Blossom — Social Investing Community

Joyce

@joycelikesmoney

ETFs · 50m

🔥

40 views

Lisa

@retired

Personal Finance · 🔥 Hot

Why Don’t More People Invest? And What Stops Them?

Why do you think some people you know don’t invest?

Fear of losing money?
Don’t know where to start?
Think they need a lot of money?
Don’t know that they can invest at all?
Or simply don’t trust the market?

No judgment, just curious.

What do you think is holding them back?read more

1,116 views

Zain @zains

Beginner Investors · ⭐ Featured

Beginner’s Guide to Stock Market Terms

One of the best parts about the Blossom community is how open everyone is sharing knowledge and experiences.

To make things easier for anyone just starting their investing journey, here’s a simple glossary to help understand and simplify various terms.

Common Terms:

Dividend: A share of a company’s profits paid to shareholders, usually quarterly.

Ex-Dividend Date: The cutoff date by which you must own a stock to receive its next dividend.

ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund): A fund that holds multiple stocks or bonds, traded like a single stock.

Covered Call ETF: An ETF that owns stocks and sells call options to generate extra income (higher yield, limited / capped upside).

Earnings Report: A company’s quarterly financial performance summary.

EPS (Earnings Per Share): A company’s profit divided by its number of shares.

Market Cap: A company’s total value (share price × number of shares).

ACB: The total amount you’ve paid for an investment, including the purchase price plus any fees or commissions.

Book Value: The value of a company according to its financial statements (assets minus liabilities).

Yield: Annual dividend as a percentage of the stock/ETF price.

Liquidity: How easily an asset can be bought or sold without impacting its price.

Volatility: The degree of price fluctuations in a stock or market.

Index: A benchmark of stocks (e.g., S&P 500, Nasdaq, TSX).

Bull Market: A period of rising stock prices and optimism.

Bear Market: A period of declining stock prices and pessimism.

False Breakout: When a stock’s price moves above (or below) a key level, making it look like a new trend is starting, but then quickly reverses back.

P/E Ratio: Price-to-earnings ratio (stock price ÷ EPS), used to assess valuation.

Blue Chip: Well-established, financially strong companies with a track record of stability.

Diversification: Spreading investments across assets to reduce risk.

Broker: A platform or firm that facilitates buying and selling investments.

Limit Order: An order to buy/sell a stock at a specific price or better.

Market Order: An order to buy/sell a stock immediately at the current market price.

Bid/Ask Spread: The difference between the highest price buyers offer and the lowest price sellers accept.

Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA): Investing a fixed amount regularly to reduce the impact of market swings.

Capital Gain/Loss: Profit or loss from selling an investment for more/less than its purchase price.

IPO: When a company first sells shares to the public.

Index Fund: A fund designed to mirror the performance of a market index.

Short Selling: Selling borrowed shares, hoping to buy them back cheaper.

Margin: Borrowing money from a broker to buy investments, which amplifies gains and losses.

Margin Requirement: The minimum amount of your own money (equity) you must maintain in a margin account to open or keep a leveraged investment position.

Margin Call: A demand from your broker to deposit more funds or sell assets because your account equity has fallen below the required margin level.

Time Horizon: The length of time you plan to hold an investment before needing the money. Short horizons = more risk-sensitive, long horizons = more room to ride out volatility.

Stock Split / Reverse Split: A split increases the number of shares (e.g., 2-for-1) while lowering the price per share. A reverse split reduces the number of shares (e.g., 1-for-10) while raising the price per share. Your overall value doesn’t change just the math.

Long (Being Long): Buying a stock or asset because you expect the price to go up.

Short (Being Short): Selling a stock you don’t own because you expect the price to go down, so you can buy it back cheaper later.

TER: The total yearly cost of owning a fund, including the management fee plus other costs like administration, audits, and legal fees.

MER: The annual cost that a fund charges for management (includes any leverage costs if used).

Management Fee: A portion of the MER that goes directly to the fund managers for running the fund.

Withholding Tax: A tax deducted on dividends/distributions from foreign investments (e.g., U.S. dividends to Canadian investors face a 15% withholding in TFSA/Non-Registered accounts).

Total Returns: The full picture of an investment’s performance, including both price gains and dividends/distributions.

CAGR: The average yearly growth of an investment over time.

