Building Wealth

For the first 30 or so years of working, saving and investing, you’ll be first in the mode of getting out of the hole (paying down debt), and then building your net worth (that’s wealth accumulation.). But don’t forget, wealth accumulation isn’t the ultimate goal. Decumulation is! (a separate category here at the Hub).

How dividends are taxed: a close look at the dividend tax credit

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Discover what you need to know to answer the question, “How are dividends taxed in Canada?”

Taxpayers who hold Canadian dividend-paying stocks get a tax break. Their dividends can be eligible for the dividend tax credit in Canada. This means that dividend income will be taxed at a lower rate than the same amount of interest income.

Investors in the highest tax bracket pay tax of 29% on dividends, compared to about 50% on interest income. Investors in the highest tax bracket pay tax on capital gains at a rate of roughly 25%.

As mentioned, Canadian taxpayers who hold Canadian dividend stocks get a special bonus. Their dividends can be eligible for the dividend tax credit in Canada. This dividend tax credit — which is available on dividends paid on Canadian stocks held outside of an RRSP, RRIF or TFSA — will cut your effective tax rate.

This means that dividend income will be taxed at a lower rate than the same amount of interest income.

How are dividends taxed in Canada? An example:

If you earn $1,000 in dividend income and are in the top 50% tax bracket, you will pay about $290 in taxes.

That’s a bit more than capital gains, which offer tax-advantaged income as well. On that same $1,000 in income, you will only pay $250 in capital gains taxes.

But it’s a lot better than the roughly $500 in income taxes you’ll pay on the same $1,000 amount of interest income.

The Canadian dividend tax credit is actually split between two tax credits. One is a provincial dividend tax credit and the other is a federal dividend tax credit. The provincial tax credit varies depending on where you live in Canada.

Note that apart from the Canadian dividend tax credit giving you a major tax-deferral opportunity, dividends can supply a big part of your overall long-term portfolio gains.

When you add in the security of stocks with dividends going back many years or decades—plus the potential for tax-advantaged capital gains on top of dividend income: Canadian dividend stocks are an attractive way to increase profit with less risk.

How are dividends taxed in Canada? Savvy investors respect the advantages of dividends

Dividends don’t always get the respect they deserve, especially from beginning investors. Continue Reading…

Why the “T” in TSX should stand for Tokyo

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By Jeff Weniger, CFA, WisdomTree Investments

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

 

Canada’s stock market construction may be more than just a portfolio risk; it is arguably a systemic one.

If, for whatever reason, the Canadian financial system were to encounter serious difficulty, investors would be hit by a one-two punch. The attendant economic weakness would hang over the stock market, and it would be the very companies that dominate the stock market that would be battling demons. Canada’s top-heaviness, where more than $2 of every $5 in the MSCI Canada Index is in financial stocks, is not normal or reassuring for a developed economy.1 We should stop making like it is.

In fact, it would be better for the TSX if the “T” stood for Tokyo, at least on the sector diversification side of things, as we show below.

Stuck in the mud

Everywhere you turn, countries that are top heavy are doing something about it. Saudi Arabia, for example, sees the writing on the wall for fossil fuels; either the price mechanism may cause a phase-down in oil demand in the next quarter century, or environmental action groups will crush demand themselves. Either way, the ruling Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman is keen to avoid state failure if a bleak future for oil comes to pass. That country will soon float an IPO of Aramco, the state-run oil behemoth that may be equal to several ExxonMobils. Proceeds will be diverted into tech, infrastructure—anything that isn’t oil.

China, too, realized it was turning into a one-trick pony. After building its export machine after Mao’s death, the time for middle-class demand eventually arrived. When it joined the WTO at the turn of the century, the country’s household consumption was 46% of GDP. It fell to 36% of GDP in 2007, but it has been rising ever since; sights are set on 40% this year.2

But not Canada. The hat is hung on the same two sectors, as always. Nine of this country’s top 10 corporations by market capitalization fit the bill (figure 1). This, in a country where the average investor has 86% of assets inside these borders.3

That is concentration on top of concentration.

Figure 1: Canada’s Sector Concentrations

Compare the “T” for Toronto with another T: Tokyo. Figure 2 shows Japan’s national champions. They don’t dominate allocations quite like Canada’s do.

Figure 2: Japan’s Largest Companies

Continue Reading…

Why and how Financial Independence is achievable

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By Jade Anderson

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

Financial independence can mean different things to different people, but the widespread definition is to be financially secure and on the right track to a safe retirement.

Sometimes people will still need to work in order to maintain their financial independence (aka “Findependence”), but the main idea is that you are free from any debt or outside help from financial institutions. This may seem like something that is unachievable for anyone outside of retirement age, who isn’t well established; however, because of the different types of financial independence, it may not be so difficult after all. Adjusting your spending habits, creating a budget for your self and several other things can lead you towards Findependence, if you know the right things you need to consider.

