Weekend Reading – Dividend milestones, phishing, cash back cards and more + MORE Apr 15th

China’s economy grew at its slowest pace in seven years in the first quarter, however, indicators from the country’s consumer, investment and factory sectors point to nascent signs the slowdown in the world’s second largest economy may be bottoming out

Learn, save, invest and prosper with My Own Advisor.
Welcome to my latest Weekend Reading edition – some of my favourite articles from the personal finance and investing blogosphere this week.
Earlier this week I asked the audience if I should sell my old car (I will have a follow-up post with my decision in a few weeks) and I started yet another giveaway on my site after reading Market Masters.
Congratulations to David who won the #MisforMoney giveaway and toolkit for his kids.  I will be sending that giveaway set in the mail to you soon David.
Stay tuned for even more giveaways in the coming weeks and an update on my dividend income journey from last month.
Happy capitalism and enjoy your weekend,
Mark
Dan reached an important milestone with this dividend income – well done.
Dividend Growth Investor highlighted Procter & Gamble’s small dividend raise.
If you’re starting a business with another individual, this overview of a shareholder agreement is a must read from my friend Mark Goodfield…

HONG KONG – China’s economic growth slowed in the first quarter to 6.7 per cent, largely in line with expectations, but its slowest pace since the global financial crisis.
Data reported Friday showed that the annualized growth rate for the world’s second-largest economy ticked lower from the previous quarter’s 6.8 per cent.
But carefully targeted stimulus helped to prevent it from slowing even further, analysts said, raising hopes that growth may be stabilizing.
A prolonged slowdown took annual growth last year to 6.9 per cent, the weakest annual expansion in a quarter century. The communist leadership is seeking to steer the economy toward greater reliance on services and private consumption, and away from a growth model based on export manufacturing and investment.
Officials were cautious.
“The economy is at a critical stage of climbing uphill and getting over the structural adjustment’s hurdles and the pain of the adjustment process persists,” National Bureau of Statistics spokesman Shen Laiyun said at a press conference…

WASHINGTON – Her intent was to mar the voting record of her rival. But Hillary Clinton also cast aspersions on the presidential record of her husband in testy exchanges with Bernie Sanders over Wall Street regulation.
A look at some of the claims in Thursday night’s Democratic presidential debate and how they compare with the facts:
CLINTON: “I’m the only one on this stage who did not vote to deregulate swaps and derivatives, as Sen. Sanders did … and that contributed to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and started the cascade.”
THE FACTS: The legislation in question was signed into law by President Bill Clinton.
Hillary Clinton was in no position to vote for — or against — it because she was not in the Senate at the time. It’s true that Sanders voted for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, which deregulated many financial instruments that were later blamed for intensifying the 2008 financial crisis. Once it passed Congress, Bill Clinton signed it…

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Paul Ryan said Congress needs to “bring order to the chaos” in Puerto Rico and prevent U.S. taxpayers from having to eventually bail out the territory, which is facing a $70 billion debt.
A House committee cancelled a Thursday vote on legislation establishing a financial control board for Puerto Rico as Republicans remained divided over how Congress should address the economic crisis. Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla has warned that a debt restructuring measure needs to be approved soon with a looming deadline next month for a $422 million bond payment.
Puerto Rico has said it will likely default on the payment, which would mark the first time the island would miss a payment on general obligation bonds protected by the island’s constitution.
At a news conference Thursday, Ryan said he believes Congress will eventually act, but that many lawmakers are still learning about the issue. He said House Republicans will have a meeting Friday morning to discuss what should be done about the territory’s financial woes…