NAV: The price of one share of a fund (stock or etf)

NAV Depreciation: When the fund’s share price goes down over time.

Mutual Fund: A pool of money from many investors used to buy a mix of stocks, bonds, or other assets.

Bond: A loan you give to a company or government, and they pay you back with interest.

Asset: Anything valuable you own that can generate money.

Portfolio: Your collection of investments.

Option: A contract that gives you the right (but not the obligation) to buy or sell a stock at a set price.

Future: A contract to buy or sell something at a set price on a future date.

REIT: A company that owns real estate and pays investors income from rent.

Alpha: A measure of how much better (or worse) an investment did compared to the market.

Beta: A measure of how much an investment moves compared to the market.

Sharpe Ratio: A way to see if returns are worth the risk taken.

Hedging: Protecting your investments from risk.

Rebalancing: Adjusting your portfolio back to your target mix of assets.

FCF: Free Cash Flow

Understanding these terms makes investing far less intimidating.

If anyone feels other terms should be included, please share in the comments.

I’ll update this post so we can build a complete beginner-friendly resource together!

*Sorry tagged a few etfs for reach 🫣read more

344K views

Ravi Kumar

@ravi_17

Personal Finance · 1h

Test

18 views

Ian Lopuch

@ppcian

Community · 4d

Annual Coffee ☕️ With Retire With Ryne 🎉

Life is amazing! 🎉 I had the honor of meeting up with my friend @ryne for our annual Starbucks coffee. ☕️ I think this is year 3? 🕰️ This time around, we enjoyed Starbucks at Aria. 🎰 Fun fact: Realty Income, a REIT I own, has a preferred equity investment in Aria/City Center. I’m honored to call Ryne my friend, and he is an inspirational investor, athlete, and overall person. I’m grateful for the friendships I have made thanks to my investing, perhaps the greatest dividend of the dividend journey. 📈 (Disc: I’m long $O and $SBUX. Not investment advice.) #dividend #dividends #stocks #investing #retirewithryne

1,712 views

Victor

@vipha

Community · 1h

Barebone.ai and other AI research tools

Curious if anyone else on here uses Barebone.ai or some other AI wrapper for their DD? I’ve recently subscribed as it provides access to some things I’m trying to build (congressional trades, Reddit mentions, fundamental/technical indicators), but think it lacks in some areas.

Reaching out to see who else uses or what other AI tools are out there that people have been finding helpful.

22 views

Moe

@moe_on_margin

Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

New Series Alert: Hidden Gems of the counter cycle

It's been a few weeks since we started one of these series… “Hedge Fund Hunt” took a lot of effort and I needed a break 😅

Now that the Q2 hunt is over I'm back with time on my hands and a lot of research already underway to discover new hidden gems that can behave positively when the times get tough or at least stand their ground during an economical downturn.

I’m going to cover a number of stocks in this series that fall into 1 of 2 categories:

1. Truly counter cycle - It goes up when the market goes down… these are companies that thrive in a recession.

2. Defensive/Low beta - These are not ones that thrive in a downturn, but rather hold their ground when the times get tough because consumers will keep buying.

Now I know what some of you are thinking... Here’s another post telling us about Walmart and Dollar General... If that's what you think then you don't know me very well 😁😁

Every company I share in this series will be one that isn't hyped or commonly known and definitely not on Blossom’s top 50... you’ll be happily surprised I promise.

And if you want a teaser just check out $ECPG for now and how it's behaving right now.

First hidden gem drops Wednesday, follow my account to keep track if interested. read more

1,216 views

Tim

@tim_emino

Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

From Fortnite to Blossom?? My journey so far 🫣

I’ve gotten to know a bunch of you through Blossom events, messages, and just being around the community, but I realized I’ve never actually shared much about myself or how I ended up here.

For those I haven’t met yet, I’m Tim, I’m 20, and I work as an intern on the Brand Partnerships team here at Blossom.

My journey here has been a pretty unconventional one.

Growing up, my entire world was gaming. I started playing Fortnite competitively at a pretty young age, eventually playing professionally and getting signed to some of the biggest organizations in esports, including Overtime.

Then, before high school, I decided to walk away from it.

I had spent so much of my childhood behind a computer that I wanted to experience a completely different side of life. Somewhere along the way, I fell in love with business.

