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Podcast 293

There are millions who have patiently saved their money for decades in bank savings accounts. Money they expect to help pay their living expenses when they are no longer be able to work. These savers would never consider Investing their money in the stock market. To them the stock market is seen as a form of gambling where they could lose all their life savings and be left penniless.

The banks may pay them as much as 0.01% for the use of their money which they will lend to borrowers at rates as high as 22%. Meanwhile their savings account is under attack from an average annual inflation rate of about 3.5% a year. In ten years they will be able to buy 30.50% less than what the money in your savings can now buy.

There is a much better, safer place for your savings than in bank savings account. I say this as an investor who twenty-five years lost $300,000 of my life savings investing in supposedly safe mutual funds chosen by an investment advisor. That loss is when I realized my savings would not be safe until I learned how to wisely manage my savings. I am now sharing with you the benefit of my 25 years of research and experience in safe, effective money management.

To illustrate how my better way of managing money can safely benefit you over many years, in this week's podcast I take the data of 10 financially strong high dividend stocks from my 2021 book on US dividend stocks and compare the historical results to their current 2026 results. I use information sources that are instantly and freely available so you can verify how easy it is for you to make wise choices.

My retirement savings have grown over these 25 years by many multiples and provide me with a very generous, ever growing monthly income that exceed my needs and wants. How confident are you that your retirement savings will be able to meet your needs and wants?

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
imacd@informus.ca

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Podcast 292

Why do law firms initiate hundreds of class action law suits? Do they earn millions of dollars in profits if the class-action law suit is successful? What happens when they are not successful?

Researching the motivation of lawyers who initiate legal actions arose when a long-time listener to my podcast wrote, after listening to Podcast 288, "I am surprised you seem to recommend the REIT IIPR given their recent legal issues....I held the stock briefly in 2023 and 2024 only to sell it at a loss and join a large group of shareholders in a legal action against the company".

My mention of IIPR in that podcast was to illustrate how a high dividend yield had resulted in its then low IDM risk score. The idea that unusually high dividends are due to an unusually high investment risk, like most generalities, ignores exceptions.

In this podcast I do a thorough analysis of the IIPR risk. I found the stock had many strengths which is probably why the class actions were dismissed in August as having no merit. However it raises questions: Why did the law firm initiate a class action law suit? What role do those investors in the class-action lawsuit play? What percentage of the judgment would the plaintiff lawyer realize if its legal action were successful? Who pays if the lawsuit is unsuccessful.

I was surprised to see the huge number of blue chip stocks that the IIPR law firm had initiated class action lawsuits against. The reward for investors participating in the class action lawsuit was not obvious. I would be interested in hearing from anyone who felt after participating in a class action lawsuit against a stock that they had greatly benefited.

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
imacd@informus.ca

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The largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world is not Tesla, it is dwarfed by BYD, a Chinese company.

Everyone seems to be very familiar with Tesla but they seem to know little about BYD. In this podcast I describe some of the remarkable achievements of BYD which involves far more than cars. As a leading manufacturer of batteries they supply most of the other manufacturers of electric vehicles and in addition manufacture computer chips for Apple, Samsung and other electronic manufacturers. With 900,000 employees they are China's largest private corporation.

For 17 years, until 2025, a large percentage of shares were owned by Berkshire Hathaway, the American conglomerate, whose profit on their original investment of $230,000,000 is reported to have had a gain of 3,890% on that original investment.

While the U.S. government is attempting to protect its domestic car manufacturers by blocking BYD cars from the American market. This seems futile since BYD already has an operation in the US and also in Canada. It shall be interesting to see how long the US 100% tariff stays in place once BYD ships its first 49,000 cars to Canada within the next year.

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
imacd@informus.ca

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I do not like mutual funds of any shape or size. Thus, when a friend asked me for help in selecting ETFs for his multi-million dollar portfolio, I was quick to let him know my feeling about funds. This week's podcast gets into my concerns about funds and it brings back memories of seeing my portfolio of supposedly safe mutual funds lose $300,000 over three years.

As I explain this week, with a fund you are blindly sold on putting your money into something that you have no control over, whose contents can change on a fund manager's whim and is almost impossible to determine its strength.

You are much further ahead to build a portfolio of 20 financially strong diverse companies paying high dividends who for the last two decades have shown consistent growth in their share price and dividend payouts. Each of the managers of these 20 strong dividend stocks would have proven they know how to make a profit and grow a company. With a fund all you have is a big blob of stocks that are almost impossible to analyze today and may change at any moment.

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
imacd@informus.ca

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Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast #289 on August 22nd of 2026.

Banks are critical to a country's health and success. Today we answer the following questions:

Who are the 10 largest banks in North America?

Who are the 10 safest banks in North America?

Who are the 5 largest banks in the world? (The largest 3 are in Asia, not in Europe or America).

How can six Canadian banks be the safest six banks in North America? What is the difference in banking systems between Canada and the USA that creates safer banks?

Note: a A written transcript is always attached when podcasts they are loaded into the buzzsprout.com website for forwarding to other podcasters.

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
imacd@informus.ca

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Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast #288 on August 15th of 2026.

Equity Real Estate Investment Trusts invest in office buildings, apartments and stores and Investors make money from rents. Mortgage Real Estate investment Trusts make money from interest and pay much higher dividend yields than Equity REITs, often in the 15% to 16% range. These high yields obviously attract income-seeking investors. However, today we explore the heightened risks in mortgage REITs that you must consider.

200 million Americans own REITs either directly or through ETFs and pension funds. 5 trillion dollars is invested in them. Since being introduced in 1960 they have become a mainstream asset

Let my other 287 podcasts and my 7 books help develop your investment confidence.

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
imacd@informus.ca

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast #287 on August 8th of 2026.

Who determines if the stocks in a mutual fund, ETF or Index fund are safe? Could it be that fund managers deliberately bundle hundreds of stocks together to create an illusion of safety that they can hide behind?

After my mutual fund lost $300,000 in three years. I sold that mutual fund and set out to learn how to be a successful self-directed investor, relying on my common sense and the wealth of free information that is available on every stock traded on every stock exchange,

That was 25 years ago. The portfolio of a few hundred thousand dollars I started with, in my fifties, grew by many multiples. The annual dividend income it generates, which I live on, has grown well into the six figures and is still growing every year. This growth keeps my income well ahead of inflation. I now have zero fear of ever being left penniless.

It was not difficult to realize this growth and security. This podcast gives you an over view of how it can be accomplished. You do not have to be a financial genius but you do have to be patient and careful. Once your portfolio of 20 financially strong, high dividend paying stocks is created, you can go for years without ever having a need to make any changes to it.

My other 286 podcasts and my books will develop your investment confidence.

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
imacd@informus.ca

Send us Fan Mail

Welcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast #286 on August 1st of 2026.

The current threats by the US to invade Canada encouraged me to reissue a book with the new title of "The Fifty-First State - A Lost Alliance". I wrote this book 10 years ago when a devastating drought in the American Southwest was going to trigger the invasion of Canada to reroute the water in the Great Lakes. Now, the threat of turning North America into a battle ground no longer appears to be just an excuse to give fiction writers something interesting to write about.

In this podcast, I have a short excerpt from that book describing plans to repel the invasion but the main theme is showing you how to protect your life and your wealth by purchasing a second citizenship in a safe nation. If you were required to escape to a safe haven, it would also be wise to have converted part of your wealth to gold that could be drawn upon when you might not have access to income from your stock portfolio.

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
imacd@informus.ca