Every year I end up arguing with myself about how to pull money out of my corporation, and every year I kind of wing it. So I finally built a salary vs dividend calculator into Budgey: https://www.budgey.ca/salary-vs-dividend You pick your province, enter the pre-tax profit you want to pay out, and it lines up all salary, all dividends, and a mix where salary stops at $74,600 and the rest comes out as dividends. Here's $120,000 of profit in Alberta. All dividends leaves the most cash in hand, $91,943. The corp pays $13,200 of tax first, then $14,857 of personal tax on the $106,800 of dividends. All salary leaves $86,005. That's $5,938 less, but it creates $20,764 of RRSP room and $9,293 of CPP contributions. Dividends create zero of either. The mix comes out to $86,483 in hand, $13,428 of RRSP room and $8,461 of CPP. The $74,600 isn't random. It's where CPP stops buying you a bigger pension, so past that point I have it pay everything as dividends. I also made a point of showing CPP as pension money, not tax, because that's what it is, even if it doesn't feel like it on payday. So the "dividends win" answer really depends on whether you'd actually invest that RRSP room, and how much you value the CPP pension down the road. It also doesn't decide how much to take out in the first place. Whatever you don't need can stay in the corp and defer the personal tax. Curious what everyone does with their own corp. Straight dividends, salary to $74,600, or something else? And if you try it, let me know what you'd want added.read more
If you could only have one high income ETF in your portfolio what would it be? For me I reveal exactly what that ETF is and give some context to the reasons why I’d only go with that. This ETF has been my longest serving holding. https://youtu.be/QFvlEWdMMAI?si=YAVwrdXBxoC1QUqe
I am currently 47 years old. Unfortunately in that time frame I have lost a lot of family members. Some (most) were accidents, some to age, some to cancer, and one to suicide. That’s 11 deaths total. Only 1 person out of 11 had a will. When you are grieving the last thing you want to do is close an estate up. It’s even harder if nothing has been prepared in advance. After the initial shock of the death settles (the phase where everyone is usually nice), greed comes through in a most alarming manner. I’ve watched people turn into monsters. Make sure you have a will!!!! or people will fight. I know most people hate thinking about their death or their spouses death but honestly it’s just a fact of life. I’ve personally been the executor of 2 estates now. This is my advice: 1. If your young get life insurance. If you’re retired it’s not worth it. 2. Make sure you have a will. 3. Make sure you have a personal directive. 4. Make sure you have a power of attorney set up. 5. If your married make your spouse the beneficiary of your TFSA and RRSP(has to be done through the account not the will), they will roll into the spouses account without taxation. 6. If you’re married, and you own a house, make sure both names are on the title, joint tenant, NOT tenant in common. This activates right of survivorship on property and doesn’t have to go through the estate. 7. If you’re married, both people should have their name on all the vehicles, joint, otherwise it’s a headache after death. 8. Buy a file folding system. I have a plastic one that has a clasp and handle. 9. Put EVERYTHING in this file folder that would be needed if you died tomorrow. a) all land titles B) information on house insurance so it can either be eventually canceled or name changed over. C) your will (or the location of your will), power of attorney, and personal directive D) the information for your car, car insurance, and registration on vehicles. E) information on life insurance. F) all current year papers needed for filing your taxes. Because the survivor will have to do it and will need that information. G) where your household bills are. ALL OF THEM, electricity, gas, Netflix, magazine, subscriptions everything you can think of that is in their name. Because you are going to have to cancel them. H) their credit card information where to contact to cancel the cards I) birth certificate, SIN numbers, marriage, license, etc. J) information on all your investments accounts, bank accounts, etc. K) anything else you can think of for your situation If you’re married, I’d have one box per person. When you die, the funeral home will issue many death certificates. And your lawyer will give you copies of the will. These will be needed to change over any accounts. Everything else goes through the estate which is taxed and the lawyers take their fees so I’d avoid this as much as possible especially if you’re married. This is why having property in both people‘s names is so important because it doesn’t have to go through probate. I am widowed now and I have my black file folder and my two remaining children know if