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Investment Q&A

Not investment advice or solicitation to buy/sell securities. Do your own due diligence and/or consult an advisor.

Q: A couple of years ago I hit upon the idea of giving each of my grandchildren $500 on their 16th birthday to establish a first investment and, I hoped, learn something about investing by direct experience. I gave them 250 shares (still in my name since one cannot open a brokerage account under the age of 18) of Surge Energy then trading at $2.00 and paying a dividend of $.0125 per month yielding $3.13 in the first month, enough to buy one more share in the DRIP brokerage account. Working beautifully until last May when SGY halved the dividend (also instructional, but disappointing)

I have another grandson turning 16 and would like to do the same for him but do not know of another security with the same feature of paying enough dividend (possibly quarterly) that provides enough to buy one more share with the dividend generated from a capital base of close to $500. If you have a way of mining for such opportunities, I would be most grateful to hear your suggestion(s). (I do not have any experience with ETFs but perhaps there is a possibility in this sphere?) If you have another suggestion for an intro investment, I would be glad to hear your thoughts.

Thanks very much, Bob.
Read Answer Asked by Lynn on April 03, 2017
Q: Hi Folks,

I am gradually building up a dividend producing portfolio. At this time I have positions in EIF, VET, BCE and AQN. I'm hoping to achieve a 4 - 5% dividend yield plus 4 - 5% appreciation. Do you think my return expectations are reasonable? What are your thoughts on my current holdings? Could you give me your 5 - 6 favorite dividend stocks for me to add at this time? Please deduct whatever number of credits my multi pronged question merits.

Thanks for the great service.

Dennis
Read Answer Asked by Dennis on April 03, 2017
Q: Hello all,
This is further to the question regarding BIP.UN and tax reporting. I have had this equity for several years and it is always, without exception, the last tax form I receive. As of yet, this year's (2016) has still not arrived.
Having said that, it is a very small problem. Annoying, yes, but nothing more.
So, some final points:
1. It is probably not tax-advantageous to keep in a taxable account in the first place. (That was the only room I had available when I chose to purchase it - my bad.)
2. Kept in a TFSA, RRSP or other tax-efficient entity I don't believe the tax issues apply so if you have, or can make room, put BIP.UN (this would apply to BEP.UN as well, I imagine) in one of those vehicles.
3. We are in the process of moving our BIP.UN into our TFSA's each year until it is all in TFSA's, thus our tax issues become smaller each year until they will finally go away.
4. BIP.UN has been a stellar performer in our portfolios both in terms of dividend cash flow and capital appreciation - it would take something really dramatic for us to part with it. I guess it would be one of our "core" holdings.
All the best!
Cheers,
Mike
Read Answer Asked by Mike on March 31, 2017
Q: Re: Ian's earlier question - I have held both for several years in taxable accounts and have never had any issues getting the tax forms (T5013) on time. Complexity comes from the fact that the Distributions are not "Dividends" but include elements of Foreign Income, Interest, Return of Capital as well as Eligible Divs.....so tax hit is different than a dividend that qualifies for the DTC. This changes each year and and the T5013 lays all this out quite clearly. If you would like to get a breakdown of the elements of each historical distribution - there is also good summary on each of the firms websites. I am a very happy shareholder of both!
Read Answer Asked by Gary on March 31, 2017
Q: You were not enthused with this issue when it did an IPO on November 1,2016. Have you changed you view? If not what would you recommend as a good place to park cash.
The cash balance usually $100K would fluctuate; but would never go to Zero.

Thanks Team
Read Answer Asked by Warren on March 30, 2017
Q: hello 5i:
2 questions.

I am interested in the fund above, and the question asked by Robert yesterday. One thing I can't quite understand: how is the fund generating a (greater than) 6% return. How is the fund able to do this with present interest rates? Through leverage?

Could you give me your opinion on the CEF WEC (Western Asset Premier Bond Fund), and would you consider this a viable holding in a TFSA?
thanks
Paul
Read Answer Asked by Paul on March 30, 2017
Q: The sell of on Tue. Mar. 28 seems to be rather extreme, A fellow investor pointed out "looking at the ENB chart (US chart) it looks ugly to me like its ready to take a dive (head and shoulders formation) ; the way I'm seeing it is if ENB looks bearish then ENF is probably going to take a dive as well which brings me back to the same question, why did ENF sell off so bad. The chart is here: https://tvc-invdn-com.akamaized.net/data/tvc_4a2816752f087df5dc33999672d10282.png
Would you please provide your comments and analysis.
Read Answer Asked by Helen on March 29, 2017
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