General

11 tips successful investors use to find TSX Blue-chip stocks

Posted By |
TSINetwork.ca

TSX blue-chip stocks are well-established companies with attractive business prospects on the Toronto Stock Exchange, like Bank of Montreal (TSE: BMO), RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (TSX: REI.UN), and Enbridge (TSE: ENB).

Well-established firms have the asset size and the financial clout — including solid balance sheets and strong earnings and cash flow — to weather market downturns or changing industry conditions.

The best TSX blue-chip stocks have strong positions in healthy industries. They also have strong management that will make the right moves to remain competitive in ever-changing marketplaces. Blue-chip investments should always be prominent, if not dominant firms, in their industry.

True Blue Chips pay off

Blue chip stocks are your best promise of investment quality—and of strong returns for years to come. Pat McKeough’s new report shows how you where to find the best of Canada’s blue chips. And he identifies 7 of his top blue chip recommendations.

Read this FREE report >>

Because of this, blue-chip companies can give investors an additional measure of safety in today’s volatile markets. And the best ones offer an attractive combination of moderate p/e’s (the ratio of a stock’s price to its per-share earnings), steady or rising dividend yields (annual dividend divided by the share price) and promising growth prospects.

We feel most investors should hold the bulk of their investment portfolios in TSX blue-chip stock investments. All these stocks should offer good “value”: that is, they should trade at reasonable multiples of earnings, cash flow, book value and so on. Ideally, they should also have above average-growth prospects, compared to alternative investments.

11 tips for picking the best TSX blue chip stocks:

1.) Review the company’s finances going back 5 to 10 years. The types of blue-chip investments we recommend have a history of profits going back for at least that long. Companies that make money regularly are safer than chronic or even occasional money losers. Continue Reading…

Have you considered retiring later?

Posted By |

By John DeGoey, CFP, CIM

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

There are countless pieces of advice regarding retirement planning out there.  Some of them deal with lifestyle issues (How will you fill your day?  Are you sure your spouse shares your vision of how time in retirement will be spent?  What will you do to stay sharp now that you’re no longer working?), but most deal with the financial aspects of retiring.  For people who are nearing retirements (i.e. those in their 50s and early 60s), there really are only four choices that can be manipulated to help maintain a suitable cash flow for your autumn years:

  • Save more
  • Invest more aggressively
  • Accept a lesser lifestyle in retirement
  • Retire later than you planned to

There is a long list of resources and pundits who offer input on the first two items … and virtually no one wants to talk about the third item, because it is seen as a last resort.  What about the fourth item?

Retiring later is not always an option, but for those people who have some discretion, it merits serious consideration.  To begin, there are plenty of experts who can attest to ‘staying involved’ as a pathway to staying young, vigorous and mentally sharp.  Not everyone feels this way, but many people working a bit longer (even if only part time) can attest to the fact that doing so helps in their retaining a sense of worth, identity, belonging and contribution.

Taking my own advice

At this point, I need to disclose that I am planning on taking my own advice.  Less than a decade ago, I told friends I’d retire at 65.  Then, when the age for full OAS was raised to 67, I told people I’d work to that age.  More recently, even as the age for full OAS has been lowered back to 65, I am thinking of staying in the workforce longer – until age 70, perhaps.  Once again, I really enjoy my work – this option isn’t for everyone! Continue Reading…

Is Retirement in your Future?

Posted By |
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli in Chapala, Mexico

By Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

The perfect time for retirement doesn’t exist.

This is what we have learned in our almost three decades of financial independence. Things change, and sometimes radically. There simply are no guarantees.

From our point of view, a full and rich retirement is still possible for many people right now. Sometimes it takes personal flexibility in how one’s retirement is defined, as well as self-discipline and commitment to making one’s dream happen.

Many potential retirees will find themselves working part time to supplement their retirement lifestyle and perhaps to obtain a medical insurance plan. They may work from home in a virtual style of employment, make money from their hobby, or take advantage of a less stressful second-career opportunity.

