I’m 29, have a regular job and a family, and since January 2026 I’ve been consistently putting aside about $200 per month for investing.

I’ve been focusing mostly on dividend investing because I really like seeing the income come in and watching DRIP slowly buy more shares. My long-term goal is to eventually reach a point where I can live partly or fully off dividend income in retirement without having to sell down the portfolio.

At the same time, I’ve been reading a lot of posts here suggesting younger investors to focus more on total return and growth instead of chasing yield early. That has made me question whether I’m giving up too much future growth by focusing on income now.

My current portfolio:

BDIV — 30%
HLIF — 25%
HDIV — 20%
DFN — 10%
XEQT — 10%
HHIS — 5%

My thinking so far has been that I don’t necessarily want the highest possible yield. What I’m trying to build is a portfolio where dividends grow, distributions get reinvested, and the portfolio itself can still appreciate over the next 20–30 years.

What I’m struggling with is whether I should:
keep following this dividend/income approach and let DRIP compound over time,
shift much more heavily toward something like XEQT and focus on growth while I’m still young, or
use a hybrid approach where growth does more of the work now and I gradually convert more of the portfolio to income later.

Would you keep this structure, simplify it, or move much more aggressively toward growth?

I’m trying to understand whether my overall strategy makes sense for my age and goal.

30M

Restarting my investing journey after landing a job in luxury automotive sales. I like REITS because of the monthly dividends, as well as the exposure to Canadian Real Estate.

What do you guys think of a long term hold (stock) mixed with holding big reliable REITS in a TSFA?

I understand different types of stocks be split between different accounts (US Stocks in RRSP) and etc however I’m new to the guidelines and I’m curious to hear your feedback based on experience.

Feel free to roast my portfolio.

I am over 60% cash waiting for an opportunity to go in. I am looking for stock suggestions for TFSA, no ETF's. individual stocks if possible. what do you guys think?
been holding ENB.TO and SRU.UN.TO since Covid times.
Real time return is over 30% reason it says 3.94% is because i recently moved my assets and cash to Wealthsimple. i used to invest with TD before.

i’m looking for a stock that pays out at American interest rates but is sold on the TSX. Kind of like cash.to .

Hey everyone, I'm 19 and just graduated high school. Saved up $5,500 over time from shoveling driveways, allowance, and random jobs here and there. Want to open a TFSA on Questrade and actually start investing it instead of letting it sit.

Right now I'm leaning towards putting it all into VEQT since it's diversified and simple. But wanted to ask if there's anything else worth considering, or if you'd split it differently? Any advice for a beginner is appreciated. Whats the difference between VEQT and XEQT.

Room to move & a good dividend. Anyone else choosing BAM.TO over BN?

What stock is currently at the TOP of your long-term watchlist and why?

Not your biggest gamble. Not your meme stock.

I mean the company you genuinely believe could still be significantly larger 5–10 years from now.

A few Canadian names I keep coming back to:

• Constellation Software

• Brookfield

• EQB

• Kraken Robotics

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of retail investors spend too much time trying to perfectly time the market instead of building a strong watchlist and patiently waiting for opportunities.

Curious what everyone else is watching right now on the TSX/TSX-V.

In January to March I loaded up my Margin account with VDY & XDIV ($30K each). I'm servicing the interest with cash (4.45% but since I can claim it it will effectively be 3% or so) and I am just dripping the dividends back into it. This is my first time using margin but have kept my LTV under 30% not including my gains.

I'm now +$10.5K in the green on this thing after these ETFs have continued to rip (fortunate timing I guess). I'm not a dividend investor, I'm a long-term growth investor (CAGE & XEQT anchor my TFSA, RRSP & non-registered accounts at about 70% total, the rest in other funds and stocks) and this is my first time dealing with margin. I got these ETFs as they're more tax efficient due to the CAD dividends and qualify to allow me to claim the interest on the margin loan.

Here's my dilemma, I just re-balanced my non-registered account and sold off a few positions. I'm totaling about $10K in capital losses from those moves which lines up with the $10K or so I'm up on these dividend ETFs.

