It’s been a great week for dividends, but I’m not a dividend investor. I do love when I get dividends, but seeing my investment accounts grow is what motivates me. It just so happens that some of the ETFs and stocks I like pay dividends. So thank you to $FCUV, $CIF, $VXM, $ET, $VXM-B, $FXM, $TPZ, $XDIV, $PPL, $PSI, $WXM, $TOU, $IPO, $XCS, $T, $CHE-UN, $CHCL-B.
For years the plan was simple. Save. Invest. Repeat. Say no a lot. 😅 Then one day you're retired and nobody hands you the manual for the next part. Because pulling money OUT is a whole different game than putting it in. And honestly, nobody talks about it nearly as much. 🤔 Here's what I'd like to discuss with you: ▪️ Which account do you spend from first? ▪️ Do you drain the RRSP early to keep the tax bill smooth, or let it grow and deal with it later? ▪️ Do you protect the TFSA like it's gold and touch it last? ▪️ Where does the non-registered account fit in? ▪️ When do you start CPP and OAS, and does that change the order of everything else? Every answer seems to come with a "well, it depends." 🙄 Tax brackets, OAS clawback, RRIF minimums, your spouse's income. It all pulls in different directions. I have my own thoughts on this (you know me, boring and steady), but I want to hear yours first. 👇 Tell me: 1️⃣ Are you retired, or close? What does your withdrawal order look like? 2️⃣ What worked? What would you do differently? 3️⃣ Anything that caught you off guard once the paycheques stopped? The real stories are always better than the theory. Let's help each other figure this out. 💛 Not financial advice. DYOR. Everyone's tax situation is different.read more
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
Conclusion: better off buying HHIS if you want less fluctuations 6 months ago, I did an experiment and invested nearly 30K in Harvest CC ETFs. Here’s what I learned: 1. Unless you have an infinite amount of capital, do not selectively pick CC ETFs. DCA HHIS works best for low management, med to high growth 2. While you can chase higher yields for Harvest CC ETFs, HHIS beats single CC ETFs, in the long run 3. If you still want to venture single CC ETFs, don’t go all in. Only add on huge dips because even if the underlying stock price goes back up, the ETF doesn’t. Great example is MSTE. P.S. been very busy at work lately but I’m 100% $CRWV and been selling calls and puts!!read more
Trump is set to make an announcement at 2PM ET tomorrow.. It could be about anything, I mean it follows Trump’s private dinner tonight with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, or something with Xi from their meetings last week. He also said he will end the Iran conflict "very soon" Any predictions haha?!
It's Official: $ZETA Global has been named as a LEADER in global Agentic Marketing for enterprise applications. IDC MarketScape reported... "Zeta's strengths are a Agent Studio and Agentic Workflows built natively into the Zeta Marketing Platform... they have a new Executive Intelligence Hub to provide next-best-action recommendations with deterministic attribution..." On challeneges: "Zeta's most persistent challenge is competing against an entrenched market with a large installed base... Zeta is not an 'add-on' feature, rather a replacement to the established competition..." You're looking at a company prepared to disrupt legacy-low-value software. Go get 'em, David. $ZETA$ADBE$CRM$ORCL$SAPread more
My wife and I rent right now, and I'm very happy with that decision currently. We get flexibility, we don't have to worry about replacing a roof or furnace, and we can move when life changes without selling a house first. Owning can be awesome when you want to stay put and make a place your own. I definitely want that eventually. But I don't see renting as throwing money away while we wait. We're paying for a place to live and for the flexibility that fits our life right now. For us, renting works financially because we pair that flexibility with discipline. If every dollar not going to a down payment or repair bill just gets spent somewhere else, you lose one of renting's advantages. We still need to save and invest on purpose. Has renting or owning given you more freedom at this stage of your life?
