Safe Dividend Investing

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"IS YOUR INVESTMENT ADVISOR A SALES REPRESENTATIVE? Does your investment advisor see his or her job as one of hand holding and advising you when your portfolio shrinks to buy more of this now cheap stock. When your portfolio grows you are then congratulated on listening to his advice and you are now advised to buy into this upward momentum. Is it possible that the advisor is going to make money on your activity no matter what you do?

Over the years I receive many questions from investors. Some are about how possible legislation could impact investors. Others are about interpreting how high dividend payments will impact a portfolio. This week I answer five questions.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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"A FOOL AND HIS MONEY ARE SOON PARTED".  Investment advisors love clients who never question what they are doing with their client's money, Many clients put their blind faith in an employee of a large financial institution who is being paid by that institution to transfer as much of the client's money as possible from the client's pocket to the bank's pocket.

Learn in this week's podcast how this is done legally with fees, charges and commissions that you agreed to in the small print of the investment contract you signed with the the financial institution your advisor works for.  You can also be the victim of a dozen legal illegal schemes such as conversions, embezzlements, misappropriations, churning and unauthorized trading. 

What red flags should you be looking for in your monthly statements. Ten warning signals are detailed in this podcast.

Safety is found by taking back total control of your portfolio as a self-directed investor.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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Bonds, Mutual Funds, Preferred Shares, Real Estate and ETFs are often promoted to investors who fear investing in the stock market. They are described as safer investments than stocks - whose share prices are controlled by speculative bidding. However if an investment is  unlikely to ever show a gain in its value that investment is no better than a bank savings account paying a negligible interest rate.

If inflation is eating away at your savings by 3.5% every year, your portfolio is losing value annually unless you can realize a safe, growing return of more than 5% from your investing. This week I review why a portfolio of financially strong stocks paying high dividends beats bonds, mutual funds, preferred share and ETFs. It will keep your retirement savings ahead of inflation and grow your portfolio and income year after year.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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Podcast 294

Canadian Top 10 High Scoring Stocks

This podcast is a continuation of Podcast 293 on the US Top 10 high scoring stocks,

 There are millions who have patiently saved their money for decades in bank savings accounts. Money they expect to help pay their living expenses when they are no longer be able to work.  These savers would never consider Investing their money in the stock market. To them the stock market is seen as a form of gambling where they could lose all their life savings and be left penniless.

The banks may pay them as much as 0.01% for the use of their money which they will lend to borrowers at rates as high as 22%. Meanwhile their savings account is under attack from an average annual inflation rate of about 3.5% a year. In ten years they will be able to buy 30.50% less than what the money in your savings can now buy. 

There is a much better, safer place for your savings than in bank savings account. I say this as an  investor who twenty-five years lost $300,000 of my life savings investing in supposedly safe mutual funds chosen by an investment advisor. That loss is made me realize my savings would not be safe until I learned how to wisely manage my savings.  I am now sharing with you the benefit of my 25 years of research and experience in safe, effective money management.

 To illustrate how my better way of managing money can safely benefit you over many years, in this week's podcast I take the data of 10 financially strong high dividend stocks from my 2021 book on Canadian high dividend  stocks and compare these historical results to their current 2026 results. All my information sources are   instantly and freely available so that you can verify how easy it is for you to make wise choices. 

My retirement savings have grown over these 25 years by many multiples and  provide me with a very generous, ever growing monthly income that exceeds my needs and wants. How confident are you that your retirement savings will be able to meet your needs and wants?

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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Podcast 293

 There are millions who have patiently saved their money for decades in bank savings accounts. Money they expect to help pay their living expenses when they are no longer be able to work.  These savers would never consider Investing their money in the stock market. To them the stock market is seen as a form of gambling where they could lose all their life savings and be left penniless.

The banks may pay them as much as 0.01% for the use of their money which they will lend to borrowers at rates as high as 22%. Meanwhile their savings account is under attack from an average annual inflation rate of about 3.5% a year. In ten years they will be able to buy 30.50% less than what the money in your savings can now buy. 

There is a much better, safer place for your savings than in bank savings account. I say this as an  investor who twenty-five years lost $300,000 of my life savings investing in supposedly safe mutual funds chosen by an investment advisor. That loss is when I realized my savings would not be safe until I learned how to wisely manage my savings.  I am now sharing with you the benefit of my 25 years of research and experience in safe, effective money management.

 To illustrate how my better way of managing money can safely benefit you over many years, in this week's podcast I take the data of 10 financially strong high dividend stocks from my 2021 book on US dividend  stocks and compare the historical results to their current 2026 results. I use information sources that are   instantly and freely available so you can verify how easy it is for you to make wise choices. 

