Podcast 252 - AN EXTRACT - 1ST CHAPTER OF ACHIEVING FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 253, on December 13th of 2025.  My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald, and I am an author of six investment books. I am still working away my latest book to be called “Achieving Financial Independence From 180 High Dividend NYSE stocks - Analyzed and Scored”. I hope to complete it within the next ten days. The book will be of great assistance to anyone who wants to build a safe portfolio of financially strong, high dividend, income stocks. My plan is to release the book at a greatly reduced price for ten days. If you wish to be informed of this preliminary release date, please email me at [email protected] week in Podcast 252 I read an excerpt from Chapter One of the new book. This week I will finish the remainder of Chapter One.The objective of my podcasts and investment books is to motivate you to pursue financial independence as a self-directed dividend investor. You  can achieve this independence faster and at less expense than handing you life savings over to those who wish to transfer as much of your money into their pockets as they can. No one cares as much about your money as you do.Please, visit my website www.informus.ca if you wish to learn more about me and my writing.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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 252, on December 6th of 2025.  My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald, and I am an author of six investment books. I am still trying to finish my latest 340-page book book before Christmas. It is called “Achieving Financial Independence From 180 High Dividend NYSE stocks - Analyzed and Scored”. It has taken me far longer than I had expected.  It will be of great assistance to anyone who wants to build a safe portfolio of financially strong, high dividend, income stocks. My plan is to have a preliminary release of the book at a greatly reduced price. If you wish to be informed of this preliminary release, please email me at [email protected] objective with my podcasts and investment books is to motivate you to pursue financial independence as a self-directed dividend investor. Please, visit my website www.informus.ca if you wish to learn more about me and my writing.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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing’s Podcast # 251, on November 29th of 2025.  My name is Ian Duncan MacDonald, and I am an author of six investment books. Today is a very quick podcast. I am trying to finish up my latest book before Christmas. It is called “Achieving Financial Independence From 180 High Dividend NYSE stocks - Analyzed and Scored”. Over the last 7 months It has taken up much more of my time than I had expected. However, the end is in sight, and I think it will be of great assistance to anyone trying to build a portfolio of financially strong, high dividend, income stocks.I did have time this week to watch a recent lecture by Warren Buffet on YouTube. It is not often you get insights into the pluses and minuses of bit coins, investment bubbles, and why value investing works, from an outstanding investor with 70 years of investment experience. I think anyone who listens to this video will come away as I did much wiser and better informed. The lecture has a terrible title to get your attention “Bitcoin is going to zero”.  It was easily found on YouTube. I strongly recommend listening to it. Hopefully I will soon finish the job of launching my new 340-page book. My plan is to have a preliminary release of the book at a reduced price. If you wish to be informed of this preliminary release, please email me at [email protected] is Ian MacDonald hoping my 250 podcasts have motivated you to pursue financial independence as a self-directed investor. Visit my website www.informus.ca if you wish to learn more about me and my books. 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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 250 (November 22, 2025)It is interesting to investigate what motivates investors to invest in the stock market. Do they believe that once their portfolio achieves a specific dollar amount the they will the be "wealthy". Will they recognize that spending money unnecessarily and thoughtlessly can quickly destroy the wealth they may have spent years accumulating. The reality is that if you spend all you earn, you are not getting wealthier, you are just living high.How much do ego and envy influence the spending habits of investors? Hopefully this week's podcast may help you with your investment priorities. I write my investment books for those who fear that they will lose their life savings by investing in the stock market My books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe, growing companies who pay high dividends .  I have been successfully investing this way for more than twenty years . My portfolio of strong dividend stocks not only provides me with a reliable, growing six figure income but over time has continued to increase the value of my portfolio by many multiples.For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 249 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. Some of the remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks and introduce new relevant topicsIan 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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 249- (November 15, 2025)When you ask someone's advice in choosing a stock are you subconsciously looking for someone, other than yourself, to blame if the stock loses money?You are perfectly capable of doing some simple, easy analysis to determine the strength and potential of a stock. In this podcast I walk you through the process. It is not difficult and takes minutes not hours to do. Two stock multi billion dollar companies UPS and FDX are used to illustrate the procedures. Rely on your own analysis and know exactly why the stock you chose was based on factual not hearsay information or stock tips. I write my investment books for those who fear that they will lose their life savings by investing in the stock market My books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe, growing companies who pay high dividends .  