Retirement portfolio monthly payment coming Tuesday

One can find literally dozens of investment suggestions on the Internet. Many of these are from very fine sources. Many of these I have followed. I found that many of these posts shared a lot when it came to the investment advice offered. I decided I might be able to do as well as the legion of online experts I was following.

I designed a million dollar portfolio for a retiring senior and immediately put my ideas into action. Why immediately? Because one should not try to time the market, right?

Come back this Tuesday and I will reveal how my imaginary portfolio is performing. I have withdrawn one monthly payment of $3333 already and come Tuesday I will remove a second monthly payment of $3333.

See you Tuesday. Have a good holiday weekend. Cheers!

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.

Core holdings in a retirement portfolio

One is often advised to have one or more annuities in one's retirement portfolio. Although I believe that is good advice, I do not have any annuities in my portfolio. I look at the stable annuity payout, so stable that in twenty-five years it will be paying exactly what it is delivering today -- not a penny more nor a penny less -- and I cringe.

Then I compare this to the dividends paid by my core stock holdings. For instance, take Fortis (FTS). As reported by Gordon Pape, Fortis "recently increased its dividend for the 49th consecutive year." I find the idea of holding a utility like Fortis for 25 years a lot more appealing than holding an annuity for the same time period.

Fortis is a utility company based in St. John's Newfoundland but with operations extending into five Canadian provinces, nine U.S. states and three Caribbean countries. And Fortis is not the only good utility company in Canada. The short list of fine alternatives includes: Emera (EMA), Hydro One (H) and Canadian Utilities (CU).

I'd feel very comfortable holding 4-5% of my retirement portfolio in each of these companies for a total exposure to the utility sector of 16% to 20%.

Another sector in which all Canadian retirement portfolios should have exposure is banking. The Canadian banking system may be unique in the world. The five biggest Canadian banks control the sector. I would argue that all five Canadian banks are "too big to fail." Conservation of assets is a core goal of one's investment approach in retirement. The five biggest Canadian banks are safe and their dividends are safe as well. This year will mark 194 years without a dividend cut for the Bank of Montreal, 189 years without a cut for the Bank of Nova Scotia and 166 years for the TD bank.

The big five Canadian banks are: RY, BMO, TD, CIBC and BNS. I prefer to weight my investments in the banking sector by bank size. For this reason, I weight my investments in the banking sector toward the Royal Bank and the Bank of Montreal and away from the Bank of Nova Scotia. Still, with all five taken together, I find I feel comfortable with from 25% to 35% of my total portfolio invested in banks. And be aware, I am not adverse to investing in the National Bank (NA) even though it has been known to reduce its dividend in tough times.

Some core holdings for a Canadian retirement portfolio:

• RY (Royal Bank)       
  
• BMO (Bank of Montreal)
  
• TD (Toronto Dominion Bank)
  
• CM (Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce)
  
• BNS (Bank of Nova Scotia)
  
• FTS (Fortis)
  
• EMA (Emera)
  
• H (Hydro One)
  
• CU (Canadian Utilities)

After this, I would consider adding telecoms and pipelines to my retirement holdings.