From flipping cars, to running Amazon FBA, to starting and eventually selling a landscaping business, I was constantly trying something new. Some things worked, a lot didn’t, but I loved figuring out how to build something from nothing.

That same curiosity eventually led me to investing.

I became fascinated by the businesses behind the stocks. How they made money, why some companies won while others didn’t, and ultimately where I wanted to put my own money.

That interest eventually led me into finance and most recently private equity. For a while, I thought I’d stay on the traditional finance path.

Then I joined Blossom.

It was a completely different direction, but looking back, it brought together pretty much everything I loved: investing, entrepreneurship, technology, and building.

And it’s genuinely been some of the most fun I’ve ever had.

I’ve gotten to work on things I never expected to be doing at 20, travel across the country for BlossomCon, and learn firsthand what it takes to build a company.

But easily the best part has been the people.

Working alongside @tigertim , @maxstocks, @brandon , and the rest of the team has given me some of my favourite memories. Everyone here genuinely cares about what we’re building, moves insanely fast, and still manages to have a ton of fun doing it.

The culture being built at Blossom is something really special, and I’m incredibly excited to see where we take it.

I also want to hear from you guys.

If there’s anything you love about Blossom, think we could do better, or want to see us build in the future, drop it below or shoot me a message.

I’d genuinely love to hear it, and you’ll definitely be seeing more of me on here :)read more

14K views

Gerard

@gerardinvesting

ETFs · 7h

Are you a dividends person or growth?

Dividends don’t automatically give you a better return but they can change how you behave.

Seeing cash hit your account from stocks like $SCHD, $QQQI or $SPYI can make investing feel more real and tangible.

That can make it easier to keep holding, reinvest, and stay consistent when the market gets rough.

For some investors, that psychological benefit matters just as much as the yield. I personally am in the middle of starting a position in dividends.

Do dividends help you stay invested? Or is growth what you prioritize ?

638 views

Muhammad Jarral

@nomadkj

Crypto · 1h

$NEAR is next $BTC level opportunity

IMHO $NEAR is next $BTC level opportunity. Huge privacy, #AI and market creator play.

42 views

Beskar Capital

@beskar_capital

Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

Can You Feel It ?

Did last week scare you? 😨😱

Is today’s rate decision making you nervous?

Are you finally starting to doubt your strategy? Are you finally realizing that you don't really have full control of the steering wheel?

The water is getting rough. You can see the dark clouds gathering on the horizon.

The rapid rise in yields and oil prices is certainly something that should concern you if you're not positioned in the right area of the market.

Do you know what to make of the Fed's rate decision? 😉

Are they going to raise? Are they going to hold? Are they going to cut? What's the market reaction going to be in each of those scenarios? And what's your plan?

Or maybe you shouldn't care so much...

Because you know the playbook of the real estate/banking crisis cycle, and this event is just another milestone you're already prepared for. 😉👍

Conventional media forcing news down your throat to fatten you up like a goose.....it's just a big racket of cymbals designed to make you lose your head. You know, like those fans waving signs behind the backboard while an NBA player is at the free-throw line.

They want you to make a mistake. They want you to doubt what you've proven to yourself is a winning strategy.

Only those with the right approach and the right mentality will survive. Think Kobe Bryant like focus. That guy couldn't be bothered by any kind of distraction. Steadfast and strong. Can you say the same about your strategy? 🤔

Natural selection is alive and well.

And the predators are slowly circling the prey. You can hear the bushes rustling. 🐺🌳🦌

Only the fittest will survive. 😎

This is the Way! 🏄🌊

read more

1,182 views

Michael Brownstein

@michaelbrownstein

Passive Income · 22h

I’m 55 with $360,000 — but can I retire??

🚨 NEW VIDEO IS LIVE!

I’m 55 with a portfolio of about $366,000 — but can I really retire?
In this video, I break down:
💰 $366K portfolio
📈 $65,000+ projected income
🏇 My Four Horsemen strategy — $GPIQ , $OVL , $TDAQ , and $QQQI /$XQQI
⚠️ What happens if the market drops 30%
🧮 Whether the numbers could actually support retirement
I’m sharing the real numbers and my thought process as I get closer to retirement.