In my 20s, I spent 5 years pumped full of prednisone and methotrexate to fight off a rare disease, falling over $40,000 in debt, and even had to get a total hip replacement due to the prednisone destroying the bone in my left hip. Today, I am completely financially free, in the best shape of my life, and I get to spend every day with Soniya, who never left my side, and our three kids. If you are going through a dark time right now, please remember that it gets better. The suffering eventually ends. You just need to outlast it, and then slowly build yourself up. If I could overcome massive debt and a body trying to kill me, you can achieve your dreams too. Let's keep working towards the lives we deserve! I talk more about my experience in this video: https://youtu.be/PiifoiBYd04?si=pKPeVeTXJzmu7sS8
Rarely do I see growth investors focused on portfolio valuation metrics, such as Price to Earnings and Price to Sales. Afterall, those are often thought to be more important in value investing. However, achieving the best growth for the lowest metrics is absolutely critical long term and deserves much more attention. Sky High Price to Sales Companies: $SPCX: 64.5 $SNOW: 20 $PLTR: 56.5 $DJT: 400 *Calculated using current share price divided by (latest quarters revenue multiplied by 4) I try to stay away from companies like SpaceX, Snowflake, Palantir, and DJT. I love innovation and what these companies are accomplishing, but I also recognize there is an enormous amount of data to suggest investing in a large number of companies like that leads to poor performance over time. Today, there is exceptional value in my opinion to be found in Memory, Compute, Software and more, including names like MU CRM NVDA AMD SNDK SKHY ADBE GOOGL Valuation metrics matter. https://youtu.be/hzq4KABZ0K4?si=wS7Po08rJpbIHbUsread more
📊 Long-Term Investing: The Power of Thorough Analysis When it comes to long-term investing, understanding the fundamentals of a stock is crucial. It’s not just about jumping on trends; it’s about making informed decisions based on solid data. This chart breaks down the essential financial statements—Balance Sheet, Income Statement, and Cash Flow Statement—that every investor should analyze before committing to a stock. 🔍 Balance Sheet: This tells you about the company’s financial health, specifically its assets, liabilities, and equity. A healthy balance sheet is a sign of stability and resilience. 💸 Income Statement: This shows the company’s profitability by detailing revenue, expenses, and profits. A strong income statement indicates a company that’s generating profits, a key factor for long-term growth. 💰 Cash Flow Statement: This reveals how the company manages its cash, from operations to investments and financing. Positive cash flow is essential for sustaining operations and fueling future growth. By mastering these fundamentals, you can make smarter investment choices that stand the test of time. Remember, successful long-term investing isn’t about timing the market; it’s about time in the market, supported by thorough analysis. $VGT$TXN$QQQ$AAPL$META #InvestSmart #LongTermInvesting #FinancialLiteracy #StockMarketAnalysisread more
🥳 Back in July, I promised our US community that we'd be opening up an opportunity for you to invest in Blossom in the coming months, and exciting news: we're on track to go live in the next few days! ✅ This round will be open to US accredited investors via a Reg D offering. You qualify as accredited if you have a net worth of over $1M or have an income of >$200K in the past 2 years. 🙋 If you're interested in investing, make sure you join the waitlist (https://forms.gle/UavDoLXwx71nfvue8), as I'll be sending out the link to the waitlist first (since there is limited allocation). If we have space, we may open up a bit of allocation to Canadian accredited investors as well, so feel free to join the waitlist as well if you're interested. 🥲 Unfortunately, raising from US non-accredited investors was too complex and costly for this time around, but we'll be revisiting this next year if we raise again. ✨ A few investment highlights: - ✨ Our total members have ~8x'ed in the past 2 years from ~100,000 to over 850,000 - 💰 Our annualized revenue has ~doubled in the past year from $2.4M in Q2 2025 to $4.7M USD in Q2 2026 - 🤝 Partnerships with some of the largest brands in finance, including Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange, Fidelity, State Street, Global X, WisdomTree, and many more. - 💰 Blossom's revenue covers all operating costs except marketing, so the purpose of this additional raise is growth capital. 🫡 Full investment details will be sent via email! 👏 P.S. Huge thanks to our now 2,000 shareholders in the community! Big things in store for Q4 and 2027 🚀read more
Just came back from a day hike in Kananaskis County, Alberta.. beautiful views. Here’s a couple headlines throughout the day: - Trump says the US government might take ownership stakes in OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies. - $MU went from -4% —> +3% by close, what is deserved of course. - $FICO was up +12% today, -7% at close.. insane volatility. - $ON and $SYNA amended their merger to a $5.7B all cash deal at $123 per share read more
