Just starting - roast me!

[zcypher]

Good day everyone,

Was learning about DGI when I stumbled upon this forum that seems to be good people, so here I am.  I was mostly lost on what sort of investment strategy I should pursue until I learned of DGI, which seems most appealing to me by far.  Up til recently I held some index funds with Tangerine which did just fine, but after reaching enough to waive TD's Direct Investing quarterly maintenance fees, I decided it's time to transfer my holdings over there and...stop being lazy.  After all, even a modest 1% MER is $250 on a $25k investment.  So well worth my time to learn, I figured.

I'm starting with ~$28k (all within RRSP space), and plan to add at least another $10k this year.  As I hear it told, it's more tax efficient to hold US dividend stocks under RRSP for the withholding tax or some such.  For right now, I decided to split the ~$28k among 14 securities, so ~$2k to each.

I'm turning 34 now, so let's just say I hope to avoid disaster and make good progress over the next 2-3 decades.  Here are the picks so far:

Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
Amazon (AMZN)
Boardwalk (BEI.UN)
Canopy Growth (WEED)
Canadian Western Bank (CWB)
Cineplex (CGX)
Coca Cola (KO)
Enbridge (ENB)
Fortis (FTS)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Royal Bank (RY)
Verizon (VZ)
Walmart (WMT)

I realize not all of them are dividend stocks.  I want to have DGI strategy account for a majority of my overall portfolio, but leave some room for other stuff.  I already hold some TELUS shares too since I work there, which is partly why I opted for a US telco in this portfolio.

I have a bunch of others on my watch list such as GIS, PM, CP, SAP, ENF, PG, WJA, AMGN, REF.UN, LB, ABBV, and on and on and on.  

If my quick and dirty spreadsheet is accurate, I'm looking at an approximate average 3.97% yield which for now, translating to ~$1,333/year of dividend income.  I'm really excited about this and can't wait to further develop the port!  I'm probably feeling beginner's confidence right now, so time will tell if I can deliver on the psychological / temperament / emotional intelligence requirements.

I welcome all feedback good and bad, or feel free to just share your own experiences!

[crimsonghost747]

Welcome.

Quite a good start. Nothing wrong with having some non-dividend companies in there, I'm fairly certain most of us have one or two of those. As long as their weight is not massive, it won't have a huge effect on the total dividend payout. And who knows, maybe some of those companies will start to pay at some point.

If you manage to keep adding $10k per year then you'll have a sizeable portfolio in no time!

[DividendGarden]

Would never roast someone just starting out. I only roast rude people!

I think many DGI'ers own non-dividend paying companies. I own Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett's company) and Google, neither of which pay a dividend. But, I'm a DGI'er at heart and ~99% of my portfolio pays dividends. I would just recommend using dividends and new cash to buy DGI companies, if that's the strategy you want to switch to. I would caution against chasing yield but would encourage you to play the long game. Dividend growth rates make up in the long run what yield gives you in the short run. Just consider what you want and when.

[zcypher]

Thanks for the vote of confidence - and the roasting was just tongue in cheek. ;p

I agree about not chasing yield, at first it seems tempting, but it seems probable that you'd end up getting burned at some point! Some of the higher yielding ones are surely still good picks for now, but, how many companies that have had multiple decades of dividend growth started with a high yield?

I still have a lot of learning to do, but hopefully a long while down the line, I'll have picked more winners than losers!

[Robandcindy2]

Welcome!

Terrific (and very smart) folks here. You might also look into SeekingAlpha specifically
There are some excellent authors over at SeekingAlpha.

Chuck Carnevale
Mike Nadel
Eric Landis
David Crosetti
David Van Knapp
Norman Tweed
Bob Johnson
Bob Wells
David Fish (keeper of the CCC Spreadsheet)
And a character who goes by "Chowder" :-)

All are well-grounded dividend growth investors. Track their blogs, articles, and portfolios. You will be rewarded with an excellent education free of charge.

The Champions Spreadsheet is here:
http://www.dripinvesting.org/tools/tools.asp

Highly recommend this site as well:
http://dgiforthediy.com (Creator is Eric Landis who is on this site as well)

Best of luck. Don't hold back with your questions.

Cheers,

Rob

[cannew]

(04-17-2018, 10:42 PM)zcypher Wrote: Good day everyone,

Was learning about DGI when I stumbled upon this forum that seems to be good people, so here I am.  I was mostly lost on what sort of investment strategy I should pursue until I learned of DGI, which seems most appealing to me by far.  Up til recently I held some index funds with Tangerine which did just fine, but after reaching enough to waive TD's Direct Investing quarterly maintenance fees, I decided it's time to transfer my holdings over there and...stop being lazy.  After all, even a modest 1% MER is $250 on a $25k investment.  So well worth my time to learn, I figured.

I'm starting with ~$28k (all within RRSP space), and plan to add at least another $10k this year.  As I hear it told, it's more tax efficient to hold US dividend stocks under RRSP for the withholding tax or some such.  For right now, I decided to split the ~$28k among 14 securities, so ~$2k to each.

I'm turning 34 now, so let's just say I hope to avoid disaster and make good progress over the next 2-3 decades.  Here are the picks so far:

Abbott Laboratories (ABT)
Amazon (AMZN)
Boardwalk (BEI.UN)
Canopy Growth (WEED)
Canadian Western Bank (CWB)
Cineplex (CGX)
Coca Cola (KO)
Enbridge (ENB)
Fortis (FTS)
Johnson & Johnson (JNJ)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Royal Bank (RY)
Verizon (VZ)
Walmart (WMT)

I realize not all of them are dividend stocks.  I want to have DGI strategy account for a majority of my overall portfolio, but leave some room for other stuff.  I already hold some TELUS shares too since I work there, which is partly why I opted for a US telco in this portfolio.

I have a bunch of others on my watch list such as GIS, PM, CP, SAP, ENF, PG, WJA, AMGN, REF.UN, LB, ABBV, and on and on and on.  

If my quick and dirty spreadsheet is accurate, I'm looking at an approximate average 3.97% yield which for now, translating to ~$1,333/year of dividend income.  I'm really excited about this and can't wait to further develop the port!  I'm probably feeling beginner's confidence right now, so time will tell if I can deliver on the psychological / temperament / emotional intelligence requirements.

I welcome all feedback good and bad, or feel free to just share your own experiences!

Welcome to the site.  I think your overall portfolio is Ok, but I'd get rid of CGX, BEI.UN and Weed and stick with Solid DG stocks with a long history of paying and growing their dividend.  Yes all the US holdings should be in your RRSP, but I think you should also open a TFSA.  I feel you should max out your TFSA before adding to your RRSP.
As you've started, select a group of stocks you like and wish to own, but keep the list too about 20. Don't over look the Utilities, FTS & EMA, Pipelines, TRP, IPL ENB, CNR and the Cdn Banks. If you work for Telus and if they offer stock purchase plan, take advantage of it and there is nothing wrong with BCE.  I'd also recommend you reinvest the dividends. 
We are retired Cdn's with 2 RRIF, 2 TFSA and Non-Reg accounts but only own 12 Cdn stocks.  You are still young so having some US stocks and even some Growth stocks is a good idea. Try to avoid Selling. Buy your DG stocks on the dips and hold for the rising income.
Check out The Connolly Report, who's advice we've followed: http://www.dividendgrowth.ca/dividendgrowth/