👉 Watch the full video and let me know: Could you retire with $366K? https://youtu.be/EgfRQj9FDxw?is=IFtwsFrRr9qZxTZp

#Retirement #IncomeInvesting #ETFs #PassiveIncome #GPIQ #OVL #TDAQ #QQQI #XQQI

⚠️ This is my personal portfolio and experience, not financial advice or a recommendation. Do your own research.read more

618 views

Money Monkey

@monkeyblossom

Beginner Investors · 2h

🐒 $MONKEY explains recent rate hike and its impact

Today at 2pm Fed raised rates 0.25%.

Monkey thinks: “Uh oh stocks go down.”

And they did.

But then around 2:30 PM.

Stocks fly

The Fed is still worried about inflation, projections point toward another possible hike.

investors saw a resilient economy and started buying the dip after the initial selloff.

🐵

read more

58 views

Borden

@only_funds

Technology · 2h

How will AI impact the market???

There are many models becoming more advanced by the month, now even chat gpt has an ability to trade stocks learning on previous data.

I wonder how the market will move when there are thousands of people using AI trading and not just algos but straight up artificial intelligence.

Do you think currently working candle stick patterns and indicators will be wiped out?

Will the market still move the same way or will bots all buy same time and drive price up artificially causing more sweeps?

Do you think big trading firms already use such products behind closed doors?

62 views

Ronan

@ronan

ETFs · ⭐ Featured

Complete ETF/Sector/Asset Investment List

Since so many people ask how to invest in this sector, or this country, or this asset, I’ve decided to make a comprehensive guide on how you can invest in specific areas. This is NOT portfolio advice, simply information about tickers that you can research yourself. Save this for later so you have a list of ETFs to come back to!

Canada:

$XIU $XIC $ZCN All expose you to the TSX in Canada. These ETFs consist of all top Canadian companies and access to our national stock exchange.

$VCB $VGV $VLB $VAB $VSB $VSC $XBB $XCB Expose you to Canadian bonds; whether it be long-term, short-term, corporate, government, etc.

$VDY $XEI $CDZ Expose you to Canadian dividend companies

$XRE $ZRE $VRE Give access to Canadian REITs

$ZEB $XFN $RBNK Lets you buy the Canadian banks

USA:

$VFV $ZSP $XSP $XUS $HXS Lets you buy the S&P 500 (learn about hedged vs. unhedged in my other post)

$XQQ $HXQ $ZQQ All give you access to the NASDAQ 100

$IWR $VO $VOE $VOT $IJH $SCHM Lets you buy US Midcaps

$IJR $IWM $VB $VBR $VBK $SCHA Lets you buy US Smallcaps

$DIV $SPYD $RDIV $DHS $VIG $SCHD $VYM $DGRO $SDY Give access from small to high dividend US companies

$VTI $ITOT Lets you buy the whole US market

$TLT $IEF $VGIT $GOVT $SHY $VGLT Give access to US bonds

$XLC $XLY $XLP $XLE $XLF $XLV $XLI $XLB $XLRE $XLK $XLU All give you access to each sector in the S&P such as financials, energy, healthcare, etc.

International:

$XEQT $FEQT $VEQT $ZEQT Give you an all-in-one exposure to Canada, US, emerging and global markets.

$VEA $IEFA $SCHF $SPDW $EFV $EFA Give access to general international exposure

$EWJ $EWU $EWC Gives direct access to developed international countries

$INDA $MCHI $EWT $EWY $EWZ $EWW $EIDO $EWM Gives direct access to emerging international countries

Assets:

$KILO $PHYS $CGL Let’s you buy gold directly through ETFs

$SVR $HUZ Let you buy silver through ETFs

Savings/Interest:

$CASH $HISA $PSA $HSAV Access to Canadian savings and interest payments

$HSUV-U $PSU-U $HISU-U Access to US savings and interest payments

There’s so many ETFs I didn’t go into with dozens of categories, but this should give you some basic starting point to look into your ETF investments. This is simply the starting point, when choosing your investments always research the ETFs, what they provide to you, their fees, your goals, your risk, and what you’re looking to get out of investing.

As always do your research and happy investing!

Subscribe to the newsletter: relatablefinance.substack.com read more

300K views

Paul Santori

@paulsantori

🔥 Hot

Thoughts?

I’ve been saying this since Elon started working on robots and all the companies creating AI.

We’re all focused on making money from tech companies but at what cost?

