This is for all my people who invest primarily in ETFs: What’s your argument for maintaining allocations to ETFs like AVUV or VXUS when VOO / U.S. large-cap has continued to outperform? I understand the traditional argument for diversification: small-cap value has historically offered a risk premium, international stocks diversify away from the U.S., and different asset classes/factors can outperform during different market regimes. But at what point does diversification become over-diversification or simply holding onto historically supported theories that aren’t currently working? VOO gives you exposure to some of the strongest and most profitable companies in the world, and U.S. large-cap has dominated international equities and many factor strategies for a long period of time. If the companies driving the S&P 500 continue to grow earnings, innovate, and capture an increasing share of the global economy, why dilute that exposure? On the other hand, is that exactly when you shouldn’t abandon diversification? For those holding AVUV, VXUS, or other factor/diversification ETFs alongside VOO: * Are you holding them because you genuinely expect them to outperform VOO over the long run? * Or is the primary argument that they protect you if U.S. large-cap eventually underperforms? * How much of your portfolio are you willing to allocate to an underperforming factor before you admit the thesis isn’t working? * Do you think current U.S. large-cap valuations justify diversifying elsewhere? * And most importantly: if you were starting your portfolio from scratch today with a 20+ year horizon, would you still choose VOO + AVUV + VXUS, or would you simply go 100% VOO? I’m especially interested in arguments against VOO-only. I’m not looking for “diversification is good” as a blanket answer — I’d like to hear the actual thesis for why these additional exposures are worth sacrificing some VOO exposure for.read more
$NKE earnings Nike reported fiscal Q1 revenue of $11.21B, down 4% year over year, and EPS of $0.48 versus $0.49 a year ago. Gross margin improved to 42.8%, but Greater China sales fell 22%. Yet there is still people telling you it’s undervalued. Don’t buy the falling knife
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
People can say what they want, but every investor wants a better life and some sort of luxury. People can make judgemental statements about what someone else buy but people don't start investing to keep the same lifestyle especially if they have a crappy lifestyle. Investors put money to work so they have more freedom, security and the ability to enjoy a higher standard of living
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
We hit 100 followers on Blossom! 🌱 It might just look like a number, but honestly, it means a lot to me. I started Dividend North to share my real investing journey — the wins/loses, the mistakes, the dividends, the options trades (still learning), and everything I’m learning along the way. Seeing 100 people choose to follow that journey is pretty awesome. A big THANK YOU to everyone who has followed, liked, commented, or shared an idea with me. I genuinely enjoy the conversations we’re building here. Still early. Still learning. Still investing. Next stop… 200. 🚀read 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
October is here. Or should I say.. UPtober Nazzy nearly +1.5% overnight. Kinda obvious that the market won’t sleep on $MU earnings for long. BUCKLE UP BOY! I should go to sleep.read more
A taste of luxury and suddenly I understand corruption Have you seen those reels with that caption? those videos are what came to my mind this morning.... getting a little taste of luxury really makes you think about how nice it would be to have the financial freedom to make things like this a normal part of your life. I had a physio and massage appointment to treat an old injury that’s been aggravated by my new work commute. I was even told I fell asleep and snored 😭😭 While I was lying there, I started doing the math: How much would it cost to do this every week? My work benefits cover healthcare expenses, but obviously there’s a limit. But imagine not being restricted by these limits and genuinely being able to take care of yourself frequently with these kinds of treatments, that's a luxury I want. Not just because I felt better physically, but mentally too. Today actually made me a little sad. I’m working so hard to build a life where I have more freedom, while also realizing how much work it takes just to keep yourself healthy and functioning. I can’t wait to get to a point where I can spoil myself, my family and my friends a little more. Where taking care of ourselves doesn’t require so much financial calculation. Today was a reminder of why we all work so hard! Is there an unexpected reason you realized why investing is important? Take care of yourself, your family and the people you love. Have a good weekend ❤️ read more
As I'm sure many of you know, Blossom added a new AI detector. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on AI and how I use it to help me create my Blossom posts and other content. If you haven't noticed already, the vast majority of my posts are written using AI. If that bothers you, no worries, you don't need to read my content. Here's how I use AI to help me create my posts: When I find a topic in my QAFP studies or have an idea I think is worth sharing, I talk through it into Wispr Flow for a few minutes. It always starts with an idea or an opinion that I have, and then I talk through that opinion or the new concept that I just learned. After that, I usually get an LLM to make my thoughts more understandable and clear while still trying to preserve all of the ideas and opinions that I have. I have no issue using AI this way because the topic, perspective and responsibility are still mine. It helps me turn a few minutes of rambling into something easier to read. I do see an issue with a large number of AI posts on Blossom and other social media platforms. For example, whenever I see em dashes and glaring AI-isms, I automatically discount the content that I read in those posts. The posts I discount are the ones where it feels like the person contributed almost nothing. The repeated phrases and perfectly balanced sentences are easy to spot, but the bigger problem is that the person did not bring a point of view of their own. AI can make a weak idea sound polished without making it worth reading. I am responsible for every claim I publish, whether AI helped arrange the words or not, and that responsibility matters far more to me than a detector score. How do you feel about AI-assisted posts?read more
Mercado Libre ($MELI) is projected to have $62.24 billion in revenue for FY 2028. Assuming we see margin expansion back to 8% (up from 5.5%) and a 35x P/E multiple we could get a very easy double of the stock price. This assume a MASSIVE slowdown in revenue down to a 25.6% CAGR down from the 50% reported last quarter. I continue to buy Meli at these levels.
