Safe Dividend Investing
In 2000, I lost $300,000 in mutual funds that an investment advisor had put my lifesavings into.... I lost it because I had entrusted it to an industry that does not educate investors nor encourage them to look closely at what that industry is doing with their money..... I set out to find a better, safer way to invest..... My podcasts relate to what I learned in creating a generous, reliable income and in growing my wealth.... A few of the more important lessons I learned and explore are:.... (1) It is critical that you become a self-directed investor.....(2) If you can not easily measure the risk and potential in an investment, then do not invest in it. This excludes from your portfolio bundled investment devices, like mutual funds, ETFs and Index funds,..... (3) Financially strong companies who have paid “good dividends” for decades will continue to stay strong and continue to pay good dividends because it is both part of their "character" and in their executives selfish interest.....(4) Diversification is critical. Investing equally in the best 20 strong dividend stocks is the ideal.....A portfolio of 20 limits your risk in any one stock to 5% of your wealth..... No matter how strong you think a stock is, do not fall in love with it..... I have lived very well off my steady dividend income for 18 years, through two market crashes and one pandemic. I have watched my portfolio’s capital more than triple from where I started, despite taking out a generous dividend income every year to live on... In charts, for my second investment book,(Safer Better Dividend Investing), I spent months scoring all 628 dividend stocks paying dividends of 6% or greater traded on the TSX, NYSE and the NASDAQ. I discovered dozens of stocks that can provide not only a generous dividend income but outstanding capital growth.....Financial independence is realizable for careful, patient, dividend investors.
Safe Dividend Investing
Podcast 256 - WOULD A STOCK WITH A 20% DIVIDEND YIELD BE SAFE?
Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 256, on January 3rd of 2026. Happy New Year!
My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald, and I am an author of six investment books. Today my seventh investment book, Achieving Financial Independence Safely - 200 NYSE Stocks Analyzed and Scored" became available on Amazon. You can easily find it by searching in Amazon or Google for "Ian Duncan MacDonald books". It is my only book in the display with a green cover. Until February 10th, it is available at a discounted price.
In 2025 the book required hundreds of hours of my time. It feels good to now have the freedom to investigate investment questions I have wondered about. For example, how many U.S. stocks pay dividend yields over 20% and would I consider adding any of them to my portfolio?
My research identified 27 stocks out of thousands traded in the USA who pay a dividend over 20%. One paid an incredible 400% dividend. I also immediately identified one that appears in my latest book. It is one that I might have consider for my portfolio. In this week's analysis of these two stocks may get some insights in the consideration of high dividend stocks.
My books are not get-rich-quick books. They are about taking a little time to carefully seek out financially strong companies with long histories of paying ever rising high dividends accompanied by rising share prices. Diversification, persistence and patience win out in investing. The objective is achieving financial independence for the rest of your life.
Please, visit my website www.informus.ca if you wish to learn more about me and my writing.
Ian Duncan MacDonald
Ian Duncan MacDonald
Author and Commercial Risk Consultant,
President of Informus Inc
2 Vista Humber Drive
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M9P 3R7
Toronto Telephone - 416-245-4994
New York Telephone - 929-800-2397
imacd@informus.ca