2,378 views

Maxwell

@maxstocks

Technology · 4d

👀 Thoughts on AI Doomerism?

Every day there's another headline about how AI is going to kill us all... with Sam Altman recently delaying the OpenAI IPO and implying that AI has a 10% chance of killing everyone by the end of the decade.

Every time I see this kind of stuff I somewhat wonder how much of it is a real risk vs a marketing play to pump the stock...

One Bloomberg opinion piece calls it "AI Panic Marketing": basically the message that "we're building a powerful, godlike AI that could end the world" is a form of advertising.

On the other side, more than 1,000 employees across the frontier labs signed a letter this summer warning that competitive pressure was preventing anyone from slowing down, so I'm not really sure what side I'm on

What do you guys think?

6,592 views

Jay @motivated_jay

Personal Finance · 2h

Personal Finance Tip:

Moving your emergency cash from a traditional bank to a High-Yield Savings Account is one of the easiest, lowest-effort wins

84 views

Andy Passive Income

@AndyPii

Passive Income · 2h

Roundhill MAGY weekly distribution

🔒Ex-date Friday 💰Paydate Monday

$MAGY $0.158063⬇️

Last week :
$MAGY $0.158631⬇️

2 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.159361⬇️

3 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.159588⬇️

4 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.203516⬆️

5 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.203397⬇️

6 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.236515⬇️
7 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.249131⬆️
8 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.204670⬆️
9 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.201520⬇️
10 weeks ago :
$MAGY $0.241908⬇️ read more

170 views

The Market Matrix

@themarketmatrix

Market News · 1d

The Crypto Clarity Act officially fails to pass in the Senate

$HOOD just fell to -7% intraday.

$BTC -3%
$ETH -5%
$XRP -8%

$300M longs were just liquidated.read more

1,286 views

Steve Burns

@sjosephburns

Personal Finance · 3h

Chasing 100-200% returns a year is why most traders fail.

Settle for 20% annually and you'd be outperforming 95% of hedge funds.

Most traders don't fail from bad strategy. They fail from unrealistic expectations.

66 views

Beskar Capital

@beskar_capital

Beginner Investors · 🔥 Hot

OK - Let's Try This Again. 😂🤣

Have you bought just ONE share of at least ONE energy company yet??? 😂🤣

Or is your stubborness standing in the way?

Natural selection is alive and well!

This is the Way! 🏄🌊🏄‍♂️🌊🏄‍♀️🌊

1,718 views

Jesse Franklin @pinnaclewealth

Market News · 20h

Pre Market Report

PRE-MARKET REPORT
Wednesday, September 16, 2026 | Snapshot taken about 7:09 AM ET

MARKET BACKDROP
U.S. index futures are modestly higher after Tuesday's broad selloff, with attention squarely on today's Federal Reserve decision at 2:00 PM ET and the Chair's press conference at 2:30 PM ET. Higher rates/yields remain the primary macro pressure point.

PRE-MARKET FUTURES
• S&P 500 futures: 7,607.50, +18.25 (+0.24%)
• Nasdaq-100 futures: 29,094.50, +139.50 (+0.48%)
• Dow futures: 52,182.00, +67.00 (+0.13%)

PRIOR CASH CLOSES / REFERENCE LEVELS
• S&P 500: 7,585.73, -34.25 (-0.45%)
• Nasdaq Composite: 25,981.57, -204.84 (-0.78%)
• Russell 2000: 2,870.29, -21.95 (-0.76%)
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 52,093.11, -328.09 (-0.63%)

VOLATILITY & RATES
• VIX: 16.98, down 0.22 (-1.28%) versus Tuesday's close.
• U.S. 10-year Treasury yield: 5.00% (the ^TNX quote is displayed as 5.00); it was up about 3 basis points from the prior close. Yields near/above 5% remain a headwind for long-duration growth and rate-sensitive equities.

CRYPTO (24-HOUR MOVE)
• Bitcoin: $75,838.78, +$252.27 (+0.33%)
• Ethereum: $2,402.90, +$5.26 (+0.22%)
• Solana: $97.08, +$0.20 (+0.21%)
• XRP: $1.29, roughly flat to +0.17%

ADVANCERS VS. DECLINERS
Prior session breadth was weak and risk-off:
• NYSE: Decliners outnumbered advancers by 2.56-to-1; 113 new 52-week highs vs. 673 new lows.
• Nasdaq: 1,439 advancers vs. 3,356 decliners, a 2.33-to-1 negative ratio.

