March 2016 Dividend Income Update + MORE May 1st

Learn, save, invest and prosper with My Own Advisor.
Welcome to my latest dividend income update.  For those of you new to these posts on my site, every month I discuss my approach to investing focusing on dividend paying stocks and how reinvesting the dividends paid from the Canadian companies we own are helping us reach financial freedom.
This month, I’ll recap our magic formula for growing our dividend income to $12,200 per calendar year since we changed our investing approach about six years ago.
Secret #1 – We buy Canadian blue-chip dividend paying stocks that have a history of paying shareholders for decades.  Over time during my investing journey, I’ve learned to avoid high-yielding stocks and stocks with a short dividend payment history.  There is too much risk.  Instead we invest in these types of companies.
Secret #2 – We reinvest the dividends paid by these companies where possible, as much as possible.  Like John Heinzl from the Globe and Mail, I don’t like having my dividends sitting around doing nothing – I put them to work every month and quarter – but I reinvest the dividends paid…

TORONTO – Five things to watch this week in Canadian business:
Tax deadline: Have you filed your taxes yet? Normally the deadline is April 30, but because that fell on a Saturday, Canadians have until Monday to do so.
Cineplex: The movie theatre giant releases its first-quarter earnings on Tuesday, the day after it plans to honour the late Prince with special screenings of the legendary musician’s “Purple Rain” in 54 theatres across Canada. A dollar from the sale of every $6.99 ticket goes to MusiCounts, a music education charity.
Poloz: The Bank of Canada governor speaks at a panel discussion at the Milken Institute in Los Angeles on Tuesday. Poloz, along with four other speakers, is going to tackle the topic entitled: “Monetary Policy: Out of Ammunition?”
Earnings season: The latest quarterly reports keep coming. Among the corporate heavyweights releasing their results are WestJet, Fortis, Loblaw Companies and Encana.
Jobs report: Statistics Canada is out with the job numbers for April on Friday…

What’s rule #1? A rule is not a rule unless it’s enforced. Any two year old knows that if the parents say to do or not do something, unless there is a sanction that is actually applied, you can behave as you want. And that’s what kids do. The rule doesn’t actually exist in any practical sense. The CSA is exactly in that situation as the “parent”, supposedly regulating financial firms and their employees dealing with the public, getting them to behave honestly and responsibly towards the public. The Small Investor Protection Association recently released a shocking and dispiriting report Unpaid Fines: a National Disgrace, which details the almost non-existent collection of fines imposed on financial miscreants in recent years. As the report says, this abysmal performance undermines the whole system of regulation. Investors will lose confidence. The financial industry will not feel deterred against misdeeds.Such utter neglect of the CSA’s mandate is especially annoying in the light of its recent excellent proposal to institute a best interest standard (as opposed to the weak suitability standard now in force) for financial advice on the investment industry…