Disclosure: I am not a professional advisor. Please consult a financial advisor before taking any serious decisions regarding your money.

I had been investing since 2005. In 2007, I start an investment blog. Back in 2008, I start investing in stock after reading Derek Foster books. Derek Foster retired at the young age of 34. He had written 3 books: Stop Working, The Lazy Investor and Money for Nothing. I pretty much started investing in stocks after reading Derek Foster books. They had provided me several investment ideas. Even before that, I use to invest on a regular basis in mutual funds.

A couple of months after investing in stock, I lost 24% value of my portfolio. Even with those significant losses, I still enjoy investing in stocks, income funds and mutual funds. Among the way, I learn a lot. And I am willing to share with you some of the stuff I learn among the way.

On how to invest and purchase stocks

You want to start a portfolio of your very own? It’s easy as 1-2-3. First, you need to open a online stock broker account. You’ll see, online stock trading is a lot of fun.

A while ago, I open a TD Waterhouse broker account. I already had mutual funds and other investments with TD Canada Trust, so I decide to open a broker account with them. TD Waterhouse interface is easy to use. From my experience, customer service seems to be open 24 hours a day. Investor services are at a pretty high standard at TD Waterhouse. The only problem I am currently facing is their high commission fee.

Here in Canada, TD Waterhouse will probably charge you 29$ per trade if, like me, you are a small investor and just make small investments from time to time. Discounts are available, but only for major traders, which I don’t belong. Major parts of my investments are for the long term. Its actually part of the reason why it didn’t bother me too much so far to pay 29$ per trade in commission fees. At this time, I am currently looking forward to open a discount online brokerage account someplace else.

My 2 investment mistakes

No one want to invest and loose money. But it’s part of the game. You shouldn’t invest in stocks if you do not want to loose any of your money. The stock market is quite volatile. Fortune can be made and lost. And I know what I am talking about. Remember I lost 24% value of my investments. But even there, it’s still worth it for me to invest in stocks. Among the way, I did 2 major investments that could be considered as mistakes.

Mistake number one: My really first stock investment ever was 500 stocks of Sprott Inc. (SII) that I purchased at 9$. Currently, each Sprott Inc. stock worth less than 4$. I almost lost half of the money I first invested in Sprott Inc. Luckily, Sprott Inc. pay dividend. And this year, Sprott had also paid a special dividend. As you can tell, my investment strategy is being focus on dividend return. Sprott Inc. is still from my portfolio.

Mistake number two: the purchase of 200 stocks of Timminco (TIM) which initially worth 4 065$. The 4 065$ investment now worth 244$. Timminco do not provide any dividend. Recently, Timminco had received a loan from Quebec province. Funniest fact: while I had purchase Timminco stocks at around 20$, Timminco now worth less than 2$ per stock. Timminco is now a penny stock. But no worries, I have some other stocks in my portfolio.

My personal investment portfolio

Here’s the composition of my stocks portfolio:

Sprott Inc. (SII): 500 stocks
Timminco (TIM): stocks
Blue Note Mining (BN): 12 000 stocks
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): 102 stocks
Hanwei Energy Services (HE): 300 stocks
Methanex Corporation (MX): 103 stocks
Fortis (FTS): 102 stocks
Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN): 530 units
Livingston International Income Fund (LIV.UN): 102 units
Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (PIF.UN): 101 units
Just Energy Income Fund (JE.UN): 202 units
Dumont Nickel Inc. (DNI): 23 000 stocks
Yellow Pages Income Fund (YLO.UN): 100 units

I don’t have any specific investment criteria. My investment style is wild. But one thing I learn: with stocks, there’s no safe investment. But the good news is: you can minimize the risk if you diversify your assets. A good diversification for your stock portfolio come along with a good personal financial planning.

Among my portfolio, some companies provided me dividend. Here’s my dividend portfolio:

Sprott Inc. (SII), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Methanex Corporation (MX), Fortis (FTS), Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN), Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (PIF.UN), Just Energy Income Fund (JE.UN) and Yellow Pages Income Fund (YLO.UN).

The combination of all of the above represents, from my point of view, good investments.

My yearly dividend income for 2009

My yearly dividend income for 2009 is currently of: 1 605.14$.

Below are my dividend earnings:

Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS): 102 stocks
[1.96$ annual dividend]: 199.92$

Fortis (FTS): 102 stocks
[1.04$ annual dividend]: 106.08$

Livingston International Income Fund (LIV.UN): 102 stocks
[0.504$ annual dividend]: 51.41$

Methanex Corporation (MX): 103 stocks
[0.7975$ annual dividend]: 82.14$

Sprott Asset Management (SII): 500 stocks
[0.10$ annual dividend + 0.15$ special dividend]: 50$ + 75$: 125$

Pengrowth Energy Trust (PGF.UN): 530 stocks
[1.20$ annual dividend]: 636$

Pembina Pipeline Income Fund (PIF.UN): 101 stocks
[1.56$ annual dividend]: 157.56$

Just Energy Income Fund (JE.UN): 202 stocks
[0.82668$ annual dividend]: 166.99$

Yellow Pages Income Fund (YLO.UN): 100 units
[0.8004$ annual dividend]: 80.04$

Even in recession time, there’re some companies who continue to pay dividend to their investors. Once the financial crisis will be over (because one day, the recession will be out of our lives), my dividend income will probably double.

I like dividend investment and hope you do as well.