I have been successfully investing this way for more than twenty years . My portfolio of strong dividend stocks not only provides me with a reliable, growing six figure income but over time has continued to increase the value of my portfolio by multiples multiples. This conflicts with what I was told by investment who told me my portfolio would gradually shrink as the years went by.Unlike mutual funds and index funds - where investors have no control over their investment and  only a vague idea as to what stocks are in the fund - a self-directed investor can fully understand  and appreciate the value of each stock in the portfolio that they created. They can escape the mundane returns and high fees inherent in owning funds.For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 248 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. Some of the remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks and introduce new relevant topicsIan 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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 248- (November 8,  2025)This week's podcast was motivated by a question from one of my book readers. He asked why I was so sure there would be a market crash in the next two years. I am old enough to remember very clearly the hype and hectic days prior to the dot com stock market crash in 2000. The internet was then going to be the next big thing. Investors would all get rich if they invested in companies that had dot com in their make up. AI is now the next big thing. However, as I point out in my podcast, everything that glitters is not gold and AI brings problems with that need to be resolved.Looking closely at the major AI stocks you can see that they are speculative investments. While it is advantageous to have a small percentage of your stocks in speculative stocks to hopefully grow your portfolio's value, you are advised to be very careful.I write my investment books for those who fear that they will lose their life savings by investing in the stock market My books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe, growing companies who pay high dividends .  I have been successfully investing this way for more than twenty years . My portfolio of strong dividend stocks not only provides me with a reliable, growing source of income but over time has increase the value of my portfolio by several multiples.Unlike mutual funds and index funds - where investors have no control over their investment and  only a vague idea as to what stocks are in the fund - a self-directed investor can fully understand  and appreciate the value of each stock in the portfolio that they created. They can escape the mundane returns and high fees inherent in owning funds.For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www,.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 248 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. Some of the remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks and introduce new relevant topics.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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 247- (November 1,  2025)This week's podcast is in response to a question from one of my listeners. He was concerned that one of his, what he thought was a strong stock, had lost fifty percent of its share price value almost overnight. Yes, even strong stocks can have sudden unexpected drops in their share price. This does not mean that you need to panic and immediately discard the stock. It means that you have to look closely at the history of the stock and its potential. Changes the company may have made that caused the drop in share price many actually strengthen the company in the years to come.  This may actually be an opportunity to buy more of the stock at a low price. I write my investment books for those who fear that they will lose their life savings by investing in the stock market My books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe, growing companies who pay high dividends .  I have been successfully investing this way for twenty years .My portfolio of strong dividend stocks not only provides me with a reliable, growing source of income but over time has increase the value of my portfolio by several multiples.Unlike mutual funds and index funds - where investors have no control over their investment and  only a vague idea as to what stocks are in the fund - a self-directed investor can fully understand  and appreciate the value of each stock in the portfolio that they created. They can escape the mundane returns and high fees inherent in owning funds.For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www,.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 245 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. The remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks and introduce new relevant topics.Ian Duncan MacDonaldIan 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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 246- (25 October 2025) As I continue to score and analyze stocks for my next investment book the loss at The Kraft Heinz Company (stock symbol KHC) caught my interest. KHC was a merger formed in 2015 and will cease to exist in 2026 when it is again split into two companies. It is currently the 5th largest food company in the world. When Warren Buffett, who is recognized to be the most successful stock investor in the world, invested $3.76 Billion dollars of Berkshire Hathaway's money Kraft Heinz he was sure it would provide a generous return. Berkshire have now lost $2.63 billion in this venture. There are lessons for you to learn from this loss. Perhaps the biggest is do your own basic research and do not accept that anyone can accurately predict future share prices.In this podcast (with a written transcript attached) you can get an understanding of why the stock scoring software supplied with my books makes it easy to identify and sort the strength of the kind of stocks you wish to acquire for your portfolio. I write my investment books for those who fear that they will lose their life savings by investing in the stock market My books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe, growing companies who pay high dividends .  