After writing a deep dive article on whether the 4% safe withdrawal rate still works for retirement at various ages, I received a lot of questions basically asking: “Ok, so 4% is a good rule of thumb, but when I actually go to withdraw money from my various investment accounts, to put into my chequing account & high interest savings account in order to pay for day-to-day expenses, what is the best way to avoid taxes?” Upon reading many of these types of questions, I realized that I wasn...| Million Dollar Journey
Investing on your own is not an easy task. From mutual funds to robo advisors and individual stocks, there are a wide range of strategies, information services and trading platforms to choose from. It can quickly become overwhelming. This is where the simplicity of dividend investing really shines. I started investing in mutual funds when I was 16-year-old. Since then, I evolved into a mix of ETFs and dividend growth investing strategies. This was the beginning of a long investing jou...| Million Dollar Journey
I’ve been writing about the “Dogs of the TSX” Canadian investing strategy for about twelve years now. I can’t claim that I was the creator of the idea though. In fact, no Canadian can really lay claim to the “Dogs’” principles. The Dogs of the TSX can trace its roots back to the “Dogs of the Dow” strategy in the USA. The first place that I saw the idea being applied to Canada was when MoneySaver magazine started writing about the BTTSX or Beating the TSX Dividend Stock Strat...| Million Dollar Journey
An RESP, or Registered Education Savings Plan, is a registered tax-deferred investment account designed to help pay for a child’s education. In other words, RESPs are the best possible way to pay for your child’s eventual college and/or university bills! RESPs are eligible for government grants (re: Free Money) of up to $7,200. In this post, we’ll fill you in on all the basics of RESPs, from how (and where) to set up an RESP, and how to maximize your RESP contributions. What is an RES...| Million Dollar Journey
While Canadian technology stocks have been some of the fastest growing stocks on the Toronto Stock Exchange over the last decade (especially during the pandemic), they are still a relatively small part of our investing ecosystem. We have a lot of great Canadian dividend stocks, Canadian bank stocks, Canadian energy stocks, etc. But when it comes to tech stocks in Canada, they only make up about 5-6% of our publicly traded stocks. (That’s according to the FTSE Canada All-Cap Index.) By co...| Million Dollar Journey
I am a cautious investor given that I am in the semi-retirement stage. While I would acknowledge that growth is important for a retiree or near-retiree, I want most of our equity positions to be in the quality or high-quality camp so that I can sleep easy at night. That’s why a portfolio that invests in wide moat stocks such as grocers, railways, and utilities - plus a couple of semi-wide moat stocks - are a great fit (and one that I have a lot of confidence in). This low-risk mix has off...| Million Dollar Journey
Because I’ve been writing about dividend investing for nearly two decades now, I get a lot of inquiries every month about the best Canadian dividend ETFs vs the best dividend stocks in Canada. Obviously Canadians love their tax-efficient dividend income. The consistency of having those dividend payouts hit their accounts allows investors to better control their behaviors and stay focused on the long-term. What the dividend ETFs vs individual stocks decision ultimately boils down to for mos...| Million Dollar Journey
A Real Estate Trust (REIT) ETF is the most straightforward way to invest in real estate without becoming a landlord yourself or spending time researching the 30+ individual REITs on the Toronto Stock Exchange. This article will give you all the details about REIT ETFs: What they are and how they diversify your portfolio How they’re different from Real Estate Trusts (REITs) How to recognize good REIT ETFs Which Canadian REIT ETFs are the best picks for 2024 Top REIT ETFs in Canada: Quick...| Million Dollar Journey
If you’ve started your research on investing, but still aren’t quite sure how or where to get started, you are not alone. Plenty of almost-investors get stuck at the starting line for reasons like not feeling educated enough, feeling like they don’t have enough money to start investing, or simply feeling unclear on which type of investment to choose. When it comes to investing, the best time to start is now, and index investing is the perfect way to begin. It’s simple, easy to manage,...| Million Dollar Journey
Dividend earning stocks are appealing for a number of reasons. They can help you earn passive income, are generally more stable in a volatile market, and are a great hedge against inflation. If you are thinking about investing in Canadian telecom dividend stocks, now might be the right time. Canadian Telecom companies have historically been a great choice when it comes to dependable dividends. They might not seem as exciting as some of the other options out there, but with all of us increasin...| Million Dollar Journey