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
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
Since common inception, HYLD leads the U.S. equity income peer group with a +23.50% cumulative total return, followed by USCL (+21.48%), HHIS (+15.78%), SDAY (+15.77%), while BIGY (-9.96%) remains negative. The spread continues to show how leverage, overwrite levels, and portfolio construction can create very different outcomes across strategies targeting similar U.S. equity-income exposure. Over shorter periods, leadership has rotated. Over the last 6 months, HHIS (+34.00%) leads, followed by HYLD (+26.60%), USCL (+21.52%), BIGY (+14.75%), and SDAY (+9.42%). Over 3 months, BIGY (+12.20%) and HHIS (+11.39%) have led, while over the last 1 month, HHIS (+9.89%) leads, followed by BIGY (+7.98%), USCL (+5.17%), HYLD (+3.16%), and SDAY (-0.67%).
Pepsico has fell tremendously in the last 6 months almost 20%. Even though revenue in the past quarter climbed 6.4% revenues from the 4th quarter of 2025 are still down over 20%. As, interest rates climbed recently that makes less space for consumers to spend on snacks and drinks. Another thing is that even though revenue grew 6.4% the stock collapsed so much because as prices go up and the economy isn't very healthy people will start cutting out these types of snacks. Another factor is, that oil prices have climbed through the roof with the Hormuz closing prices for these snacks have also climbed through the roof. Although all this is happening, i'm buying in at this point because it's dirt cheap right now. Yes, i know the dividends aren't the most sustainable they can still afford it. Another reason I'm buying is because they are expanding their portfolio in healthy snacks as they reformulated gatorade, bought poppi, released protein doritos and i really believe in this shift. And, they have been raising their dividends for 54 years in a row making it a dividend king. Lmk your opinion on PepsiCo in the comments!
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
As the 3rd quarter comes to a close, its good to see portfolio beating the market handily. Yes, I could have had higher returns by having more concentration in tech sector but as I said in one of my earlier posts, I am a value/contrarian investor and as long as am beating the market, am happy !! And when you have so many holdings in portfolio (yes I know I have one too many, but I am still consolidating and adding new positions), it is bound there will be big winners and equally big losers. There are lots of macroeconomic headwinds swirling around right now. Throw in mid-term elections and its certainly going to be an interesting 4th quarter !! Good luck evryone and keep investing !! ✌️✌️ $MSFT$AMZN$NVDA$AMD$META$MU$AVGO read more
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
I see many beginners posting that they’re new to investing and don’t know where to start. 🤔 As someone who was in a similar situation just a few months ago and learned, here are the 4 ETF types (& ETFs) that are popular among long term investors 😃 : 1) S&P 500: US: $VOO / $SPY / $SPLG Canadian: $VFV / $ZSP / $TPU 2) GROWTH / TECH: US: $QQQ / $VUG / $VGT / $SCHG Canadian: $QQC / $HXQ / $TEC / $ZUQ 3) DIVIDENDS: US: $SCHD / $VYM / $DGRO Canadian: $VDY / $XEI 4) ALL IN ONE / BASKET / Global Exposure: US: $VT / $AVGE Canadian: $ZEQT / $XEQT / $TGRO / $VEQT / $ZGQ I noticed many people following this type of a basic / uncomplicated portfolio and are doing really well for themselves 🔥 For % allocation, you can divide evenly among the ETF categories or allocate a higher % based on your preferences. Just DCA regularly and you should be good. 😎 Some people even just put it all into an all in one etf like $XEQT. This is also a good approach - it is much simpler and it works. Ultimately, it comes to whatever you prefer 🙂 Oh and yea, there are overlaps, but I don’t think there is anything wrong in that though - it would just count as doubling down on good things. 💯 I’m sharing with you all what helped me, but don’t forget to do your own research too! 🙏🏼 read more
You could be … and not even realize it. After nearly 22 years as a DIY investor (I am OLD), I’ve noticed we spend WAY too much time worrying about things we CAN’T control. Which stock will outperform ($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
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
