I see Telus (T) as a buy today.

I noticed today that Morningstar is rating Telus (T) as a five star buy. I bought: 500 shares.

As a dividend investor, Telus, yielding 5.66% at its present price, is a wonderful stock. A generous dividend with a low chance of being cut by any meaningful amount.

Selling today at a price approaching its low for the year, Telus (T) has lots of headroom. I would not be in the least surprised to see Telus selling for more than $30 sometime in the coming year.

I am stocking up on Telus; I'm buying more than I have as my goal. I plan to sell the excess when the time is right. One must always keep avenues open for generating not just yield but cash for future retirement portfolio purchases.

Telus is one of my core holdings in my retirement income portfolio.

TC Energy (TRP) In my book, today this is a buy.

TC Energy (TRP) is flirting with its low for the past year. Also, it is off its high for the past year by about 25%. This puts the stock well into bear territory. I believe TC Energy is a solid company paying a dividend that a retiree can trust -- a dividend yielding more than 7% today.

Can TRP go deeper into bear territory? Sure. But, I don't see it losing any amount that I would find frightening. It has absorbed some big losses already. I cannot see more of the same happening in the near future.

Moments ago, I put my money where my mouth is; I added to my TRP position. I look forward to my first dividend in a little more than three months. My retirement income has taken a $744 pop with this purchase.

My latest crack at a "Retirement Portfolio"

I have been checking out retirement portfolios posted by financial experts found on the Net. You see, I am an outlier when it comes to most portfolio-building approaches. For instance, I balk at investing any of my retirement money in bond ETFs. And so, I like reading how others approach portfolio building.

I have been wondering how I would invest my savings if I were retiring with a million dollars in savings today. I'd take my inspiration from the Canadian market itself and invest in most, if not all, the market sectors: financial, real estate, utilities, energy, etc.

The result of my weekend musings can be inspected below. I built this million dollar portfolio Saturday. It immediately jumped more than $4000 in value on market open Monday. I'll check this portfolio once a month to see how it is performing.

I have been considering Mullen Group, Algoma Central Corp and the ETF VIDY as additions to my actual retirement portfolio. I'll be watching these three investments and following the perform of each with great interest.

Oh, if you are interested in what percent of the total portfolio each investment represents, just look at the first numbers in the Market Value and round the number up or down to the nearest number that is a multiple of five. For instance ALC is 2.5% of the total portfolio and BMO is 6.0% and BNS is 3.0%. (This corrects an earlier error.)

 

 

I checked my million dollar portfolio in early afternoon. The gain is closing in on nine thousand dollars. Is this confirmation of my approach to portfolio construction? Not necessarily. 

What it does demonstrate is market volatility. Do not overreact to market ups and downs. Always keep in mind that the market is up a full two thirds of the time. In the end, investors with the long range view always come out ahead.

One has to be very careful when reading posts recommending an investment strategy. Stock markets are very volatile. My retirement income portfolio which was thrown together on the weekend was up $17,815.90 at market close just three days later. Someone pushing a certain investment approach can make most approaches appear very good on paper; just choose the right reference dates.

Let's be honest. There may well be a recession coming. It may be mild but it should take the markets down a notch or two. These gains, so quickly amassed, could disappear just as quickly.

But this portfolio will deliver a nice income and most of the dividends are rock solid. This portfolio should get a retiree through tough times with cash to spare.

By market close Friday I was amazed at this mythical portfolio's balance. It was up almost $32,500. Wow!

During the week, I have been adding some of the investments in my mythical portfolio to my actual retirement portfolio. In calculating the number of shares to own, I have been guided by the portfolio percentages used to create this mythical portfoliio.

I am pleased to say that taking my investment inspiration from this mythical portfolio is proving to be a fine move.

To see where this theoretical portfolio was after almost a month, please click the link: 

Retirement income portfolio update

Finding inspiration for a retirement portfolio approach.

 

I like to read other blogs discussing retirement portfolios. I was just considering the portfolio suggestions posted by the "Cut the Crap Investing" blog. I under stand why all the ETFs mentioned are in the list except for the last one, the iShares bond fund XBB.TO.

Bonds I understand. Keep them to maturity and all your money comes back. You keep the interest payments. But not so with a bond-based ETF. First, the bonds will not be kept to maturity in all the cases of which I am aware. Often the bonds in the fund are sold when one year from maturity. The bonds may be sold at a loss.

I do not hold any bonds at all in my retirement portfolio. I do hold about 10% of my retirement funds in cash. It is in the mutual fund TDB8150 which is paying daily interest right now 4.3%. I find this approach better than shoving my loose cash into a bond fund ETF.

For the full story, click the link: The Simple 7 ETF Portfolio for Canadian Retirees.