My retirement savings have grown over these 25 years by many multiples and  provide me with a very generous, ever growing monthly income that exceed my needs and wants. How confident are you that your retirement savings will be able to meet your needs and wants?

Ian Duncan MacDonald 

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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Podcast 292

Why do law firms initiate hundreds of class action law suits? Do they earn millions of dollars in profits if the class-action law suit is successful? What happens when they are not successful?

Researching the motivation of lawyers who initiate legal actions arose when a long-time listener to my podcast wrote, after listening to Podcast 288, "I am surprised you seem to recommend the REIT IIPR given their recent legal issues....I held the stock briefly in 2023 and 2024 only to sell it at a loss and join a large group of shareholders in a legal action against the company".

My mention of IIPR in that podcast was to illustrate how a high dividend yield had resulted in its then low IDM risk score. The idea that unusually high dividends are due to an unusually high investment risk, like most generalities, ignores exceptions. 

In this podcast I do a thorough analysis of the IIPR risk. I found the  stock had many strengths which is probably why the class actions were dismissed in August as having no merit. However it raises questions: Why did the law firm initiate a class action law suit? What role do those investors in the class-action lawsuit play? What percentage of the judgment would the plaintiff lawyer realize if its legal action were successful? Who pays if the lawsuit is unsuccessful.

I was surprised to see the huge number of blue chip stocks that the IIPR law firm had initiated class action lawsuits against. The reward for investors participating in the class action lawsuit was not obvious. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who felt after participating in a class action lawsuit against a stock that they had greatly benefited.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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The largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world is not Tesla, it is dwarfed by BYD, a Chinese company.

Everyone seems to be very familiar with Tesla but they seem to know little about BYD. In this podcast I describe some of the remarkable achievements of BYD which involves far more than cars.  As a leading manufacturer of batteries they supply most of the other manufacturers of electric vehicles and in addition  manufacture computer chips for Apple, Samsung and other electronic manufacturers. With 900,000 employees they are China's largest private corporation.

For 17 years, until 2025, a large percentage of   shares were owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the American conglomerate, whose profit on their original investment of $230,000,000 is reported to have had a gain of 3,890% on that original investment. 

While the U.S. government is attempting to protect its domestic car manufacturers by blocking BYD cars from the American market. This seems futile since BYD already has an operation in the US and also in Canada. It shall be interesting to see how long the US 100% tariff stays in place once BYD ships its first 49,000 cars to Canada within the next year.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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I do not like mutual funds of any shape or size. Thus, when a friend asked me for help in selecting ETFs for his multi-million dollar portfolio, I was quick to let him know my feeling about funds. This week's podcast gets into my concerns about funds and it brings back memories of seeing my portfolio of supposedly safe mutual funds lose $300,000 over three years.

As I explain this week, with a fund you are blindly sold on putting your money into something that you have no control over, whose contents can change on a fund manager's whim and is almost impossible to determine its strength. 

You are much further ahead to build a portfolio of 20 financially strong diverse companies paying high dividends who for the last two decades have shown consistent growth in their share price and dividend payouts. Each of the managers of these 20 strong dividend stocks would have proven they know how to make a profit and grow a company. With a fund all you have is a big blob of stocks that are almost impossible to analyze today and may change at any moment.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast #289 on August 22nd of 2026. 

Banks are critical to a country's health and success. Today we answer the following questions:

Who are the 10 largest banks in North America? 

Who are the 10 safest banks in North America?

Who are the 5 largest banks in the world? (The largest 3 are in Asia, not in Europe or America).

How can six Canadian banks be the safest six banks in North America? What is the difference in banking systems between Canada and the USA that creates safer banks?

Note: a A written transcript is always attached when podcasts they are loaded into the buzzsprout.com website for forwarding to other podcasters.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]

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Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast #288 on August 15th of 2026. 

Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts invest in office buildings, apartments and stores and Investors make money from rents. Mortgage Real Estate investment Trusts make money from interest and pay much higher dividend yields than Equity REITs, often in the 15% to 16% range. These high yields obviously attract income-seeking investors. However, today we explore the heightened risks in mortgage REITs that you must consider.

200 million Americans own REITs either directly or through ETFs and pension funds.  5 trillion dollars is invested in them. Since being introduced in 1960 they have become a mainstream asset

Let my other 287 podcasts and my 7 books help develop your investment confidence.

Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of  Informus Inc
                              2 Vista Humber Drive
                               Toronto, Ontario
                                Canada, M9P 3R7
                                 Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
                                   [email protected]