EARLY MOVER RADAR
Notable percentage gainers: VRA +34.54%, HQ +27.66%, IPEX +21.10%, RLGT +19.49%, BBNX +14.94%, and SWKS +13.55%.
Notable percentage decliners: SWMR -28.36%, ENVA -23.43%, CRCA -23.23%, XXRP -23.02%, ARMP -20.72%, CONL -20.03%, and PLAY -19.01%.

WHAT TO KEEP ON THE RADAR TODAY
1. FOMC at 2:00 PM ET, followed by the Chair's 2:30 PM ET press conference. The decision, statement, and forward guidance are likely to set the direction for the afternoon.
2. The 10-year yield around 5.00%. A sustained move higher would be a warning for technology, small caps, homebuilders, utilities, and other duration/rate-sensitive groups.
3. Whether the Nasdaq's stronger futures bid (+0.48%) holds after the open. Watch semiconductors and mega-cap growth for leadership or failure.
4. Market breadth. After sharply negative breadth Tuesday, look for improving advance/decline participation and fewer new lows before treating an early bounce as durable.
5. Volatility behavior. VIX below 17 is constructive on the surface, but a post-Fed VIX expansion alongside falling equities would signal renewed risk-off conditions.
6. Crypto reaction and correlated high-beta equities. BTC, ETH, SOL, and XRP are modestly green pre-market; monitor whether they retain gains as yields and Fed headlines move.

TRADING FRAMEWORK
Stay selective into the Fed: reduce size, respect opening-range levels, and avoid chasing the first directional move. The market can reverse sharply after 2:00 PM ET and again during the 2:30 PM ET press conference.

Data: realtime finance quotes and major market-news reporting. Figures can change rapidly before the opening bell.read more

758 views

Andy Passive Income

@AndyPii

Passive Income · 15h

TappAlpha TDAQ monthly distribution

🔒Ex-date Sept 15th 💰Paydate Sept 16th

$TDAQ $0.3824⬇️

Last month :
$TDAQ $0.39274⬆️

2 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.39002⬇️

3 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.39547⬆️
4 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.38246⬆️
5 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.35022⬇️
6 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.35372
7 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.35722
8 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.37620
9 months ago :
$TDAQ $0.37405 read more

812 views

Jason L Petersen

@rethinking_dividends

Dividends · 1d

Ultra High-Yield Investing Is Built Different

Ultra high yield investing isn't only a different investing strategy than dividend growth or growth investing. Rather it requires a different sort of investing philosophy than the typical investor has. It requires a different way of thinking about what a "return" is and when you get to count it.

The core of the strategy is the ability to receive realized return through dividends due to great performance, because great performance makes dividends more sustainable, and that allows the "payoff" to happen more quickly. When the underlying holdings are performing well, the distributions flowing into your account aren't a depletion of the portfolio. They're a reflection of it. Performance funds the payout, and the payout is where your ROI becomes real.

With a growth portfolio, you can get ROI too, but if you don't sell, it is unrealized. It exists on a screen. It's an effect you can look at but can't touch unless you want to lose exposure to the asset.
Occasionally, a vocal minority of growth investors like to tell me my strategy is inferior to theirs. A favorite line goes something like this: "You would have had more liquidity if you bought growth equivalents like $SOXX and $DRAM because those investments outperformed yours in total return."

My answer is, "Oh really? If I haven't sold shares and the gain is unrealized, it is not liquidity. It's unrealized liquidity. Could I potentially liquidate SOXX and DRAM? Sure. But if I do, I am losing exposure and if I want more exposure, I will have to buy more shares later on. There are many people who are okay with that, but that isn't the game I am playing." (And, if you are curious of what I am invested in, it's $CHPY, $DRMY, $GPTY, and $YRAM)

That's the trap growth investors don't always acknowledge. If they do outperform, the returns sit in the share price, and the only way to convert it into spendable cash is to give up the very thing generating it. Sell shares, lose exposure. Keep the shares, keep the appreciation, but keep it unrealized. The dollar figure that makes them feel liquid is downstream of the shares. The shares are the cause; the dollars are the effect.

