I first started investing in my early 20s. Frankly, those initial years were filled with trial and error. The latest biotech tech stock, the fastest growing “small company” stock and the hottest thing in smart cards all made their way into my portfolio at one point or another. And after a 6 month period, they were all gone. Liquidated. Bankrupt. [Read more...]
Cut your tax bill with dividends
January 27, 2013 By 20 Comments
The treatment of dividends from a tax perspective makes it one of the most tax efficient ways to receive income compared to earning traditional wage or salary income. But its not just the concessional dividend tax rates that make dividend investing tax efficient. [Read more...]
Why Visa will be helped by Mobile
January 25, 2013 By 2 Comments
There is a lot of opinion that suggests the emergence of mobile payments will start to be the beginning of the decline for Visa. I would suggest that in fact the reverse is true. [Read more...]
How important is fair value for a dividend investor?
January 23, 2013 By 6 Comments
This is a topic that has been on my mind for some period of time. When I first started investing, I used to be obsessive about ensuring that I bought under “fair value” with a considerable margin of safety. As I’ve had more experience with investing, I’ve been more relaxed about this. Its time to explore what impact this has on dividend outcomes [Read more...]
Are there alternatives to an emergency fund?
January 21, 2013 By 15 Comments
There is a lot of very sensible advice in the personal finance community that suggests that you should have an emergency fund. Unfortunately emergency funds come at a very high cost in terms of idle capital thats earning you minimal returns, which I don’t like. Are their better alternatives? [Read more...]
Visa: A potential dividend growth candidate?
January 18, 2013 By 11 Comments
The credit card processors, Visa and MasterCard, have been my core holdings of mine for years (more so MasterCard). I am a big fan of their business models. Can they also be good dividend growth stocks? [Read more...]
Retiring on Dividends: When is the right time?
January 16, 2013 By 16 Comments
I’ve never really thought too long or too seriously about when or if I could “retire” with passive dividend income before, however seeing a number of blogs start to discuss this issue has got me thinking about this a little more seriously. [Read more...]
Can a huge dividend yield make up for lower dividend growth?
January 15, 2013 By 6 Comments
Ever been attracted by those stocks that have offered those huge dividend yields? The big, slow growers that give you 6%, 6.5%? It’s hard to resist the temptation to add them to your portfolio. Even if they don’t get their dividends cut at some point down the line, they may be doing your dividend income harm. Here’s why. [Read more...]
Financially Integrated is Joining the Yakezie Challenge!
January 14, 2013 By 4 Comments
I’ve been inspired by some of the blogs that I have come across to join the Yakezie network. While I may have 15 years of investing experience, I have all of 15 days of blogging experience and I’m determined to learn and do more!. [Read more...]
Microsoft: Does trouble lurk beneath the Surface?
January 12, 2013 By 4 Comments
I’ve come across a few posts recently that make quite a convincing case for considering Microsoft as a dividend growth stock. A dominant windows franchise, strong free cash flow growth. Yet something more medium to long term troubles me about the Microsoft investment case. [Read more...]
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