Reduce unnecessary expenses

Setting up a budget for the long term is extremely important if you’re wanting to become financially independent. If you can cut down on any unnecessary expenses (such as extra food, clothing, and entertainment) in your weekly spending, then you’ll find it will be a lot easier to save. If you are not used to saving money, starting small is important because it will help you establish a pattern of saving properly, and it will be easier for you when you move up to saving more of your average income.

Plan your savings and spending

Planning not only your savings, but also your spending is crucial for ensuring your financial independence. If you have a few debts, and you can make plans to pay off certain amounts by certain dates, you’ll find that the overall debt is easier to pay off, than if you paid it off in a lump sum. Using one of the financial calculators like those on Brighter Finance can help you calculate your budget and repayment periods for your loans, so you can keep track of your money more easily.

Continue Reading…

Benefits of hiring a “Discretionary” Portfolio Manager

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Canadian investors have been following a variety of recent debates about the structure of the advisor/client relationship. I’m going to cut to the chase quickly.

If you seek core qualities and competencies from your investment professional, such as the following list, you need to conduct some research. Your mission is to find a way to hire a “discretionary” portfolio manager (DPM) for your ongoing wealth management needs.

Continue Reading…

When $70 Crude Oil doesn’t feel Like $70 Crude Oil

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By Jeff Weniger, CFA, WisdomTree Investments

Special to the Financial Independence Hub

“Judging by the oil market in the pre-OPEC era, a ‘normal’ market price might now be in the $5-10 range  … Last week Algeria’s energy minister declared, with only slight exaggeration, that prices might conceivably tumble ‘to $2 or $3 a barrel.’”

—The Economist, March 4, 1999

That quote feels like it was from a million years ago. A decade later, straight-faced economists would be talking about US$200 or US$300 per barrel. Times change.

With oil two years along in a bull rally that has witnessed its price triple from  lows in the first quarter of 2016, it may be just a matter of time before the purported list of stock market obstacles starts to include retail gasoline pain. With West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil changing hands at US$67.44 and Brent crude at US$73.26, it’s hard not to be scared off by our collective ups and downs at the gas station.1

After regular unleaded challenged US$4 a gallon — $3.695, to be precise2 — in the summer of 2014, many strategists began to fear the worst. Gasoline would once again deal the death blow to the American middle and lower classes, as it had a half-decade prior.

But 2014 marked the worst of it, at least for now. WTI crude oil collapsed from triple digits to less than $30 in early 2016. Retail gas followed along, to levels south of $1.80.

But it has quietly chipped back, closing the first quarter at $2.57, and $3 looms in the American psyche. Unlike in Canada, where expensive fossil fuel prices tend to benefit the federal budget, Alberta employment and so forth, Americans historically have had no similar solace outside of petroleum-rich Texas and Alaska, perhaps. It’s just a different economy. People remember the first time they saw a gas station post a price of $1, then $2, then $3. And at $4, that memory strikes the gut: the insolvency years.

Regular Canadians feel pain from expensive gasoline, for sure, but not quite like the pain that hits Americans.

Tie the threat of a national average of $3 per gallon south of the border, maybe during the Labor Day road trip, with the possibility that U.S. Fed Chairman Jay Powell may bring two or three more rate hikes of 25 basis points by this year’s close, and it is not much of a leap to be sympathetic to a thesis of a gasoline-induced blow to American consumer confidence. But be careful, because that thesis is flawed.

Whispers

The “whisper number” on Saudi aspirations for Brent crude is $80 to $100 per barrel. But Donald Trump was already tweeting angrily at $70 per barrel, so it is reasonable to assume that another $20 to $30 would unwind much progress on recently fruitful U.S.-Saudi relations. But suppose ROPEC — Russia plus OPEC — marks oil up to $100 anyway. Gasoline could be closer to $4 than $3 in that circumstance. Does that break the American consumer? A half-generation or a generation ago, yes — certainly. But psychological anchoring on round numbers like $100 or $3.00 deceives. Consider our analysis below.

Our 2018 Reality

Figure 1 places unleaded gasoline costs in context. The U.S. population of some 322 million people consists of 126 million households driving more than 3 trillion miles per year. But because millennials do not drive as much as their predecessors, the number of auto miles driven per household has fallen to less than 25,000 from a peak of 26,413 in 2004.

Additionally, today’s cars are essentially computers on wheels, and fuel efficiency is notably higher than it was in prior years.

Twenty years ago, the American new car fleet got 23.4 miles to the gallon.3 By 2008, it was virtually unchanged, at 24.3. But the U.S. got burned on triple-digit oil, making it somewhat politically palpable when the Obama administration pushed forward with mandated 54.5 mpg fuel economy targets for model year 2025. In pursuit of such efficiency, the new car fleet’s efficiency rose to 30.0 mpg for the 2017 crop. Continue Reading…