Investing in Canadian REITs can help investors include real estate investments in their portfolios without radically changing their way of life. Sure, you can buy a property and become a landlord, but if that’s not your bag (or if you don’t have that kind of time, energy, and, let’s face it, cash), you can invest in Canadian REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and gain exposure to the real estate market in bite-sized chunks. Canadian REITs are fairly easy to invest in, given that they...| Million Dollar Journey
There is a reason why so many of Canada’s best utility stocks are also on our overall list of best dividend stocks in Canada: They are natural oligopolies/monopolies, meaning that can pass along increasing costs almost instantly, and have really solid yields for income-seeking investors. This combination makes them a natural fit for Canadian investors looking for inflation hedge stocks. Some people consider Canadian utility stocks “boring” compared to high volatility “get rich/poor qu...| Million Dollar Journey
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of Canadian dividend stocks here at MDJ, and while we have given some shine to Canadian energy stocks over the last couple of years, we have always just sort of tossed the Canadian pipeline stocks in alongside those big energy producers. The fact is the Canadian pipeline stocks - often described as “mid-stream” due to their place in the supply chain - actually offer superior dividend cash flow relative to their energy producer cousins. Their busine...| Million Dollar Journey
You likely already know that investing in an RRSP is one of the best, most tax efficient ways to save for retirement. The good news is that if you or your common-law partner or spouse have unequal incomes, you can open and contribute to a spousal RRSP account. In doing so, you can maximize the benefits of an RRSP account for you and your spouse, no matter if one of you is not earning an income or earning much less. Read on to learn more about how a spousal RRSP account works, what the tax i...| Million Dollar Journey
Should you worry about re-working your whole portfolio around the idea of choosing the best Canadian inflation stocks? Probably not. Of course that’s easier said than done as we proceed through stubborn inflation trends in 2023. When we started 2022, inflation was only being mumbled about by a very small cohort of market experts (shout out to Larry Summers). We then proceeded to see central banks fall further and further behind the inflation curve, before finally realizing that they had...| Million Dollar Journey
Investing in Canadian Dividend Kings (sometimes known as Dividend Aristocrats) tends to come back into fashion when bond yields and GIC rates start to go down. With safer assets generating so little income, dependable dividend payers begin to look more and more attractive. Of course, staying committed to dividends can be a challenge when stocks like Nvidia are soaring. The real test for any dividend investor is sticking to the plan through thick and thin. Click here to jump directly to my 202...| Million Dollar Journey
It is no secret that the Canadian stock market is not very well diversified by sector. Canada is largely financial, energy and materials, with all of that other stuff in between. By investing in Canadian retail stocks, investors can add some much-needed diversification. Canadian retail stocks can also help investors profit during times of economic strength and certain types of retail stocks can offer a nice hedge against periods of slow growth or recessions. A certain segment of Canadian ...| Million Dollar Journey
Now that second quarter earnings are in, I felt like it was an optimal time to update our 2024 Canadian bank stocks article. Ever since I started this website back in 2008, Canadian bank stocks have been reader favourites. The slow-steady-dependable nature of these companies makes them a natural fit for dividend lovers and Canadian retirees, and that’s why several of the banks occupy prominent spots on our Best Canadian Dividend Stocks List. Interest rates can’t go down fast enough for Ca...| Million Dollar Journey
As we look ahead to summer and the second half of 2025, it’s time for an updated look at the Best Online Brokerages in Canada. With RRSP season in the rearview mirror – and what might be shaping up to be another round of “tariff season” drama ahead – now’s the time to lock in the easy DIY investing wins. I’ve been writing about Canadian online brokers for nearly 20 years, and the changes in the space have been massive. Fees have plunged, platforms are smoother than ever, and com...| Million Dollar Journey
Picking the best Canadian Dividend Stocks for 2025 isn’t an easy task! After such a stellar year in North American equities in 2025, there is much more room to move down than up. That said, my dividend stocks portfolio is all about long-term cash-flowing companies with large financial moats to protect them. Each month I take a look at the stocks that I highlighted at the beginning of the year, and I focus on the following key dividend stock comparison points: Dividend Yield Dividend Growth ...| Million Dollar Journey