something happens to me, all they have to do is grab the folder. Everything they need to take care of my estate will be located in this folder. At the beginning of every year, I open this file up and go through everything to make sure it’s up-to-date. If you are young and do not own much or can’t afford a will, you can draft one up but it must be handwritten to be classified as a legal document. You cannot type it out!! If you’re not worth much, everything will most likely be sold to pay your bills and cover your funeral expenses. But you can state who your executor will be in your handwritten will. Disclaimer I’m not a lawyer or an accountant and this is not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer and talk to an accountant. Make sure everything is set up for you and your situation. These are situations that I personally ran into. Good luck Also I’ll add in. IF you have a lot of assets make an appointment with your accountant first. They will tell you how to properly set things up. Then take that information to your lawyer. read more
Ill break down my plan for the emergency fund. My wife and I spend $4000 a month. 4x6= 24. We need $24,000 to cover 6 months of expenses. Im going to school and my wife wants that covered beyond the usual emergency fund. School is 2 months so anther $8000 now we are up to 32,000. But, we need a new car soon (next year).... add another $10000 to that. Next year and the last of this year my wife and I will just be saving for savings sake. THATS BORING!!!! But its the way its gotta be. I think I would be ok with less emergency, "I" am not "we". My wife and I have to do what is best for eachother too. Its not just my sleep. its my wifes too. If she doesn't sleep well, I won't either.read more
This one surprised me while digging into $NVDA. Google builds its own AI chips. And it's still reportedly paying SpaceX $920M a month to rent NVIDIA's. That's how hard it is to replace them right now. Google, Amazon and OpenAI are all trying to build their way out. But the part nobody talks about is NVIDIA spending its own money to make sure buying from them stays the easy choice. Revenue more than doubled last quarter, and Huang says he sees $1 trillion of demand through 2027. So can the giants actually break free? Full breakdown here: https://youtu.be/jXcnJkE_9Yo
WILL YOU BE BUYING THE ANTHROPIC IPO..? $500B in commitments, seeking around $1.5T valuation, $16.1B H1 revenue, $80.1B H1 net loss, gross margin went from 12% to 85% in just one year. Nearly $240B in commitments with just $SPCX and $GOOGL haha.. $ANT
Hope everyone had a good Halloween morning with the fam! If you didn’t for whatever reason, that’s why I’m here! Consider myself as your family, everyone is family here. Here’s my Halloween costume this year.. nothing scarier than this 😳 Sorry Intel-ers! (NJP)
$AMD earnings are going to be interesting. Earnings estimates are around $13 billion, and I think they can beat that easily if they actually executed this past quarter. There's no reason they shouldn't either, being that they have been distributing their Hyperion racks and making strategic acquisitions. If they don't beat that, it would be really disappointing. Either way, valuation is very high; to even BEGIN to justify a $600 stock price, they would need to report at least $15 billion or more, although I'm not expecting that. I just hope we see some downward price action. I want to buy more, but I've been neglecting it lately because it's so high.
So ive been looking at cheap hobbies. For starters ive been going to the gym! best cheap hobby. Planet Fitness is 30$ for both my wife and I. You can bring a guess..... me, im the guess. so basically cut 30 in half. 15 a person, cheeeeeap. I also picked up some fish. My friends didnt want them any more so I inherited a tank. got some Tetra, a few Guppies and a Barb also a Clown Plecko but I think my boy is dead (he isnt he just never moves)...... Not as cheap as I thought. I got a few filters. A 3 step water chemical program and a little flake food. All together $100 for at least a few months. Having a few cheap hobbies is more fun for me then having 1 big one. One of these days I wanna have a big tank mabye breed some fish but untill then gotta prove to myself I wont kill everything I touch.....
Markets don’t like uncertainty, and with the midterm elections underway, I expect heavy volatility today and tomorrow. From Thursday onward, I think markets will stabilize somewhat, and high-beta names such as $NBIS , $CRDO , $FPS , $CRWV , and $SNDK could start building upward momentum. Several AI infrastructure companies, including $NBIS and $FPS , report earnings in the coming weeks. Their results and forward guidance will be key in determining the growth outlook for the sector. Longer term, I believe optics and power are positioned for significant growth in the months and years ahead. Not financial advice. Do your own research.
