September 13, 2026
Dividend Investing vs. Total Return: Is One Actually Better?
The theory says a dividend is just you paying yourself with your own money, relabeled. That argument is stronger than most dividend-focused sites want to admit. Here it is, argued honestly — and here's what it still misses.
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September 08, 2026
What to Do When a Fund You Own Cuts Its Distribution
The worst part of a cut is that the market has already reacted by the time you read about it. Both obvious moves are wrong for the same reason — here's the question that actually decides it.
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September 06, 2026
How to Read a Fund Fact Sheet Without Being Fooled
Every number on a fact sheet is true. That's what makes it effective. The skill isn't catching lies — it's knowing which truths were selected, and what got left off the page entirely.
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September 04, 2026
ZWB vs ZEB: The Same Six Banks, With and Without the Machine
Two BMO funds, the same six banks, one variable. It's the cleanest experiment in Canadian income investing — and it puts a precise number on what a covered-call overlay actually costs.
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September 03, 2026
Monthly vs Quarterly Dividends: Does Payment Frequency Actually Matter?
Twelve cheques a year feels like more than four. It isn't — the math is worth basis points. But the preference for monthly is quietly one of the most expensive filters in Canadian income investing, and almost nobody notices they've applied it.
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September 01, 2026
Start Here: A Reader's Map to Everything We've Written
The library got big enough to need a map. Here's every question we've answered so far, arranged the way people actually arrive at them — start wherever your money currently is.
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August 31, 2026
How Much Do You Need Invested for $1,000 a Month in Dividends?
One division answers the question: $100K at 12%, or $400K at 3%. The entire game is hiding inside which of those yields still exists in five years — and that part, the calculators skip.
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August 30, 2026
What Happens to Your Dividends in a Recession?
Recessions don't treat dividends equally. Some payouts sail through untouched, some get frozen, and some disappear by press release. The sorting isn't random — and you can read your portfolio's likely fate in advance.
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August 29, 2026
How Much Debt Is Too Much for a REIT?
A REIT with zero debt would be doing it wrong. A REIT with too much just cut your distribution. The line between those two lives in three published numbers, and almost nobody checks the third one.
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August 28, 2026
Is Enbridge's Dividend Safe? The Two Payout Ratios Tell Different Stories
Run Enbridge through a screener and it's paying out far more than it earns. Read management's numbers and the dividend is comfortably covered. Both are computed correctly. Only one is about the question you're asking.
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August 23, 2026
US Withholding Tax for Canadians: TFSA vs RRSP vs Taxable
The same US dividend can arrive whole, docked 15%, or docked and refunded, depending entirely on which account holds it. Most Canadians have this exactly backwards — and ETF wrappers make it worse.
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August 22, 2026
Are Canadian Bank Dividends Actually Safe?
Canadian bank dividends have survived a depression's worth of stress tests without a single cut in eighty years. That record is structural, not lucky — which is exactly why it's worth understanding what would actually have to break.
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August 20, 2026
What a Dividend Streak Actually Tells You (Fortis Has One. Allied Had One Too.)
The dividend streak is the most trusted credential in income investing, and the most misread. Two Canadian names with admired streaks just wrote opposite endings. The difference was never in the streak.
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August 19, 2026
Why Fortis Fails Every Stock Screener (And Why the Screeners Are Wrong)
Run Fortis through a standard dividend-safety screen and it fails — negative free cash flow, heavy debt, a payout that looks unaffordable. The company has raised its dividend every year for half a century. One of these two is measuring wrong.
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August 18, 2026
VDY vs HDIV: Earned Income vs Manufactured Income, Head to Head
One fund passes through bank dividends and charges almost nothing. The other runs leverage on a stack of covered-call ETFs and pays triple the yield. The past year graded both. The result wasn't close.
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August 17, 2026
Do Covered-Call ETFs Protect You in a Crash?
Downside protection is the phrase that sells more covered-call units than any yield number. It's also the claim the structure is least able to keep. Here's what actually happens on the way down — and, worse, on the way back up.
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August 16, 2026
Are Covered-Call ETFs Worth It? An Honest Answer
Not a yes, not a no. Covered-call ETFs are a legitimate product that most of the people buying them shouldn't own. The difference comes down to three questions about you, not the fund.
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August 15, 2026
Why Every REIT's Payout Ratio Looks Insane (And How to Read It Properly)
Punch any Canadian REIT into a screener and the payout ratio comes back looking like a typo. It isn't a typo. It's the wrong denominator — and the right one changes everything.
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August 13, 2026
Allied Properties After the 60% Cut: Is the Distribution Finally Safe?
Four months before the cut, management was "very comfortable" with the payout. Then the payout dropped 60%. Here's the anatomy of the cut — and the honest answer on whether the new one holds.
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August 10, 2026
VDY vs XEI vs ZDV vs CDZ: Four Ways to Own Canadian Dividends
Four ETFs, one label, four completely different selection machines. The fund you pick matters less than the rule it uses to pick stocks — so here are the four rules, in plain English.
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August 07, 2026
One Scale for VDY and a 13% Covered-Call Fund
A plain dividend ETF and a covered-call fund look like they're playing the same game. They aren't — but you can still score them on one scale, and you should, especially before you own both.
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August 04, 2026
What Your Income Actually Costs: MER Divided by Yield
Everyone compares fees. Almost nobody compares fees to the income those fees are supposed to be buying — and that ratio is where the real differences show up.
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August 02, 2026
How to Spot a Yield Trap Before It Cuts
Nobody buys a yield trap on purpose. They buy a great yield, and find out later what was holding it up. Here are the five signs that tell you in advance.
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July 31, 2026
How Covered-Call ETFs Actually Work (And the Myths That Sell Them)
A 12% yield on bank stocks sounds like a cheat code. It isn't — it's a trade. Here's exactly what you're giving up to get it, in plain English.
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July 27, 2026
HPYT Review 2026: What Happens When an 18% Yield Cuts Four Times
Harvest's Premium Yield Treasury ETF has cut its distribution four times since mid-2025, a 60% reduction. We originally scored it 80/100. It now scores 52 — and the reason we changed our minds is the most useful part of this post.
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July 24, 2026
Return of Capital: When That High Yield Is Just Your Own Money Coming Back
A 12% yield sounds great — until you learn part of it might just be your own money handed back to you. Here's how return of capital really works, why it isn't always bad, and the one test that separates sustainable income from slow self-liquidation.
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July 24, 2026
HCAL ETF Review 2026: Big Returns, Bigger Fees — What the Numbers Actually Say
HCAL returned more than 80% in the past year and beat its benchmark decisively. Our scoring engine still rates it HOLD. Here's the full breakdown — including the one number most reviews never mention.
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