The Canadian Telecom Monopoly

 

I'm sure a lot of "Do It Yourself" investors ponder about how to get started and have doubts about the performance of their own portfolio(s) and wonder how the other dividend investors/growers are doing?

There's a lot of resources out there to reference like Blogs, articles on financial sites where they highlight various portfolios/stocks/ETFs from various editors/posters to financial data sites. I read up on these, not to copy their moves but to see what can be added to my "Watchlist" that's had a decent history of growth over the last 5 to 10 years. Initially on my mind is  "How's the growth with the stock price/dividend over the years?" before I dig deeper.

Overall, it comes down to how much money an investor has to fund and that relates to how fast or slow one can build up on stocks and dividends over the months and years ahead along with those that "DRIP" where more shares are bought at a discount on autopilot from dividends received.

Some popular Bloggers highlight 10 year journeys from a few hundred gained in dividends in the first year to thousands per month at year 10 and still growing. But, again ...  it depends on how much cash left over in a month to invest that's not needed to keep the personal finances on track.

One needs a plan and stay at a comfortable funding pace to build it. With me, it's long term. Constantly scrapping plans, selling ... is like spinning wheels with no traction. 

                           

I'm always looking ahead to the next month for what I'm going to build on that I own or add.

June, I'm thinking Telecoms and BCE (BCE) at a current 6.13% with a 5.16% dividend increase this year plus Telus (T) at 5.32% with a dividend increase of 3.56%, which have quarterly ex-dividend dates. With energy related, Suncor Energy (SU) is early in June on the 2nd with a 5.40% dividend yield.

The big fish Telecoms like BCE, Telus and Rogers are swallowing other companies which created a monopoly in Canada. With most being wired up with cell phones, we pay some of the highest cell subscriptions in the world. The money flows into these companies and owning a piece of them pays dividends.

                            Courtesy of MobileSyrup.com

That takes me up to mid June with more interesting stocks later in the month that have ex-dividend dates like Canadian top Banks and POW, Power Corporation of Canada I'll highlight about at that time.

Personal picks of the many stock and etf choices out there that pay dividends.

Financials in May, 2023

 

Feds are slowly taming the wild west days of Crypto but first, what's happening in May with stocks and my interest in it.

Yesterday I bought more Enbridge (ENB) stock with pipelines and building storage facilities for oil and gas producers in Canada and the US. Current yield is 6.62%

With Financials, there are some personal great picks with the insurance/financial sector in Canada. 

Looking at the big picture, there continues to be some trouble with mid size banks in the US, although the Feds step in and take over when they falter and lately, sell them off to the bigger banks in the US, which in turn keep them running and manage them the way they want.

With constant news about this, it casts a shadow at times on some of the Big Banks in Canada that have exposure and branches in the US like TD and Royal Bank. That tends to filter into the financial sector throughout Canada.

Being a long term investor it provides for more bargain hunting where some financials are down from their yearly highs knowing they will continue to bring in their billions.

Manulife Financial (MFC), Great-West Life (GWO) and Sunlife (SLF) are on my radar to further buy in May before their ex-dividend dates.

In Canada, a Crypto outfit has to register with the SEC to operate or they will get warnings to do so and eventually booted if they don't. Among others, both Coinbase and Kraken are in that process and both are high profile exchanges/wallet holders in the US. 

A recent Blog article about Canada registration from Kraken (March 30/2023)

In the US, the Feds are hot on the heals of those not registered with them and scrutinising the coins they hold calling many securities although no official guideline for crypto coins has been drafted before but that's about to change as they are working on that currently and they will be sending letters to Exchanges holding them to comply or be fined

Companies like Coinbase and Kraken I'm sure find this all an impact on how they make extra money on products such as "swapping coin" fees, Staking, etc. on top of transfer and trading fees, etc.

There will be a lot more news as this unfolds in the US. Meanwhile in Canada, it's pretty cut and dry ... register and with your products or move on. The largest exchange in the world, Binance figured they were above all this registering stuff and either hit the road or go to court. They left.

Meanwhile, my only interest now is with the BTC and ETH I hold and follow what's happening with their prices these days. I used to be in many other coins and stable coins but with all that's going on I mentioned above ... transferred it all to BTC, with options to cash out to a bank.