I have been successfully investing this way for twenty years .My portfolio of strong dividend stocks not only provides me with a reliable, growing source of income but over time has increase the value of my portfolio by several multiples.Unlike mutual funds and index funds - where investors have no control over their investment and  only a vague idea as to what stocks are in the fund - a self-directed investor can fully understand  and appreciate the value of each stock in the portfolio that they created. They can escape the mundane returns and high fees inherent in owning funds.For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www,.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 245 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. The remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks and introduce new relevant topics.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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 245- (18 October 2025) This week is a departure from my usual podcast content. It responds to a Fidelity investment advisor with whom one of my readers discussed my approach to investing.  The Fidelity advisor stated that Ian Duncan MacDonald's investment ideas were the craziest ideas she had ever heard of.   What makes this email particularly Interesting to me is that the reader has a PhD in Applied Statistics and Mathematics. This would indicate a familiarity with scoring systems and the ability to judge the validity of my investment approach.The reader raised the interesting question of why would a simple easy way of assessing the safe investment value of a stock not be taught in school. Most investors have a very limited understanding of the wealth of investment information that is free and immediately available on the internet from such websites as Yahoo Finance. All they need to be shown is what information is important and how to interpret it. I write my investment books for those who do not invest in individual stocks for fear that they will lose their life savings. My books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe companies who pay high dividends .  I have been successfully investing this way for twenty years .My portfolio of strong dividend stocks provides not only provide a reliable, growing source of income but over time has greatly increase the value of my portfolio.Unlike mutual funds - where investors have no control over their investment and  only a vague idea as to what stocks are in the fund - a self-directed investor can fully understand  and appreciate the value of the portfolio they create.In this podcast (with a written transcript attached) you can get an understanding of why the stock scoring software supplied with my books is so effective.For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www,.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 245 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. The remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks and introduce new relevant topics.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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]

Send us a textWelcome to Safe Dividend Investing's Podcast 244- (11 October 2025)  While preparing for a trip to Bermuda, Ian Duncan MacDonald noticed that three Bermuda registered companies would be appearing in his new investment book.  The book analyzes and scores 200 strong, high dividend stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange. That three companies from such a small island would be appearing in the book intrigued Ian so he immediately analyzed and scored them.The three companies were (1) DHT Holdings Inc (stock symbol DHT) (2) Flex LNG Ltd (stock symbol FLNG) (3) SFL Corporation Limited (stock symbol SFL).Ian writes his books for those who do not invest in individual stocks for fear that they will lose their life savings. His books show  investors  an easy, safe way to select financially strong, safe companies who pay high dividends .  Ian knows after successfully investing this way for twenty years that a portfolio of strong dividend stocks provides not only a reliable, growing source of income but over time they will greatly increase the value of a portfolio.Unlike mutual funds - where investors have no control over their investment and  only a vague idea as to what stocks are in the fund - a self-directed investor can fully understand  and appreciate the value of the portfolio they create.In this podcast (with a written transcript attached) you can get a taste for the factual information that Ian measures and provides to readers building strong, generous portfolios. Which of one of the three Bermuda stocks in this podcast do you think would be a good choice for your portfolio?You may also find Ian's observations on the unique attractiveness of Bermuda as a destination. For more information on self-directed investing go to my website www,.informus.ca or  listen to the previous 241 weekly podcasts. The first 160 podcasts are devoted to answering questions from investors just like you. The remainder give you an opportunity to practice choosing stocks.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 New York Telephone - 929-800-2397 [email protected]