Blog

Dear shareholders of Dividend Café.

We are pleased to report that your portfolio had a record amount of dividend income. Never have we reached the cashflow amount of this last year. Our dividend increases over the same period from the year before was 7.75 percent. We have averaged annual increases of over 9 percent in dividends over the last 10 years. This is what the portfolio is designed for. Our performance is measured by the amount of dividend income received. As of this writing we already have announced dividend increases for 2024 of 9 percent. That is without any re-investments. This is not to say that it will all happen as planned, because dividends can also be reduced or cancelled.

Your portfolio manager has worked hard to make sure that the asset allocation and diversification of the holdings are where they should be. And that means that once again this year we did nothing. I do not believe in asset allocation as much as in owning the right companies.

This is what it is like managing your own investments once you have a plan and believe in it.

2023’s total return for us was not as good as other markets. Our total return was 5%. That can happen and we are ok with it. As I said, we measure in dividends.

 Other markets performed as follows as per J.P. Morgan & Co.

“For U.S. Equities, the 2022 return was -18.1% and the 2023 YTD return is 24.5%. For World Equities, the 2022 return was -17.7% and the 2023 YTD return is 21.6%.” Dec 15, 2023 – TSX was up 7.92% as of Dec 22, 2023

During this last year I have had many conversations with friends about investing. Is what we are doing still working? Should we go more into tech stocks? Or just buy GIC’s? After so many years of low interest rates, times have changed. Inflation, high interest rates, unaffordable housing, food cost, all have made things difficult for so many people. And stock markets are also volatile. This is especially hard for new investors that have not seen this kind of turmoil before.

Where is it all going from here? I do not know; your advisor does not know. We plan to stick with our method and wait this out. No need to update dividend plan.

Other then investing, 2023 has also been a very good year in retirement. We went to Whistler for a few days, spent 3 weeks in Palm Springs in March, I spent a month in Paraguay in July, and went on a road trip with my son to Las Vegas for a football game. (love driving that new car on road trips)

 We have also been able to be a lot more generous in our giving to charities with our investments. Giving of shares is a win/win proposition. We do not have to pay capital gains tax on the donated shares, and this allows us to give more.

Now we look forward to the next year and wish everyone a healthy and prosperous future.   

Please leave a comment if you agree, disagree, or have a question.