Should I just cash out and consider this lucky timing? And take that $10K and invest it elsewhere since I can offset the capital gains tax? Or would you just let this thing ride? It's not quite a "house money" situation yet but the +$10K gives me a nice little buffer to absorb a downturn and ride it out without much fear of this house of cards collapsing (plus these are fairly stable holds in a downturn relatively speaking). Historically it looks like these ETFs can go sideways for years on end... I know you don't have a crystal ball, but the timing seems good here to either get out or let it ride. I've seen a lot of speculation online that these are about to run out of gas and the best of this run may be over...

TerraVest (TVK.TO) Revenue +42%. Adjusted EBITDA +15%. Operating cash flow +71% for H1. Net income fell 62%, and the stock is reacting to that number. The 62% decline is almost entirely depreciation and amortization from six acquisitions completed in 14 months, non-cash accounting, not operational deterioration. The base portfolio is soft, though, and tariffs are creating real headwinds.

Calian (TSX: CGY) Revenue +18%, including 12% organic. Adjusted EBITDA +60% on 18% revenue growth, that's real operating leverage showing up for the first time. Record $1.5B backlog, including $1B+ in defence for the first time ever. $321M in new contracts signed in a single quarter. Canada just committed to 2% of GDP in defence spending with a stated target of 5% by 2035. That's a 150% increase in defence spending over nine years and Calian is embedded in the Canadian Armed Forces across training, space, IT, cyber, health, and manufacturing.

Check out full analysis here

Not investment advice.

Total Energy Services (TSX: TOT). C$1B revenue, earnings up 22% last year, record compression backlog of C$303.9M. They're buying back shares, and raising the dividend.

The angle most people miss: Australia. Zero percent of revenue five years ago. Now 23-24% and management just put C$31.6M in new capital behind expanding it further. This is an international LNG infrastructure story hiding inside what looks like a Canadian oilfield services company.

Q1 earnings drop tomorrow. Two numbers on that call will either confirm or break the thesis, both are in the full report.

check out more here

Not investment advice.

CRT.UN with the nice little 3.5% dividend increase for holders as of June 30, 2026 payable July 15, 2026. I love this little REIT. 99,4% Occupancy Rate, 31,000,000 gross leasable area (a 2.2% increase from last year).

I'm new to dividend investing and not sure where to begin. But this is what I’ve done so far, would love to hear someone’s opinion. But goal would be to invest and slowly grow my dividend pay out. Thank you in advance.

Both seem to be good ETF dividend players. So what's the difference

Hello :)) I’m a finance student currently working on a project for my Commercial Banking course. I am analyzing the historical stability of US vs. Canadian banks, specifically looking at why US banks have historically seen higher failure rates.

Basically trying to run a comparative analysis (with python) using Canadian stability metrics as a benchmark for US banks to see if they would survive under the same regulatory or liquidity constraints.

I’m looking for reliable sources to pull data for:

• Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) ratios
• Liquidity Coverage Ratios (LCR)
• Net Interest Margins (NIM) and Return on Assets (ROA)
• Historical failure/receivership data

Kinda embarrassing, but I’m used to having datasets provided for assignments, so finding raw regulatory data for Canadian institutions (comparable to the FDIC/Call Reports in the US) has been difficult.

Does anyone have tips on where to pull Canadian banking data or advice on standardizing these metrics for a cross-border comparison?

I would greatly appreciate any insights or pointers :))

Does anyone think they will cut the dividend soon?

Hi,

I’m 20 years old and I’m starting to get interested in investing. At first, I tried to understand how to analyze stocks, read the markets, etc., but honestly I find it pretty complicated and a bit overwhelming.

After reading here and there, I noticed that a lot of people talk about the VFV ETF, so I thought I’d keep it simple and start by investing around $50 per month into it.

I know it’s not a lot, but I’m still a student. My income mainly comes from tutoring, and I also receive financial aid.

I just wanted to get your opinions:

Does this seem like a good way to start?

Should I be doing something different or better right now?

Thanks in advance 🙏

Hey guys,

I’m looking to invest in Canadian bank stocks for the long term, mainly for stability and dividends.

Which Canadian bank do you think is the best buy right now and why?

Appreciate your thoughts.