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moneysense.ca, 15/05/08
This and That
- Globe and Mail columnist Fabrice Taylor points out the games that income trusts play when it comes to distributable cash.
- With the long weekend coming up, here’s some fuel saving tips from Shell. Except that Money magazine says some of those tips are myths.
- The Star says that Canadian banks are expected to take a break this year from their habit of regularly boosting their dividends.
- James Daw writes in The Star that TFSA will benefit low-wage earners.
- Jon Chevreau bemoans the lack of thrift in our society and finds that it appears to be a global problem.
- Michael James writes that market average is a misnomer.
- Million Dollar Journey does a cross-border comparison of retirement accounts.
- Preet discusses portfolio insurance using a double inverse ETFs.
- The Dividend Guy says that dividend growth is more important than initial yield.
- I got a chuckle out of Larry MacDonald’s take on the battle of the financial blogs.
Have a nice long weekend everyone!
moneysense.ca, 15/05/08
Thanks for the link CC – have a great weekend!
Thanks for the mention CC. Enjoy the long weekend!
CC, thanks for the link.
For what has been called the biggest financial crisis since the Depression having the worst impact be that the banks don’t increase their dividends this year is pretty good I think. Currently the yields of the big banks are pretty attractive if you think that the worst that is going to happen to their dividends is they won’t increase.
I own 4 of the big 5 (or 6 if you include National Bank) and as a dividend growth investor I’m not worried at all. Other areas of my portfolio (like energy) are supplying the overall dividend growth of my portfolio right now and eventually the banks will kick in with growing their dividends again.
oxCC: I’m not worried about the lack of growth this year either. I am hoping that over the long term dividends will, at the very least, keep pace with inflation. If it does, an inflation-adjusted yield of 4% or so is a very attractive proposition.
On fuel-saving tips, there was an effort nearly 10 years ago by the US government to promote tires with reduced rolling resistance, which could improve fuel economy. It never got off the ground, and I always wondered why — it was part of the Clinton Administration’s climate change strategy. I don’t have the statistics at hand, but I think these tires could improve your fuel economy by something like 5 percent, which is significant over a year (or over your vehicle’s lifetime).
To brad… In fact, just keeping your tires properly inflated would give you the same benefit, the problem is that most people don’t pay that close attention to their tires until they’re completely flat and they’re standing by the side of the highway wondering how it got that way. As far as getting reduced rolling resistance, you can get that with a harder compound, but most people don’t like that because that also means a longer stopping distance and even less traction in the winter (ie. less safety).
Regarding oil consumption, what I don’t understand is why soooooooo many people have to drive to offices to work all day on computers. The technology is here now and is cheap (eg. broadband, vpns, voip, webcams) to allow people to work completely effectively at home. The government should give tax breaks for home offices, even if another office exists for that same individual at the workplace, as long as the employee works at home at least one day per week. I just think it is a completely insane waste of gasoline to have all those knowledge workers driving somewhere to use a computer when they have one at home.