.]
Stock selection can open up opportunities for market under performance.
And the negativity doesn’t stop there …
Some financial advisors will argue your investing world starts to shrink if you demand 2% or 3% (or more) income from your portfolio, so dividend investing leads to poor diversification.
My response to this: I don’t just invest in dividend paying stocks.
Further still, some advisors will argue picking dividend paying stocks may lead to negative outcomes and too many biases.
My response to this: while I believe markets are generally efficient, I also believe that buying and holding some dividend paying stocks (while there could be market under-performance at times) does not necessarily mean I cannot achieve my goals. In fact, that’s the entire point of this investing thing anyhow – investing in a manner that keeps you motivated, inspired and helps you meet your long-term goals.
Consider this simple sketch art from Carl Richards, who is far more famous than I will be, and author of the One-Page Financial Plan and more:
Source: Behavior Gap.
From Carl’s recent newsletter in my inbox:
“Pretend you live in some magic fantasy world where all of your dreams (according to the investment industry) come true, and you actually beat an index every quarter for your whole life. Congratulations!
So here’s my question: You landed in Shangri La, according to the financial industry. You beat the index. But you didn’t meet your goals. Are you happy?
The answer is “No.”
Now let’s flip that scenario on its head. The worst thing in the world happens to you (again, according to the investment industry). You slightly underperform the index every quarter for your whole life. But because of careful financial planning, you meet every one of your financial goals. Let me repeat the question: Are you happy?
And the answer is obviously… “Yes.”
Stop worrying about beating indexes. Focus instead on meeting your goals.”
Amen.
Finally, some advisors will argue that dividends and share buybacks and other forms of reinvesting capital back into the business can be equally shareholder friendly.
My response to this: Well of course that makes sense. Dividends are just one form of total returns.
But you know what?
The ability to live off dividends (and distributions from our ETFs) will be beneficial for these reasons:
1. I continue to believe there are simply too many unknowns about the financial future. So, living off dividends and distributions will help ensure our capital remains hard at work since it will remain intact.
2. If we are able to keep our capital intact we don’t need to worry as much about when to sell shares or ETF units when markets don’t cooperate. We can sell assets as we please over time.
3. Living off dividends is therefore just one way I’m trying to reduce sequence of returns risks. See below.
Source: BlackRock.
As such, we’ll try to live off dividends and distributions in the early years of semi-retirement to avoid such risks.
4. I/we don’t necessarily believe in the 4% safe withdrawal rule. It’s impossible to predict next year, let alone 30 or more investing years.
5. I’m conservative as an investor. Seeing dividends roll into my account help me psychologically to stick to my investing plan.
6. Dividends is real money, tangible money I can spend if and when I choose without worrying about stock market prices or gyrations.
7. It is my hope dividends (and capital gains) can work together to help fight inflation. As consumer prices rise, as the cost of living rises, the companies that deliver our products and services will rise in price along with them.
8. I like dividend paying stocks for a bit of the “value-tilt” they offer.
In a taxable account Canadian dividend paying stocks are eligible for a dividend tax credit from our government. This means taxation on dividends are favourable, it is a lower form of tax; lower than employment income and interest income. This will help me in the years to come.
Will I eventually spend the capital from my portfolio?
Of course I will.
With no desire to leave a large estate, it wouldn’t make sense for us not to do so!
But with a “live off dividends” mindset I can sell assets or incur capital gains largely on my own terms during retirement. I plan to do just that.
Why my goal to live off dividends remains alive and well summary
This site continues to share a journey that includes how passive dividend income can fulfill many of our retirement income needs – whether that might be covering our property taxes, paying our utility bills, delivering enough monthly income to cover our groceries, fund some international travel or all of these things combined.
Here was one of my recent updates below.
We’re now averaging over $3,300 per month from a few key accounts.
(Hint: likely more next month!)
We’re trending in a great direction thanks to this multi-year investing approach and I have no intentions of changing my/our overall approach.
