BAC

Dividend reinvestment plans (or DRIPs) are plans offered by some companies that let shareholders receive additional shares in lieu of cash dividends.

DRIPs can be a good way to slowly build wealth over a long period, for a number of reasons. First, they eliminate the nuisance of receiving small cash dividend payments. Second, some of them let you reinvest your …read more »

You hear a lot of comparisons these days between the current market downturn and the 1929 stock market crash. That’s mainly due to a lack of comparables. The recent market downturn is the worst since World War II. However, nothing since then has come close to the crash that lasted into the 1930s.

When investors ask how bad it can get, …read more »

Bond funds are mutual funds that specifically invest in different government and corporate bond offerings.

Many bond funds posted strong results in the past, with yields of 6%, 8% or 10% over five or 10 years. This, though, was a function of the trend in interest rates; at the start of those periods, the funds were buying bonds with …read more »

Tax-loss selling (or tax-loss harvesting) occurs when you deliberately sell a security at a loss in order to offset capital gains in Canada. You can then use these losses to offset your taxable capital gains.

For example, the 2008 deadline for tax-loss selling on the Toronto Stock Exchange was December 24, 2008. If you sold at a loss on or before …read more »

Registered education savings plans (RESPs) are one of the best ways to save for a child’s post-secondary education. RESPs are a government-assisted form of savings, similar to registered retirement savings plans (RRSPs).

How RESPs work
There are no annual limits for contributions to RESPs. However, RESPs have a lifetime limit (from birth to age 17) per child of $50,000. Only the first …read more »

Now more than ever we think you need to invest in only the highest-quality mutual funds. Here are some keys to building a sound portfolio with these mutual funds.

Diversify. Spread your portfolio out over several funds that practice a variety of investing styles. Vary your exposure to each style to reflect your individual financial circumstances, temperament and goals.

Invest in just …read more »

When stock prices go down as much as they have lately, it generally means the stock market offers some highly attractive buying opportunities. But many investors now wonder if we are headed for a period of years of weak stock markets.

In fact, we’ve already gone through more than a decade of unsettled stock markets. Stock prices have dropped more than …read more »

3M COMPANY $47 (New York symbol MMM) has temporarily stopped buying back its shares in order to conserve cash. However, 3M raised its quarterly dividend by 2%, to $0.51 a share from $0.50. The new annual rate of $2.04 yields 4.3%. 3M has increased its dividend each year for the past 51 years. Buy.

T. ROWE PRICE GROUP INC. $24 (NASDAQ …read more »

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO. $46 (New York symbol SHW; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 116.9 million; Market cap: $5.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; WSSF Rating: Above Average) is North America’s largest paint producer. It also operates over 3,300 retail paint stores, which supply 60% of its sales.

In 2008, Sherwin’s sales fell 0.3%, to $7.98 billion from $8.01 billion in the …read more »

The bleak outlook for the U.S. housing industry continues to weigh on Sherwin-Williams and La-Z-Boy. Their cost-control plans and industry-leading brands should help them cope, but both will probably make little progress in the next few months.

SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO. $46 (New York symbol SHW; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 116.9 million; Market cap: $5.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; WSSF …read more »