Last week we took a glance at the big 5 Canadian banks and their current divined yields, so I figured that I would continue on this and take a look at our top 4 financial services / insurance companies. Yesterday we had a little bit of a rally in the Canadian markets, due to some strength in resource stocks, but unfortunately the bear decided to prove its strength and took hold of todays momentum once again. Just like last week I thought I'd take two metrics into consideration for todays chart. The first and most important one, is the Dividend Yield and the second is the Payout Ratio which I feel is a good indication if future dividend increases are feasible.

Well, the markets are going crazy right now, and personally I don't think this volatility is going to end in the near future. There are a lot of stocks that are selling at a deep discount right now. And some of these stocks are the big banks here in Canada. Even though the price of crude oil hit $75 today, and the Canadian dollar has done a swan dive, the Banks here in Canada haven't taken as big a hit as I expected. This could be because a recent report said that Canada's banks are the most 'sound' in the world. In any case, I figured it might be a good time to take a quick glance at the big 5 Canadian banks and see what their current dividend yields are sitting at. I thought I'd take two metrics into consideration in todays chart.

I know in volatile markets like these it is easy to look at our portfolios and start freaking out. No one blames you if you do, because yes, its your hard earned money that has all of a sudden disappeared from your account, its your savings for retirement and all your other monetary hopes and dreams. But as a dividend investor, you need to take a stoic stance and remember that this is the very reason you got into dividend based investing. We all know that the markets are going to travel all directions, but as dividend investors we, for the most part, don't care about that. We are in it for the passive income that is generated from dividend payments. As long as the dividend payments are not in jeopardy, who cares what the stock price is. In fact, major drops in prices like this should be counted as a blessing, because now you can buy MORE shares of great dividend based stocks for the same amount of money, and this means that you can collect MORE dividends for the long run.

I have recently introduced a friend of mine from work to the world of dividend based investing, and by the sound of it, he is pretty excited about the idea of living off of a constant stream of passive income. I accomplished this 'conversion' by first lending him the book,

Today I want to outline an interesting investing strategy that I have been playing with in the back of my mind for quite some time now. As many of our readers know, I am a strong advocate of the Dividend Based Investment style, but at the same time I love the use of technical analysis and short term trades because they play to my more adventurous and risk taking side. I like to keep my portfolio around 80-90% invested in quality dividend based stocks (with some bond exposure mixed in for obvious reasons), the last 10-20% of my portfolio I like to call my 'play money' and I use it for short term trades and to keep things active and interesting.

The Bullish Dividends portion of this site is very proud to have been accepted as an Associate Member of the new investing network The DIV-Net, which focuses on dividend investing, value investing and a long-term buy and hold philosophy. The authors of The DIV-Net want this network to be the premier destination for readers interested in a variety of investing insight, stock analysis and perspectives that might otherwise be found fragmented across the web.

There are a few key components that will make or break your long term success in a dividend based approach. We have covered how to find solid dividend stocks as well as a few ways to help see if they are good investments. But the one I want to talk about today is usually overlooked by short sighted investors. It’s the act of reinvesting all of the dividends you receive from your investments.