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BELL ALIANT INC. $26.70 (Toronto symbol BA: Shares outstanding: 127.4 million; Market cap: $3.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Yield: 10.9%; www.aliant.ca) is the new name of Bell Aliant Regional Income Fund after its conversion to a dividend-paying corporation on January 1, 2011. Bell Aliant has over 3.1 million telephone customers in Atlantic Canada and rural parts of Ontario and Quebec. BCE owns 44.1% of Bell Aliant. The conversion forces Bell Aliant to pay income taxes. In response, the company will change the rate and frequency of its payout. Starting in March 2011, it will switch to quarterly dividends of $0.475 a share. The new annual rate of $1.90 (down from $2.90) will yield 7.1%, based on today’s price....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing, including tax shelters. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental piece of investment strategy, and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “These 3 powerful strategies will help you make the most of your RRSP tax shelters” Registered Retirement Savings Plans, or RRSPs, are the best-known and most widely used tax shelters in Canada....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “2 risks of following a sector rotation investment strategy” Some investors follow a “sector rotation” approach to investing. That’s when you try to hop from sector to sector, underweighting or overweighting your holdings in certain sectors of the stock market depending on a forecast of the stage of the economic cycle, or other factors....

Every industry and group has its own special jargon. This specialized language always has the same purposes. It simplifies communications within the industry, and helps make insiders feel they are part of a tightly knit community. It also helps the group pursue its goals. It does that by shaping concepts so that they facilitate lines of thought and discussions that match the industry’s view of the world. This natural human tendency has probably been going on ever since language began. You may recall George Orwell’s classic Cold War novel, 1984. In the book, the totalitarian government that rules the English-speaking world has decided to replace English with an invented language called Newspeak. This new language uses lots of English words, but it defines concepts in such a way that forbidden ideas are clumsy, if not impossible, to express....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on successful investing, including retirement planning. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “Retirement planning calls for realistic calculations.” Suppose you’re 50 and want to retire at 65. You have $200,000 in your RRSP, and expect to add $15,000 yearly for the next 15 years. To determine if this is enough to retire on, you need to make assumptions about investment returns and income needs....

Every Wednesday, we publish our “Investor Toolkit” series on TSI Network. Whether you’re a new or experienced investor, these weekly updates are designed to give you specific advice on making successful stock market investments. Each Investor Toolkit update gives you a fundamental tip and shows you how you can put it into practice right away. Tip of the week: “In the long run, share buybacks can complement your dividend profits.” Stock market investments have two main ways to distribute their profits to shareholders. They can pay dividends, or they can buy back their own shares. Both dividends and buybacks pay off for investors. Here are 3 reasons why:...

CHEMTRADE LOGISTICS INCOME FUND $14.04 (Toronto symbol CHE.UN; SI Rating: Speculative) (416-496-5856; www.chemtradelogistics.com; Units outstanding: 30.7 million; Market cap: $431.0 million; Dividend yield: 8.5%) is one of North America’s largest suppliers of sulphuric acid, sulphur, liquid sulphur dioxide and sodium hydrosulphite. It also supplies sodium chlorate, phosphorous pentasulphide and zinc oxide. In addition to selling chemicals, Chemtrade processes spent acid. Chemtrade has three divisions: The Sulphur Products and Performance Chemicals division supplies about 59% of the fund’s revenue. Pulp Chemicals accounts for 10% of revenue, and the International division supplies the remaining 31%. This division removes and markets sulphur and sulphuric acid outside of North America.

Environmental market is secure

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Recently, we heard from an investor who inquired about our Successful Investor Wealth Management service. She said she likes our approach to investing, but she admits to some concern about what she called our “all-equities philosophy.” Her broker says that all investors need to hold some bonds to reduce the volatility in their portfolios.

Our view on stocks and bonds is a reaction to the times

“Philosophy” is the wrong word for it. Our view on bonds and other fixed-return investments is a reaction to today’s economic and investment situation. Up till the mid-1990s, in fact, we routinely advised that fixed-return investments, such as bonds, should make up anywhere from one-third to two-thirds of a conservative investor’s portfolio.

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If you want to buy gold, we recommend staying away from buying gold bullion, coins (unless you collect them as a hobby) or certificates representing an interest in bullion. That’s because commodity investments such as gold bullion do not generate income. Instead, they come with a continuing cash drain for management, insurance, storage and so on. You either pay these costs directly or through a premium built into the price of, say, a futures contract. That’s why we recommend that you invest in gold through gold-mining stocks. Unlike bullion, gold-mining stocks at least have the potential to generate income. Newmont Mining, $63.33, symbol NEM on New York (Shares outstanding: 484.7 million; Market cap: $30.7 billion; www.newmont.com), is a relatively conservative choice if you want to buy a gold stock....

PENGROWTH ENERGY TRUST $12.42 (Toronto symbol PGF.UN; Units outstanding: 320.1 million; Market cap: $4.0 billion; SI Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 6.8%; www.pengrowth.com) produces oil and natural gas in western Canada and off the Nova Scotia coast. Its production is weighted 51% to oil and 49% to gas. In the three months ended June 30, 2010, revenue rose to $337 million from $335.6 million a year earlier. Cash flow per unit was unchanged at $0.56. Higher oil and gas prices offset a drop in production. Poor weather hurt Pengrowth’s production and drilling levels. The trust will convert to a dividend-paying corporation on December 31, 2010. The change is in response to Ottawa’s new tax on income-trust distributions, which comes into effect on January 1, 2011. After the conversion, the company will be called Pengrowth Corporation....