I firmly believe our focus on the income that our portfolio generates, instead of the portfolio balance, is setting us up to deliver some decent semi-retirement income.
Our goal to live off dividends and distributions remains very much alive and well for the years ahead.
I look forward to your comments.
Mark Seed is a passionate DIY investor who lives in Ottawa. He invests in Canadian and U.S. dividend paying stocks and low-cost Exchange Traded Funds on his quest to own a $1 million portfolio for an early retirement. You can follow Mark’s insights and perspectives on investing, and much more, by visiting My Own Advisor. This blog originally appeared on his site on March 27, 2023 and is republished on the Hub with his permission.
One of the most agreed-upon financial planning concepts is the importance of an emergency fund. Having quick access to money to pay for an unexpected expense or job loss can prevent unwanted credit card debt and can lower stress levels.
Not everyone is on board though. Some people feel that keeping money in cash instead of investing it means you’re sacrificing too much potential growth. This might be a particularly true for people who are targeting financial freedom. Since investing is an important component of reaching financial goals, it’s understandable that you don’t want to drag down your overall rate of return by holding cash.
Having access to money for unexpected expenses, though, is important for pretty much everyone. So do you need an emergency fund and if you do, how much should it be?
Do you need an emergency fund?
If you have a home equity line of credit (HELOC), you might not need funds sitting in a savings account. Whether it’s a good idea to depend on your HELOC as an emergency fund depends on two main factors: if you had to borrow from it, how long would it take you to pay if off and what is the rate of interest you’re paying?
Generally, as long as the rate of interest on the line of credit is below what you could expect to earn in the stock market, and assuming you’re able to pay down the line of credit within a reasonable time period, then using your line of credit isn’t a bad idea. The key is to make sure you are disciplined in paying down the line of credit quickly, otherwise the interest cost will outweigh what you could earn in the market.
How much do you need?
For those who don’t have a HELOC or who prefer to have a safety net in cash, determining the right amount of money to keep in an easy-to-access, low-return account is important.
There are really two kinds of emergency funds: one that will pay your expenses if you lose your job or can’t work for a period of time, and one that will pay for the large, unpredictable expenses that crop up in everyday life.
The job loss emergency fund
Job loss can mean you were laid off or that you can’t work due to illness, an accident, or a personal/family crisis. You might have heard the standard advice that says you need 3-6 months’ worth of living expense to protect against a job loss. Like all personal finance shortcuts, this isn’t necessarily helpful. How much you need in an emergency fund is highly dependent on your situation.
Here are the main factors that influence how much you should have set aside in your job loss emergency fund:
Do you have job stability? If your industry is known for sudden layoffs or if your role might be considered non-essential to an organization, you have a higher risk of losing your job and it might take you longer to find a new one. It would be wise to have a bigger cushion than someone who works in a stable industry or performs an essential role.
Do you have disability insurance? If you have an accident or get really sick, you’ll receive some kind of payment while you have to take time off work. It won’t necessarily be enough but it will help and you’ll need a smaller emergency fund. If you expect to receive no pay if you need to take time off work, you need a bigger emergency fund.
What kind of lifestyle do you want to maintain? If you are laid off, you’ll need to pare back your spending. But to what extent? What do you consider to be “essential”? Are the kids’ swimming lessons essential? What about your gym membership? Understanding what essential means to you will help you decide how much to set aside.
Do you have a partner or spouse? If you have a partner or spouse with whom you share the financial responsibilities of running a household and they are employed, would they be able to cover the essentials if you lost your job? How would your lifestyle be impacted? What is their job stability like? Do they work in the same industry as you do? If so, there might be a higher risk of both of you being laid off at the same time.
Do you have savings in a TFSA or a non-registered account? If all of your money is in RRSPs or your pension, you don’t have any good options for withdrawing money in an emergency. However, you could choose to rely on your TFSA or non-registered funds for a portion of your needs.
The large expense emergency fund
For your large expense emergency fund, the amount you want to have available depends on how many opportunities for unexpected expenses you are exposed to and what other resources you could draw on. Continue Reading…
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