For point of clarification, when a dividend is paid out, the value of the investment is reduced by it. Your dividend is depleting cash. This is why you need the underlying to perform well or else your dividend stream will shrink over time if you don't reinvest enough of it to keep your capital stable. When the underlying doesn't do well, even 100% reinvestment may not be enough to keep your capital stable during the downturn.

Dividends are also paid out on a per share basis. The more shares you have, the more dividends you will get. And, if your investment is increasing in value, staying flat, or only going down moderately, the effects of the dividends can be quite nice.

Psychologically, liquidating through distributions is easier. I don't have to make a sell decision. I don't have to forfeit a single share. The portfolio pays me out of its own performance, and my exposure stays exactly where it was. If I hold on to the shares long enough and my investment performs well, I will reach a return on investment where my paid out dividends exceed my initial cost basis. This is not theoretical as it would be if a growth investor's investments reached a value 2x their cost basis. Rather, it is a realized return on investment because returns from dividends are realized the moment they are paid out. Studies have shown that the majority of retirees feel more comfortable with collecting income from dividends than they do selling shares.

None of this is to say growth investing is bad. It's a great strategy, and I'd never tell someone their approach is wrong for their goals. And, dividend investing is not objectively superior to growth investing. This is because the fruit of any investing strategy should be weighed by the goals of the investor. But since a vocal minority of growth are often quick to criticize mine, well, I enjoy counter punching. As a philosopher named Gordon Haddon Clark once said, "I love a good brawl."

The two main considerations in my strategy are total returns and liquidity. I target outperforming sectors, and sometimes individual companies, so my portfolio can potentially outperform the market and give me the option to extract more liquidity without selling shares. Liquidity on demand, on a per share basis where exposure never shrinks.

Many people who invest or advise others on investing think about the accumulation phase of investing and not the distribution phase of investing. I tend to think more about the latter than the former. The reason why is because I am thinking about what I can do with my money and how I can do whatever I want with it. I don't want millions in unrealized gains that I'll never touch in my life time. I'm not trying to win a contest. I'm trying to benefit from my investments in the easiest way I can while still meeting my investment goals.

If I do well, I can get a return on investment in less than five years with ultra high yield funds (20% plus yields). In this case, When I say ROI, I mean distributions received versus cost basis, not price appreciation. By that measure, I'm currently at about 80% ROI since August of 2024: roughly 80 cents of every dollar I put in has already come back to me as cash distributions, while my shares, my exposure, remain fully intact (and have appreciated overall). That is a realized return. No selling required. And, the investing is still paying me despite me having taken more than my cost basis. It is house money at this point.

I plan on adding $15,000 in November or December, so that statistic will likely change. That's the nature of the approach: it stays in motion, and the outlook that makes it work is the one that measures progress by what has actually been paid out, not by what could be, if only I were willing to sell the shares that generate it.read more

4,032 views

Perry's PIIverse

@piiverse

Passive Income · 2d

My Income Port After 3 Yrs Retired

3 years ago this month ... two major life events happened to me... I retired after a 37 year career... and in the same year 8 months before I retired... I decided to TOTALLY OVERHAUL all my bank manged portfolio into my PIIVERSE Income portfolio... including commuting my pension into it.

looking back after 3 years... my retirement transition journey... and how my income portfolio has been successful beyond what I imagined...

https://youtu.be/Y4ePJ27XlXE

3,224 views

Canadian Investor @canadianinvestor

Passive Income · 1d

Income Investing Is Not the Problem

Income investing is not the problem, it can provide an investor with cash flow and remove some decision-making, which can be beneficial. But there are things it cannot do that some investors assume it can, and I believe that is largely due to how many funds are marketed and the rise of social media.

Older income investors have seen this before. A long time ago, many funds were playing with higher distribution rates, and many of the problems that people are now seeing with covered call funds are not new. People just have short memories and do not look at the past, so we are dealing with a similar issue once again.

A distribution rate is not the same thing as income, and the way to know whether your fund is producing enough return to support its distribution is to look at total return. The problem is that total return is a trailing metric. We don't know in advance whether the fund will earn enough to support its distribution rate, and there can be periods where a fund is crushing it and other periods where it goes through years of underperformance.

It can be the same fund. While the fund you are investing in today might be killing it, in a year or two it might not be, and that could be due to any number of reasons. The more thematic the fund is, the more likely money is to move in and out of that sector compared with a fund that is more broadly diversified.