Hey guys!!! I had an amazing time chatting with @humbledtrader & @bdinvesting on the retail rundown podcast. If you wanna hear us yap for an hour about the ups and downs of work, health, investing & life tune in! https://youtu.be/tNoNucq9Lsc
Here are 🚩3 big flags🚩that signal a company might not be a good investment, and I'll walk you through how to check for each one. (Free Stock Checklist at the end) --- 1️⃣ Declining Revenue or Earnings📉 🛑 Why it’s a red flag:A company with falling revenue or earnings may be losing market share, dealing rising costs, or the overall industry is shrinking. ✅ How to Check for This: A) Look at the Income Statement📊 - Find the company’s total revenue and net income in its latest financial report. Top-line & bottom-line, respectively. - Compare revenue and net income across multiple quarters/years. 3 years or 12 quarters is more than enough to indicate a trend - If both are consistently declining, it’s a warning sign. B) Check Earnings Reports🗂️ - Look at the company’s quarterly earnings reports to see if they’ve missed expectations multiple times. C) Compare to Competitors🔍 - Is the entire industry struggling, or just this company? 📚Website for financial reports: https://www.marketwatch.com/ --- 2️⃣ High Debt Levels 🛑 Why it’s a red flag:Companies with a capital structure heavily debt-reliant are more vulnerable in economic downturns and might struggle to repay obligations. ✅ How to Check for This: A) Find the Debt-to-Equity Ratio (D/E)📊 - Go to the company’s Balance Sheetin its latest report. - Find Total Debt and Total Equityand calculate: Debt-to-Equity Ratio = Total Debt ÷ Total Equity** - A D/E ratio above 2.0 (varies by industry) is usually risky. B) Check Interest Coverage Ratio🔍 - Look at the Income Statement for EBIT (Earnings Before Interest & Taxes). - Find Interest Expense and calculate:Interest Coverage Ratio = EBIT ÷ Interest Expense - If this ratio is below 1.5, the company may struggle to pay interest. 📚 Resources: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/debtratio.asp#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways&text=A%20company's%20debt%20ratio%20can,has%20more%20assets%20than%20debt --- 3️⃣ Poor Cash Flow 🛑 Why it’s a red flag:A company can be profitable on paper but still run out of cash to fund operations. ✅ How to Check for This: A) Find the Cash Flow Statement📜 - Look at Operating Cash FlowOCF). - If OCF is negative for multiple quarters, the company may be in trouble. B) Check Free Cash Flow (FCF)💰 - Free Cash Flow = Operating Cash Flow - Capital Expenditures - A company with negative FCF can’t reinvest in growth without taking on debt. 📚 Read more about Cash flow: https://www.investopedia.com/articles/stocks/07/easycashflow.asp ___________________________________________ Thanks for reading, I am open to engage in friendly conversations so I encourage you to leave a comment!💬 Access my free stock checklist at the link below⬇️ https://investingwithcole.gumroad.com/l/stockchecklist read more
This week we bought a new car (yes the one in the video title). But how I financed it and further optimized my PIIverse retirement portfolio is the big story ! https://youtu.be/46c9rUZJgSA
Outside of doing the podcast with Moe, I've just been chilling. The house I bought for $680k in March 2024 is a townhouse. The unit on the other side just sold for $890k. As it turns out, I was NOT late to the party. I'm looking forward to renewing my mortgage in March, hopefully bringing that monthly payment down. ;) I've been nerding out with GPT and Claude on a variety of interests. They can do a lot more than just produce slop these days. As for upcoming big expenses, I'm planning another cruise. Not sure where yet, but different members of my family have expressed interest in something centered around South America or South Africa. If you have suggestions, let's hear them!
Today’s Buy: $MRVL: 3 shares - $168 Averaging $196.964 on 18 shares slowly adding more for my long term look when i have more $ Monthly Profit: $253.26 (20.26%)
went from $410K to $531K! Sure, self-employment has been great, but leaving my job also came with costs I hadn’t expected. In my new video, I share the full breakdown of what leaving my 9-5 did to my finances, what surprised me, and what cost me the most. If you’ve ever considered leaving your job, this gives you a behind-the-scenes look at what that actually looks like financially, what I’d recommend having in place before you quit, and what I’d do differently if I were taking the leap again. Watch here: https://youtu.be/clPmJwJpCSk If you weren’t working your 9-5, what would you do? #PersonalFinance #SelfEmployment #FinancialIndependenceread more
My thesis: back the companies turning AI spending into real revenue. ServiceNow's AI sales are growing. But its outlook disappointed, and I think AI could hurt the core software business as much as it helps it. When I'm less sure of the story, I'd rather free up the money than hope. My own reasoning, not a recommendation. Capital at risk.
