Best Wishes,
D4L

Mine aren’t dividend focused ETFs but broad indexed funds.

I am only 33 so I am not really worried about the current market situation, its a great time to buy!

I too am in dividend ETFs and have been unhappy with their performance compared to my individual stock picks. I will likely hold mine for a while longer so as not to make a long-term decision based on short-term information.

I hald sividend stocks both in my taxable account and my IRA (similar to your RRSP). The contribution limits to the IRA are not high enough to meet my long-term needs.

Best Wishes,
D4L

For the record I am 33 year old canadian investing for the long term… aka retirement.

1) After investing for the past 8 years in mutual funds (high MER but have done rather well) I have taken the time to read everything I can get and take more control of my investing (my recent 5 year anniversay gift was 2 dividend investing books!! – of course purchased online because they were cheaper!). About 6 months ago I started by purchasing a couple of index ETF’s (VTI, VEA, VWO). Since then I have continued to read and enjoy, and also see the value in, focusing on dividend paying/increasing stocks. I do believe its a better way for me to invest rather than worrying about current prices and trying to tie the market ups/downs (capital gains). So… my first question is that since the indexed ETF purchases don’t really suit my goals now, would you sell them and put the money toward dividend stocks? The caveat is that all 3 are down (approx 35%) given the recent market lows. I’ll add that these ETF’s make up 2% (VTI), 1% (VEA) and 0.5% (VWO) of my total portfolio since I am only managing about 13% of my total portfolio and have switched to buying dividend stocks directly.

Note: All of my purchases are inside of my RRSP (I am from Canada) so I won’t get any capital losses to claim from a sale.

2) Do most of you purchase your dividend paying stocks in a taxable account? I have always made all of my purchases inside of my RRSP account since I am in the top income tax bracket and feel I benefit more from the tax break now and don’t have to claim extra income from any dividends received. Do I share this reasoning with anyone else, or do you most of you purhcase in a taxable account?

Thanks and looking forward to responses and thoughts.

Maybe this will warrant a whole blog post…. When to cash in to accomplish a Strategy Change?

You can always re-enter the position later if you feel the long-term fundamentals are intact, but I can’t ever fault an investor for protecting themselves from more downside exposure if they feel that’s where the stock is going to go. There are always other opportunities.