Become a Member

What the Heck is a Wal-01(k)? Does it really grow 3-5X faster than traditional 401(k)s?

Solving the latest teaser pitch from The Wealth Advisory

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, November 30, 2015

Today, as the Black Friday crowds have died down and we’ve all grown tired of watching people fight over “doorbuster” items in the “what has the world come to” video clips that are all-too-popular nowadays… we can talk about a different kind of ridiculous promotion. No, not towels for $1.60 or Xboxes for $99, but a fantastic retirement for just $30!

That’s what’s implied by the ad for The Wealth Advisory, they call this “retirement plan” the Wal-01(k), which really rolls off the tongue, and say that it pays out monthly, is legally required to pay you every month, and will grow your money 3-5X faster than a “traditional” 401(k).

True? Well, as always with these ads the answer is “kinda”… but the reality is not nearly as enticing as the hype. Here’s how the ad gets us started:

“Wal-01(k)s

“Funded by Wal-Mart, this automated savings plan is legally required to pay you a cash distribution every single month…

“You don’t have to work for Wal-Mart to participate in the plan…

“And it grows your money 3-5 TIMES faster than traditional 401k(s)”

Sound enticing? Even if you don’t much like shopping at Wal-Mart, just about everyone wants a way to grow their retirement savings more quickly. So how do we find out what this is?

Well, it sounds a bit familiar… but let’s check out the clues to make sure…

“You won’t find this retirement program advertised on Wal-Mart’s website…

“But you don’t have to work for Wal-Mart to take advantage of it, either….

“48-year-old Ray Kerr from Arizona got payments of $5,969 a month last year.

“Jerry Stevens from Ontario, Canada received a payout of $1,638 just last month.

“66-year-old Frank Pettit has had a Wal-01(k) plan for years, and these days, he’s getting remarkable payouts — as large as $23,220 a month….

“This has nothing to do with buying shares of Wal-Mart.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with dividend reinvestment plans.

“It doesn’t have to do with anything complicated like options or ETFs.

“And there is zero day trading involved.

“In fact, all you need to get started is just $30….

“Recently, Vancouver’s main newspaper, The Globe and Mail, reported on just how great being a Wal-01(k) participant can be:

“… a dollar invested [with this savings plan] in 2001 is now worth $18.”

Vancouver’s primary newspaper is the Vancouver Sun, not the Globe and Mail — which fancies itself the national “newspaper of record” for Canada but is published in Toronto. But that does help us, at least, to clarify that yes, this is similar to the pitch that Angel Publishing made a couple years ago about “Wal-Lord” and the way to get rich by becoming Walmart’s landlord.

Are you getting our free Daily Update
"reveal" emails? If not,
just click here...


So, it turns out, Briton Ryle must be teasing the same stock as was pitched by The Wealth Advisory starting in 2012 — though he wasn’t running the newsletter back then, and the company has changed some and has a new name and ticker now… this is now a pitch for the “secret” Canadian REIT SmartREIT, officially called Smart Real Estate Investment Trust (SRU in Toronto, CWYUF OTC in the US). Until this past summer, when they bought out their longtime partner SmartCentres, the name was Calloway REIT.

And it is, indeed a way to earn a higher yield that’s based largely on Wal-Mart — though it has nothing to do with Wal-Mart other than the fact that the two companies are corporate partners to some degree, and Wal-Mart pays rent to SmartREIT.

Here’s some wording that bugs me from the ad:

“Why are these Wal-01(k) plans so rock-solid?

“Well, it’s because Wal-Mart must put money into the plan’s fund every month before it can even pay itself.

“As I told you earlier, Wal-Mart is MANDATED by law to do this. There’s simply no getting around it.

“And according to law, money in the plan’s fund must be disbursed to investors on a monthly basis.

“Wal-Mart has hired a company to administer the fund.

“And it automatically makes these disbursements to investors every single month.”

Wal-Mart is not forced to pay you “every single month” like the ad implies, though the REIT does currently have (and has had for many years) a monthly dividend, and Wal-Mart presumably pays their rent to SmartREIT every month and is obligated to continue doing so until their leases expire (most of the leases have at least 5-7 years left, with lots of long-term extensions possible). Yes, they “have to” pay their rent before they can “pay themselves” — “pay themself” presumably means “make a profit” and, like for anyone else, profit is what is left after they pay expenses (like rent)… but that doesn’t make these folks any different than any other landlord.

And REITs “have to” pay out their profits in the form of dividends or lose their tax-free status, but, of course, they can always cut the dividend if business weakens (this particular REIT hasn’t had to, though foreign exchange rates have effectively cut the payout for US investors in recent years)… and if they stop making profits, as has been known to happen from time to time, they don’t “have to” pay out anything.

