Manulife Dividend Increase!

    Manulife Financial $MFC just completed reporting its earnings; reporting an increase in net earnings of 16.7% for the year! With that, they announced a great dividend increase of 12%, going from 25cents a quarter to 28cents per quarter.

    I currently hold 304 shares of Manulife, and at the current share price at the time of writing of $26.62 and the new dividend of 28cents I will be able to DRIP 3 shares a quarter instead of 2 a quarter. My annual dividend income from Manulife based on the 3cent raise means another $9.12/quarter and $36.48 a year, not including newly DRIP'd shares!

Recent Buy! June 2016

    I recently took advantage of the Brexit situation, where the people of the United Kingdom voted on a referendum to completely leave the European Union, with a winning vote of 52%. (BBC) So when North American markets opened on June 24th, they followed the trend of every other major stock market and plummeted. Global markets fell roughly around 3%, and wiped out a whooping 2 trillion  in wealth around the world!

Recent Buy(2)! January 2016

      Just recently I posted about my first buy of 2016, where I bought 46 shares of ManuLife Financial (MFC). So I had bought 46 shares of MFC at $20.24 during the first week of January. The stock boasted a 3.36% dividend yield, which means an additional $7.82 per quarter and $31.28 in annual dividend income. I had also lowered my average cost basis for this position from $20.38 from my first purchase to $20.31, and my MFC share count rose to 88. Then, markets decided to give just about every company a 3-8% 'discount' and I was fortunate enough to have some more spare capital to deploy along with some dividends so I once again bought more MFC last week.

Recent Buy! January 2016

    So far 2016 has been a rough couple weeks for stock markets and so I used my first buy of 2016 to build up my newest position in Manulife Financial. MFC was also one of the stocks that I was watching closely with my last Watchlist.As mentioned in my Watchlist post, I generally consider MFC to be at an attractive price when it is priced at under $21. Generally the stock will fluctuate between the $20-24 range.

Next Buy Watchlist: December 2015

With my last Watchlist in September I focused on consistent, steadily growing quarterly dividend payers within the financial sector. The big Canadian banks and insurance companies. Which of those companies, I bought my first shares in Manulife Financial, read about it here in my Recent Buy post.

    Recently, with my last purchase of Dream Office REIT I went for high yield, monthly income. This time around though I am so far still contemplating on what I want to buy next. While I am hunting for income and yield, I do also want to plan for the future with dividend growth stocks.

    In particular, I am looking to build singular positions to a size where dividends are able to DRIP a stock per payout, as well as try to diversify investments within my TFSA portfolio. Currently, I want to have my portfolio heavier on REIT's since within the Tax Free Savings Account their high income through distribution is not taxed, so for the most part I think I am about where I want to be on REITs. Making it the ideal account for Canadians to hold REIT's in, read my overview on the TFSA for more.

Recent Buy! October 2015

    In the past couple of weeks I have been fortunate enough to build up enough cash to do one of my more favourite activities, purchasing more shares of dividend paying companies! Now, I had the money in my account for a couple of weeks, waiting to see how the markets settled with all the recent volatility. Well, last week I pulled the trigger and put that capital to work with a new position in my portfolio!

Next Buy Watchlist: September 2015

    It has been awhile since my last post, as I have been rather busy, as have the markets! It also been quite some time since my previous Watchlist in June. While I have been busy, I made sure to keep an eye on the markets and keeping abreast of recent news and important events like the Bank of Canada and Fed's decisions to hold interest rate steady, as well as results and comments on China's economy.

    There have been a few companies that I have been looking to build up my positions on. Especially with the continuing volatility that markets have been experiencing, some stocks are getting into  compelling valuations. In particular at the moment I am looking at adding to my existing bank positions, or initiating a new position in an insurance company.

Next Buy Watchlist: February 2015

    I should be having money to invest within the upcoming weeks, so it is time to compile my watchlist of stocks that I am interested in! There are quite a few on my radar at the moment which I will be tracking and keep a closer eye on. For the most part I am mainly interested to adding to, and building up my current positions with an overarching goal of getting them to have payouts big enough to start a Dividend Re-Investment Plan. There are also some companies which I might start a new position in as well. And definitely some of these are familiar names from previous Watchlists.

    The main sectors/components of my portfolio that I want to build up are Financials, Telecoms, REITs and Consumer products, as well as selective Energy companies. I do eventually want to build up positions in Resources/Industrials, Healthcare, Technology and Transportation, but those areas I think I will leave for outside of my TFSA. I am also hesitant to enter into those areas as I do not currently have a lot of knowledge of them and their product/company life cycles.

Next Buy Watchlist: Sept. 2014

    So in August I wasn't able to make any new investments, but this month I will be making an investment and so I have a few companies I am keeping my eye on. Last time I bought more shares of Toronto Dominion Bank (TD), which I am quite happy about since its gone from $55.50 to $57.48 today. Although that does mean it will be more expensive to buy more shares of it in the future.

    For the moment I want to further diversify my holdings and not add to any current positions so my watchlist will not have any of my current holdings; although if a very good opportunity occurs then I might add to a current position. The main one I would be looking to add to is AQN with the aim of having enough shares to DRIP two shares a quarter, as I really like this renewable energy company.

    So my current watchlist includes: Suncor, Manulife, Roger's and REITs

Next Buy Watchlist

    So I'v been able to save up a bit more money to buy a few more shares of a high quality company. I have narrowed down the list of companies but I'm still undecided. Currently based on my portfolio sector weightings of the type of companies I want to be invested in at the moment, I am looking for either Financial or Telecommunication companies.