📊 Tech melted down again to open November. The Nasdaq fell 1.07% to 25,164.32 and the S&P 500 shed 0.51%, both giving up solid morning gains. The Dow rose 0.41% on old economy names and Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite added 0.51%. 🔗 Marvell Technology ($MRVL) dropped 12.72% to $171.41 after agreeing to buy Lumentum ($LITE) for $115 billion. Lumentum fell 18% despite the deal, which gives its holders 4.5 Marvell shares each and about 33% of the combined company. 🗄️ Oracle ($ORCL) slid 8% after filing to sell $10 billion in common stock and $10 billion in senior notes to fund its AI buildout. Stephens upgraded the stock to overweight the same day with a $213 target. 🐕 IDEXX Laboratories ($IDXX) climbed 20% after beating on both lines, with revenue of $1.21 billion up 10% year over year on Companion Animal Group growth. The vet diagnostics company raised its 2026 revenue and earnings forecasts. 🍁 Canadian energy names sank with crude. Suncor ($SU) fell 5.05% and Canadian Natural ($CNQ) dropped 4.21%, though a gold rebound lifted materials enough to keep the index green. Canadian manufacturing contracted for the first time in 2026 as tariffs hit demand. 🛢️ Brent tumbled 7.63% to close at $104.77 and WTI fell 7.36% to $96.46 on hopes of renewed U.S.-Iran talks. Marco Rubio said Trump hasn’t decided on an attack and Washington would prefer a peaceful resolution, while Iran’s foreign minister said a deal is possible with goodwill. 👨🏻💻 Researched and written daily by @timeminoread more
Oil just dropped 7% on U.S.-Iran peace talk hopes. Does Brent stay under $100 by year-end?
$HYLD holds 9 underlying ETFs ($SDAY$QDAY are the most recent additions) with 150 stocks in total. So why does it have the concentration of just 38? That’s what caught my attention when I dug into ALL its holdings. When I calculated HYLD’s effective number of stocks, I got just 38. In other words, despite holding 150 individual stocks, the weighting makes it behave more like a portfolio of 38 equally weighted stocks. And the concentration gets less income like and more growth like.... The top 10 stocks make up 40.7% of HYLD. The top 20? 65.6%... And the bottom 50 stocks? JUST 4% of the portfolio. So yes, HYLD owns a lot of stocks. But the number of holdings doesn't tell you much without looking at how they're weighted in the portfolio. Then theres the sector exposure...... Technology accounts for roughly 39% of the portfolio, with names like NVIDIA, AMD, Broadcom, Micron and Palantir among its major holdings. There's nothing inherently wrong with owning these companies. However, it does raise an interesting question about how diversified HYLD really is. Is it a diversified high income ETF...... or is it essentially a concentrated U.S. growth portfolio with leverage and a covered-call strategy layered on top? I dug into all of this in my latest HYLD ETF deep dive, along with its 12.5% yield, distributions, performance, fees, leverage and risk and answered some of the questions you asked. And I also built a custom benchmark to see how HYLD stacks up against a portfolio with similar characteristics AND leverage. https://youtu.be/dgUcuQmB48k If you were buying HYLD primarily for its monthly income, would this level of concentration change how much you'd be comfortable holding in your portfolio?read more
Honestly, I don’t think this was a bad report at all! A few things really stood out to me: 📈 Recurring revenue up 11%. 📈 Organic recurring revenue up 9%. 📈 Closed sales up 10%. 💰 Returned $311m to shareholders through dividends and buybacks. And let’s not forget the dividend! Broadridge recently announced a 12% dividend increase, marking its 20th consecutive year of dividend growth. That’s the sort of consistency I love seeing in a company. Yes, there were a few weaker numbers, particularly reported EPS, but I think it’s important to look at what’s happening underneath the surface. The recurring revenue growth is encouraging. Overall, I’m pretty happy with these results. I’m not looking for companies to deliver perfect quarters every single time. I want businesses that can continue growing, reward shareholders and increase their dividends year after year. And $BR is certainly ticking a lot of those boxes for me. 👀 What’s everyone else thinking about Broadridge’s results? read more
It's Halloween, and while everyone else is worried about ghosts, goblins, and things that go bump in the night, @karyungtom and I are more concerned about something REALLY scary... 👀 💀 BAD FINANCIAL DECISIONS! 💀 We're getting ready for Episode 27 of Financial KarMoe, and we're opening the floor to YOU! Got a burning question about investing, ETFs, $xeqt / $CAGE, retirement planning, taxes, the Smith Manoeuvre, leveraged investing, personal finance, or anything money-related? Maybe there's a financial myth haunting you, an investing strategy that sounds too good to be true, or a money question you've been too afraid to ask. Now's your chance! 🧛♂️ Drop your questions in the comments below, and Kar and I will pick some/all to tackle in our next episode. No question is too scary, no topic is off-limits, and no financial skeletons need to stay in the closet! 😂 🎃 Your mission: Give us your best financial TRICK or TREAT! Let's make Episode 27 a BOO-ming success! 👻😛read more
I’ve been buying a lot of $BN shares over the past couple of months, and today has been a great day so far! Up over 6% on the day… Still one of my favorite long-term compounders, and I plan on holding this one for years to come.
