Risk can come in various forms.  Some people are happy with an entirely Cdn-based equity portfolio of individual dividend stocks.  I prefer to take a more diversified approach including US, International and Emerging Markets for my equity portion.

For my Canadian portion I have chosen the ETF route with XEI.  It makes things very simple for me in that I don't have to worry about individual stock behaviour.  It has 77 stocks with the top ten comprising of 47%:  TRP, RY, BMO, ENB, T, CM, BNS, BCE, PPL, IPL.  A 21.5% return YTD and a 4.25% yield with MONTHLY payments.

The issue of recency is relevant as well.  While Mr. Heinzl's portfolio has performed well over the past few years, going back a bit reveals that it hasn't been all rosy for so-called solid dividend stocks.  Take for example Telus.  It would take a very, very brave and committed investor to hold onto Telus stock as it nose dived from $23 to $4 from Jul 2000 to Jul 2002 (a drop of about 80%), or 2007 to 2009 (-53%).