S ince the success of the Canadian best seller Stop Working: Heres How You Can . Derek Foster has written another book called The Lazy Investor . I was excited to receive his latest book for review as I really enjoyed his first book.

Its not surprising to see that Fosters dividend investment strategy is followed by many Canadian investors as he has had great success in retiring at the very young age of 34.

What is his strategy? Foster strongly believes in putting your investment dollars towards steadily increasing dividend paying companies. There are a few reasons for this:

1. It makes the investor invest for cash flow thus keeping emotions out of stocks buying/selling.
2. Its recession resistant
3. Dividends are taxed favorably compared to other forms of cash flow
4. Inflation resistant as he only picks stocks that have a long history of annual dividend increases.

What are some examples of strong dividend companies?

Who is Derek Foster?

Derek Foster is known as Canadas Youngest Retiree when he retired at the young age of 34. How did he do this? Through starting young and sticking with his investment plan of buying strong dividend paying stocks. He feels very strongly about his strategy and rightly so as he has achieved great success. His first book Stop Working: Heres How You Can is a Canadian Best Seller and his second book is well on its way to achieving the same success.

Foster currently lives off and supports his family through dividend distributions, book sales, and a rental property. Note that he retired before publishing his first book. You can read more about him in my book review of Stop Working: Heres How You Can.

What are the main points made by the book?

• Starting off with SPP and DRIPs For those of you who dont know a lot about SPP (stock purchase plan) and DRIPs (dividend reinvestment plan), Foster does a great job in explaining step by step how to set one up. He goes on to list the few companies in Canada that offer both SPP and DRIP (the combination is important). He also includes a small section on American based SPP and DRIP.
• Stay in Canada Foster is a believer in sticking with Canadian dividends due to the tax advantages and currency risk. Most investors would question this lack of diversity, but Foster follows the trend that most wealthy people have their money tied into a single company.
• Investing in recession proof, consistently increasing dividend based Canadian stocks — This one is self explanatory, the book picks some of his favorite dividend paying stocks and income trusts.
• Retirement requirements are less than you think Foster believes in the same retirement principle as Why Swim with the Sharks . That is, when you retire, youll have fewer expenses to contend with. My early retirement series is based on this conclusion also.
• Being frugal with non life enhancing expenses while being less frugal on life enhancing costs This is similar to my separate your needs and wants principle. Foster basically is extremely frugal on non life enhancing expenses (taxes), and not as frugal on life enhancing expenses (vacations).
• Teaching Children about Money I read this section of the book with great interest as were expecting. Foster writes about his opinions on the right way to teach a child about money. You guessed it, through dividend investing and spending the dividend payments as an allowance.

What I liked?

• The book is extremely easy to read and shows how a beginner can kick start a portfolio with very little upfront money.
• I appreciated how detailed the book was in explaining how to set up a SPP and DRIP, how to transfer it over to a discount brokerage, and including other frugal ways to purchase stocks.
• I liked the idea of teaching a child about money through investments. Im going to try a few of these strategies with the little one coming.

What I dont agree with:

• The book neglects to point out some of the risks involved with Fosters style of investing. There isnt very much diversification, which for some, its too many eggs in one basket.
• Foster doesnt believe in RESP s much like he doesnt believe in RRSP s. Im the opposite, I think the RESP program is great where the government basically gives you free money for your childs education.

Final Thoughts:

• I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone just starting out on their investment journey. The book shows how anyone can start a portfolio with very little money and grow it into a real income base in future years.
• If you are interested in picking up this book, you can get a copy at Chapters or directly from Derek Foster .

Find out how you can save an additional 4% on this book through Chapters.

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