📊 Investors dumped tech into month-end. The Nasdaq tumbled 2.86% to 25,437.00 for its worst day since June, the S&P 500 slid 1.82%, the Dow lost 1.09% and Canada’s S&P/TSX Composite fell 1.74%, also its worst since June. 💻 Intel ($INTC ) tanked almost 29% on a weak current quarter outlook pointing to a PC slowdown. Revenue in its client computing and physical AI group fell 5% year over year to $8.1 billion. 👽 Reddit ($RDDT) cratered about 30% for its worst day since going public, even after beating with $1.40 per share on $895 million in revenue. CEO Steve Huffman said search referral traffic dropped by more than a million visits a week in October as Google expands AI Overviews, and fourth quarter guidance of $1.00 to $1.03 billion came in light. 💾 Sandisk ($SNDK) dropped 13% even after beating on fiscal first quarter results. The data storage company also announced an eight-for-one forward stock split. 💉 Regeneron ($REGN) jumped 11% on a big beat, earning $20.07 per share on $5.12 billion in revenue against the $16.42 and $4.56 billion FactSet consensus. It also lifted full year gross margin guidance to about 86%. ☢️ Cameco ($CCO) was the TSX’s biggest loser, sliding 9.6% to $105.40 after missing third quarter revenue estimates. Gold stocks fell 5.3% as a group and materials dropped 4.8%, with Canadian GDP flat in August and advance data pointing to a 0.1% decline in September. 🥇 Gold futures hit $3,946, their lowest since November 2025, and silver fell to $49.66, a low going back to that same month. Energy went the other way, with Chevron ($CVX) and ExxonMobil both closing at records on soaring third quarter profits. 👨🏻💻 Researched and written daily by @timeminoread more
What’s the most important thing you look for when researching a stock and finding a winner? What are the things that a stock must have in order for you to own it? Let me know below, i’m super curious!
Quick flag that if you receive a dm or see a comment from 'Blossom support' it is a SCAM! Please report it and our customer support team will delete it and we're working on a fix to block these proactively which will be live tomorrow Re. @trevorheslopinvests's post "weird dms sharing posts" - this is actually not a scam, but was the result of when you long press the share button it sends a post (a bug on our end). The fix for this is now live when you update Blossom on the app store (thanks everyone for flagging this)! 😎 In addition to these fixes, lots of other cool updates on the way that I can't wait to share with you all! As a sneak peak here's the mock-up for a community leaderboard we're working on to help showcase the top Blossom creators each week - https://blossom-mvps.netlify.app/
The Smith Manoeuvre sounds straightforward in theory, but what does it actually look like when you're doing it with your own money? This weekend I had a chance to have a follow-up conversation with Kyle (@kgcottawa) who similar to me has been implementing the Smith Manoeuvre. We each share an update on our Smith Manoeuvre portfolios and get into the practical details of how we're managing the strategy. We show our real numbers, talk about how much we've borrowed and invested, and discuss what's changed since our last conversation. Kyle's portfolio is approaching $192K, while my portfolio is around $243K, with roughly $143K in borrowing behind my Smith Manoeuvre investments. We also get into the mechanics that don't always get enough attention. How do we move money between our HELOCs and investment accounts? How do we handle the monthly interest, and when do we capitalize it? Kyle walks through his cash flow and mortgage prepayment routine, while I explain how I handle the interest slightly differently. We also discuss HELOC credit utilization, keeping the flow of funds clean, and why having enough financial breathing room matters when borrowing to invest. One of the more interesting parts of the conversation is Kyle's decision about whether to withdraw around $36,000 from his TFSA to make a larger mortgage prepayment. We discuss the emotional appeal of owing less on the house versus the potential long-term tax-free growth of leaving that money invested. We also compare our thinking around fixed versus variable mortgage rates, talk about the risks of leveraged investing, and share what we'd want someone to understand before getting started. If you're researching the Smith Manoeuvre, we also share some practical lessons and resources worth checking out, including Robinson Smith's book, Master Your Mortgage for Financial Freedom. This is an ongoing conversation about what we're learning as we implement the strategy, and we'll continue sharing updates as our portfolios and thinking evolve. 