Walmart has a lot of landlords, though SmartREIT is their dominant one in Canada thanks to a relationship with the founder of SmartCentres and Calloway REIT that had them basically being Walmart’s real estate developer as they expanded into the virgin, understored territory north of the border. And no, Wal-Mart has not “hired” this company to “administer the fund” — it has signed leases with this company to use their real estate, and it pays them for that use. Then, since they’re a real estate investment trust, they send essentially all that profit through to shareholders so they don’t have to pay corporate tax on it (Canada’s REITs are similar to US REITs, for those who are familiar with these income-focused investments).

How has that worked out as an investment? Well, OK. Not fantastic, not terrible. Walmart is still doing pretty well in Canada, and they’ve probably been helped by the fact that Target botched their northern expansion and pulled back out of Canada, but it’s not going to suddenly start paying dramatically higher rents — the improvements at SmartREIT are iterative, despite their talk about transformational deals like this one for SmartCentres (which will boost their square footage about 10%, though it does also provide more valuable development potential). The goal, I expect, is to get a little better each year, bump rents up 1% a year above inflation, get occupancy up slightly higher (it’s already very high compared to most REITs), and develop and buy new properties to gradually improve per-share cash flow.

If you look at the past five years, you see the huge impact that the falling Canadian dollar has had on the value of Canadian REITs for US investors — SmartREIT has a total return over the last five years of about 15%, dividends included, a little better than the 9% return of larger retail-heavy REIT Riocan and much better than the 12% loss for the more diversified Canadian REIT H&R Real Estate, but the average US REIT over that time (going by the Vanguard REIT Index ETF VNQ) is up 75%. And Walmart itself, despite the well-publicized collapse in their shares this year as growth has disappeared, is still up 22% over the past five years.

So SmartREIT looks like a solid operator, and it may be that they can “unlock” some more value thanks to the additional properties and development projects brought on by the SmartCentres acquisition, particularly in the Toronto area… but it’s not going to give you an easy retirement on $30. Nor, indeed, would it have done you much good to buy these shares when this same newsletter started pitching them as “Wal-lord” back in the Spring of 2012 — had you bought then, dividends included, your shares today would be worth almost exactly what you paid for them. Not terrible, and that means you would have beaten the broader Canadian index (which is down 8% during that time period), but that’s a far cry from the 60% gain you could have had in the US market (that’s the increase in the S&P 500 since then) or the 46% gain in the US REIT index.

The investment would have worked out much better, of course, for those who do your thinking and spending in Canadian dollars, which were strong in 2012 and have fallen hard as the world has fled commodity currencies and sought haven in the US$ — over those past 3-1/2 years Riocan, for example, has posted a gain of 14% on the Toronto exchange (dividends included), but a loss of 17% for US investors. Canada has been a tough place for American investors over the past couple years.

I do always like to look at the financial reality of the numbers they pitch in the ad, particularly when they talk about individuals who get big payouts — what would it take, for example, to find yourself in the shoes of “48-year-old Ray Kerr from Arizona” who “got payments of $5,969 a month last year?” I have no doubt that there’s a real person behind that, perhaps a testimonial that the newsletter got from some subscriber (Angel publishing’s lawyers would make sure they could back it up), but how big a portfolio would we be talking about to get that kind of income?

Well, since “Ray” is in Arizona, we’ll presume he invests in US$ terms — right now, shares of SmartREIT change hands at $23.84 (it would be about C$31 north of the border), and they pay a monthly dividend that last month equalled 10.3 cents per share. Works out to just over 5% on an annual yield basis, if you’re doing the math, but that means in order to have monthly income from SmartREIT shares of $5,969 you’d need to own 57,394 shares right now. To buy that many shares today you’d have to invest just shy of $1.4 million.

If you’re really thinking of this as something you can do by investing $30, which seems to be the idea the ad is driving you toward even though they don’t specifically put it in those terms, then the math is daunting — if you invest $30 a month starting today and let the money compound at 5% a year (which is what the expected dividend yield is for Smart REIT today, though US investors have gotten returns far below 5% a year from this one over the past five years), it will take you about 105 years to build up to that $1.4 million portfolio (and then, if you like, you can start cashing out your $5,969 a month instead of reinvesting it). If you assume that the value of the REIT will grow a bit faster, maybe tack on 4% a year in capital gains on top of the 5% dividend, then it would only take about 65 years.

I say that not to discourage folks who are looking to build a portfolio or save for retirement, but to try to add some realism to the magical thinking used by copywriters. To build a big retirement portfolio you either have to start young and save a lot (or start late and save a lot more) and invest sensibly in the broad market, or you have to get lucky with much more aggressive investments (and, naturally, take a chance that you won’t be lucky) — relatively conservative investments like REITs can be a great part of an investment portfolio, and I own several myself (though no Canadian ones currently), but they’re not going to make your portfolio grow 3X faster than other kinds of equity investments or magically turn $30 into a $5,000 monthly income.