Medical tourism will become more commonplace, as corporations look for financial alternatives to providing health care for their employees. As this idea becomes more familiar, retirees and potential retirees will consider this type of health care as a viable option if they are underinsured or if their own health care plan is lacking or if it’s too expensive to maintain.

Moving to more affordable countries

Moving to more affordable countries such as Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, The Philippines, Costa Rica, or Thailand will also become more attractive to those whose portfolios have been compromised for one reason or another. One can live a reasonably comfortable lifestyle in these countries for far less than in the United States or Canada.

Grander retirement dreams may be scaled back, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Less can be more when one’s retirement money is spent for living rather than for maintaining things.

If one’s future retirement life is based upon the idea of keeping the same level of spending after there is no longer a paycheck coming in, you could be in for a shock. But if you have learned to live below your means, have kept your monthly expenses reasonably low, and have not loaded up with huge amounts of consumer debt, then the road of retirement ahead will not pose a threat. Continue Reading…

BBC StoryWorks #2: The case for staying with variable rate mortgages at today’s interest rates

Posted By |

 

The second article of six planned to appear on the BBC StoryWorks website in Canada has now been published. You can find it by clicking on the highlighted headline here: Strategies for a Low-Interest World.

As explained in the first instalment, the articles (written by me) looks at Covid-19 and the impact on the real estate and mortgage industry. The articles will appear every week and run into November.  Later articles will look at the case for locking in to fixed-rate mortgages, the investing experience following Covid, optimum strategies going forward and close with retirement strategies in the age of Covid.

The second article just posted looks at why variable-rate mortgages may still be the optimum route for homeowners to go, seeing as interest rates seem destined to remain “lower for longer.” Mortgage rates are as low as anyone could reasonably have hoped to see in their lifetimes, but rock-bottom rates are also putting upward pressure on home prices. As noted in the first article, even prices of suburban and rural properties are rising, as the pandemic changes the supply/demand dynamics of where we work and live.

Rates are unlikely to spike upwards as long as the pandemic is a factor. Based on recent statements by central Banks around the world, it’s reasonable to expect interest rates will remain “lower for longer,” if not indefinitely at least for the foreseeable future. In mid-September the US federal reserve said rates won’t be raised before 2023.

Both fixed and variable rate mortgages are under 2%

In Canada, fixed and variable rate mortgages are being offered at less than 2%.   Continue Reading…

Canadian Financial Summit 2020 is now online

Posted By |

The four-day Canadian Financial Summit 2020 edition kicks off at 8 pm EST (5 pm PST) tonight (Oct. 14): an all-virtual event featuring 30 personal finance speakers and financial bloggers. You can get tickets and catch up here. Tickets are free via the website.

After kicking off with a webcast tonight, the online event runs till this Saturday, October 17.

Kornel Szrejber

The summit’s host is Kornel Szrejber, who runs the finance and investing podcast The Build Wealth Canada Show.  Szrejber [pictured right] says on the site that he became one of Canada’s youngest retirees at age 32 (“before I got bored and took on the Podcast and Summit as passion projects,”) following a career in the financial planning and investing industry.

The event will also feature the experiences of two others who are among Canada’s youngest retirees, Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, who will pass on their wisdom about how they reached retirement at so tender an age.

Scheduled speakers include Rob Carrick of the Globe & Mail, former Toronto Star financial columnist and consumer advocate Ellen Roseman, and Financial Post columnist Peter Hodson.

There are also several names that should be familiar to regular Hub readers: BoomerandEcho’s Robb Engen, MyOwnAdvisor’s Mark Seed and certified financial planner Ed Rempel. (The Hub often republishes their blogs.)

You can see some of the other speakers below, including Tom Drake, Kyle Prevost and other well known bloggers and personal finance gurus.

 

Continue Reading…