💬 We'd love to hear from you: Would you rather keep money invested in your TFSA or use it to pay down your mortgage faster? Let us know in the comments! ⚠️ Disclaimer: This video is for educational and entertainment purposes only and reflects our personal experiences and opinions. It is not financial, investment, mortgage, or tax advice. The Smith Manoeuvre involves leveraged investing and can magnify losses. Consider your own financial situation and consult qualified professionals before implementing a strategy like this. https://youtu.be/fHS8UllupIQread more
This November, we’re putting our money (and moustaches) where our mouths are. Team Blossom is officially joining the Movember movement, and inviting the entire community along for the ride! Our goal? Raise $10,000 for men’s health, supporting mental health and suicide prevention, prostate cancer, and testicular cancer. But we’re not stopping at donations! To make things a little more spicy, we’ve set up some fun fundraising challenges. From @maxstocks learning a KATSEYE dance, to mystery punishments, questionable moustaches, and a whole lot of chaos, every milestone unlocks something new. The best part? EVERYONE can participate (women too!). 🥸 GROW A MO: Put down the razor and grow that glorious moustache. 🏃♀️ MOVE FOR A MO: Can’t grow a moustache? No problem! Walk, run, or get moving for men’s health. Track your activity through Movember and sync your progress to your Mo Space. DONATE FOR A MO: Donate to a good cause and help us reach our $10,000 goal and unlock the next challenge! 📸 Post your progress photos throughout November and tag @meetblossomsocial on Instagram so we can share it along on our socials, bonus points if you're wearing Blossom merch! JOIN THE BLOSSOM MOVEMBER TEAM OR DONATE: https://movember.com/t/blossom-social-team?mc=1 Because investing in your future means investing in your health, too. Let’s grow something good. Together!read more
Hamilton's $HYLD is a beast of a fund, just like $HDIV . After getting the communities questions to help form the structure of HDIV's deep dive, I thought ... I HAVE to do it with $HYLD too. Since HYLD is a fund of funds and rather complex... here is what I am going to share (that way you don't ask what will be answered): - Performance attribution of sorts - Benchmarking w/ and w/o levereage - volatility and drawdowns - Fund history of changes - Distributions - ETF structure and total underlying holdings - Concentrations - Fund risks - Total costs and long term affect on performance What would you like to know about this fund? Is there something that's not obvious about the fund that you feel needs discussed? As always, EVERYONE is more than welcome to pipe in with their personal questions. The more diverse group of investors with questions, the better and broader the deep dive will be😁 I'll be filming tomorrow after work, so if I miss your questions after then, my apologies. As always, HAPPY investing everyone and let the questions FLY!!!!read more
2026 has been an exhausting year for growth investors. Look at the $QQQ drawdowns this year: March: -13.29% June: -8.28% July/August: -11.72% October: -8.13% so far Notice a pattern? Almost every selloff has been driven by the same concerns. Expensive valuations, massive AI CAPEX spending, iran war ,inflation, interest rates and financing costs. Different headlines, same fears. What's frustrating is that many companies continue to report strong earnings and growth, yet their stocks keep getting punished. The fundamentals can improve while valuations compress. That's been the story of 2026. As investors remember this is the long game. Theres always a smart reason to sell, but stocks tend to go higher even with bad news. Buy the dip & HOLDread more
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