I've seen two posts recently that show one of the biggest problems in income investing: investors misunderstanding distribution yield and total return.

One post was from an investor who said they were already generating about $1,200 a month from covered calls and believed that would allow them to retire much sooner with far less money invested than people normally say they need. This is something that is often pushed by retail investors, and I have yet to see a fund company come out and say anything similar. They generally talk about total return as well. That is more than likely related to the regulatory constraints they operate under.
The second post was much more intentional. The investor named specific funds and said their goal was to eventually generate $400 a month in distributions to pay their car insurance. That example is easier to look at because we can actually take the fund, its distribution, the amount being invested, and start to see where the math begins to break down.

The fund currently pays $0.255 per share twice per month and is trading at $22.82, giving it a current annualized distribution rate of about 26.8%. They want to generate $400 a month to pay for their car insurance.

Starting with an existing portfolio of about $1,280, adding $100 every two weeks, and reinvesting all of the twice-monthly distributions, the portfolio could theoretically grow to around $18,000 in roughly 3.5 years if the share price stayed around $22.82 and the $0.255 distribution remained unchanged.

Those last two points are important because since the fund launched in this current bull market, the unit price has dropped about 8%, and the distribution has already been reduced once.
Now fast-forward and assume they dropped the whole amount in today and were generating $400 a month. If they withdrew the full $400 every month, that would be $4,800 per year, or almost 27% of an $18,000 portfolio.

For that withdrawal rate to be sustainable without steadily consuming the portfolio, the investment would have to generate roughly that amount through actual total return over time. Simply distributing 27% does not mean the portfolio earned 27%.

There was a recent YouTube video where the person mentioned seeing an ad showing a 13% distribution yield and thinking, "How is this possible?" They investigated, learned about covered calls, decided that it was possible, and so began their journey.

Not once while they were telling the story did they mention looking at the fund's total return or even talking about it, only the advertised distribution yield. That is the exact issue that has been a long-standing problem in the income investing space: focusing on how much a fund distributes without first asking how much the investment is actually earning.

Fund companies, when they go on interviews and sit on panels, often tell investors to look at total return and not just the distribution yield. There is a whole thing about not making portfolio decisions based on the distribution yield. Yet many funds are marketed heavily using the distribution yield rather than total return.

That is somewhat understandable because future total return is unknown and historical total return is a trailing metric. You could have a great total return for a few years, and then it could be horrible and the fund could erode its NAV.

Retail investors become very effective marketers for these products. They can make aggressive or just plain ridiculous claims about what is sustainable, focus entirely on yield, and build entire YouTube channels or social media accounts around how much "income" a portfolio produces. Fund companies are incentivized to gather more assets under management because that generates more fees, and they can benefit from that attention without directly making those claims themselves. They can appear on those channels and talk about total return without substantiating the creator's claims, but simply appearing can make it seem like they support them.

Looking at your portfolio and saying it pays you $5,000 a month means nothing if you have to reinvest the full $5,000 to maintain the capital.

I know there are a lot of people who do not like Adriano or his investing style, and I would call him more of a covered call investor than an income investor since he doesn’t really diversify his sources of income. But on his channel, at least, he isn’t making ridiculous claims. He continuously mentions that total return is what matters. He walks people through how to calculate the total return and while you might not agree with how he invests or what he invests in at least you can’t say he’s out making outlandish unsupported claims about what income investing can actually do.

If your total return over time is sufficient to support the amount you are spending, you can make the strategy work. Could you have made more investing in another fund with uncapped upside? Sure. But will the portfolio still support your spending? If the answer is yes and that fits your lifestyle, then who cares?

The problem is when you are watching channels that aren’t looking at the fund’s total return at all. They are talking almost entirely about the yield and basing their investment decisions on the fund’s advertised distribution rate. That isn’t doing anyone any favors.

At the end of the day, income investing is not the problem. The problem is confusing the amount a fund distributes with the amount the investment actually earns. There is nothing wrong with wanting cash flow, using covered calls, or choosing a fund that pays a higher distribution if it fits your goals. But the distribution itself does not tell you whether the strategy is working.

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What ai tools do you use for portfolio management/looking for stock ideas

How screwed are we?

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