Most people who trade live in a gray zone. They buy a stock, it goes up, they feel smart. It goes down, they feel unlucky. Neither feeling tells them anything. They have no way to know whether the trade was good or they just got paid for being wrong. That's the problem I wrote my guide to fix. Trading Today is not a list of stocks to buy. It's the set of rules that have survived every market since 1929, written in plain English, with the sources so you can check me. Sixteen parts. Mindset first, then what to watch, then the four setups that keep working, and then the half of the book that matters most: how much to risk, where the stop goes, when to sit tight and when to walk away. A few of the rules inside: Anything can happen. One trade means nothing. One hundred tell you if your process works. The daily candles are noise. The weekly structure is the signal. Lose 10% and you need 11% to get back. Lose 50% and you need a double. That math is the entire case for small positions. Whatever size feels right, cut it in half. The right size is the one that still lets you think. Flat is a position. Cash is a strategy. Every mistake in part fourteen is one I've made. The difference now is that I catch them faster, and the guide is how. If you've ever closed a trade and not known whether to be proud or embarrassed, this is for you. Link in bio. Not investment advice 🐝 $MU , $NVDA , $META , $AMD , $QCOM , $INTC , $NKE , $AAPL , $XOM , $TSLA , $AVGO , $MSFTread more
Twenty-two days ago I wrote that people kept catching the $NKE dip and the dip kept catching them. I said I'd do nothing: no buying, no averaging, no shorting the falling knife. I'd watch the level that proves me wrong and leave it alone until it reclaimed something real. Here's the grade. It was near 36.6 then. It closed today at 33.3, down 8.9% in 22 days and at its lowest since 2013. Thursday it beat on earnings, missed on revenue, guided the year down, and fell 5% on three times its volume. All three of its momentum clocks point down tonight. The daily one crossed today. The read was right. But the read isn't the lesson. The lesson is that nobody could have called the bottom on $NKE at 40, at 38, at 36, and nobody can call it at 33. Not because the company is bad. Because the structure is broken, and a broken structure has no floor until it builds one. Every "it can't go lower" was a guess dressed up as analysis. Same chart, different name: $APP Ten months ago it printed 745. It closed this week at 279, down 10.1% in five days, 62% off that high. It sits below its 20, 50 and 100-week averages. It bounced to nearly 600 in June and that bounce failed and made a lower high. The weekly RSI is at 34, which means it isn't even oversold yet. Every leg down since December has had someone calling it cheap. When the structure is intact, I can work with pullbacks. I know where the floor is because the market built it. When the structure is broken, there is no floor, only the last price, and the last price keeps moving. That's why I don't guess the bottom. I wait for the market to show me it held. What that looks like: a reclaim of a level that matters, on volume, that survives a weekly close. $NKE's first one is 36.0. $APP would need to take back the 300s and hold them for more than a week. Until then, both stay where they've been: on the list I don't touch. Predicting the dip is impossible when the structure is gone. Reading it isn't. The difference is the whole trade. Not investment advice. Find more of my deep dives on my newsletter 🐝read more
On top of Blooms, we also just rolled out a massive overhaul to the Blossom feed algorithm. Me and @kartik (Blossom’s CTO) went live this morning to talk about it - here’s the link to the recap!!! 🥳 In the video we covered: - what was wrong with the old feed - what’s new and why this is a massive improvement - how to tune and customize your feed - how to stand out as a creator - Q&A https://www.youtube.com/live/I1MvkrhwDQI?si=VnaB8e4jcRg01J3Zread more
You could be … and not even realize it. After nearly 22 years as a DIY investor (I am OLD), I’ve noticed we spend WAY too much time worrying about things we CAN’T control. Which stock will outperform ($NVDA) . Which sector will take off next ($XLE) . What the market is going to do tomorrow ($VFV/$VOO ). What our return will be…. Meanwhile, we sometimes overlook the things we actually CAN control. And some of these mistakes can get REALLY expensive over time. Expensive enough that they cost you your retirement timeline! I see them constantly on Blossom and Youtube. One of them in particular makes me want to SCREAAAM “NOOOOO… THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS!!!!!!” So I put together a video breaking down 5 common investing mistakes that could be quietly hurting your returns …… and what you CAN actually do about each one of them. Eliminating one of them could increase your returns by 71% over 30 years 😏 After all, investing isn't about making the perfect decision every time. Usually, it's just about making FEWER bad ones. https://youtu.be/gl4EWVamBUgread more
@beskar_capital is the real deal. @beskarcapital is imposter #1 @beskar_capitar is imposter #2 @beskal_capitals is imposter #3 @beskals_capitar is imposter #4 and @beskar is probably imposter #5 😂 What can I say? 😂 This is the Way! 🏄♀️ 🌊 🏄♂️ 🌊 read 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
This is a VERY big coincidence… or is it? My FIRST ever purchase of $ZETA shares was at $16.56 back in June of 2025 434 shares and 1.25 years later, and my average cost basis across ALL accounts is $16.56 This is kinda ridiculous and a massive coincidence, but I think the stars are aligning with this one 😂