So yes, this so-called “Wal-01(k)” is a real investment even if the name is made up and a bit silly, it does pay a monthly dividend, and it is connected to Walmart by virtue of being a real estate investment trust that’s also Walmart’s largest landlord in Canada. They did post some rapid growth in their early years, but as they’ve matured over the last five years there’s been essentially no per-share growth for US investors, and a pretty tepid one for Canadian investors. It might have grown faster than some traditional 401(k)s, but that would mean your 401(k) was particularly lousy or too heavily weighted against the US$ (as some were, I’m sure) — it has generated returns better than many of its peers in the Canadian REIT space, but those returns are significantly lower than US REIT investors enjoyed, and are far below the broad US market.

Over the next few years there is some growth potential, and the dividend will probably continue to grow slowly (in Canadian dollars, at least — it has, through no fault of the company’s, dropped for US investors), but I don’t think there’s likely to be an opportunity for dramatic growth in these shares. They will increase their cash flow as the footprint grows, and they see opportunities for new development and for redevelopment to enhance the value of their assets, and even for expansion into the US as they talk about expanding their Walmart relationship… but this is real estate — growth isn’t magical, it requires capital investment and, like most REITs, they’ll have to both issue new shares and borrow to grow their assets, so the impact of that kind of growth on the individual shareholder is always somewhat muted. I wouldn’t go into an investment in Smart REIT expecting much more than the 5% yield — though with the Canadian Dollar now down so far, at 10-year lows (though still far above the 2002 nadir), you never know when you might get a bit of a bump just because it recovers somewhat or the US Dollar loses some luster. With major Canadian industries like mining and energy in the doghouse, there’s not much expectation of a big jump in the Loonie in the near term — but, of course, that doesn’t mean any of us can predict the future. You can see the company’s investor presentation from August here to get a general overview of the current business and their plans, and their more recent quarterly earnings update press release from early November is here.

That’s all I can tell you — SmartREIT seems to me to be a well-run company, they do have good tenants and strong occupancy rates, and they pay a decent dividend… and thanks in part to the falling Loonie, that and an investment of US$100 five years ago would get you US$114.75 today. Interested in this Canadian REIT? Have opinions to share about the Canadian real estate market in general? About Walmart? The Canadian Dollar? We’d be delighted to hear what you think, just use the friendly little comment box below.

Irregulars Quick Take

Paid members get a quick summary of the stocks teased and our thoughts here. Join as a Stock Gumshoe Irregular today (already a member? Log in)
guest

12345

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

38 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
frank
November 30, 2015 5:48 pm

can anybody beef me up on virtnext please these guys are pushing me to become a member like no one before, thanks.

gard
Guest
November 30, 2015 6:52 pm
Reply to  frank

Autotrading, binary options, …..some are calling it a scam. Really pushing you….How
big a Yacht are you promised??? Your kids can go to Harvard?? Own a home in the Hamptons????

Add a Topic
570
👍 223
frank
November 30, 2015 7:55 pm
Reply to  gard

yes about $15000 x week, all I want to know are they legit or what? I do not know anything about binary options either, thanks gard.

Add a Topic
570
Harold Hansen
Member
November 30, 2015 10:52 pm
Reply to  frank

Frank, I want a job!
I could use that kind of dough right now, well when could I not,
But I guess this is as good a time as any.
I’ve got a problem, called Cancer!
I posted on gofundme/Harold, and I’d really appreciate any help
You might be able to give me. I’ve had CPS for the past year and
It’s been real hard for me to do anything. I’m falling into the saying,
If you look good, you must feel good. It’s like Fibermyalgia, only
About 100 times more painful. I haven’t been able to do anything that’s why I stick to the
Stock market. But I suck at it! I’m going in on the 7th, anything will help! Thanks so much guys/gals. Bless you all , Harold( Harry)

Add a Topic
3397
Add a Topic
5971
h saraway
Member
h saraway
December 1, 2015 4:07 am
Reply to  Harold Hansen

Join e torro and copy their best traders for quick profits? H. @dubble0h

Alex
Guest
Alex
December 20, 2015 8:08 pm
Reply to  Harold Hansen

Hi Harold, From what I can tell Binary options are usually a scam
due to not being able to withdraw any funds made.
On the cancer front I can provide a cure for you, which is almost free
Just Go to Refuge Ranch in Charlotte NC and they can help you out
a friend of mine had stage 4 breast cancer , and was cured in a couple of hours
without medication and doctor bills .
Thanks

Add a Topic
570
Add a Topic
3397
Add a Topic
3359
Robert Rickenbaugh
Guest
Robert Rickenbaugh
December 27, 2015 5:09 pm
Reply to  Harold Hansen

Check out MMS.

El Gordo
Guest
El Gordo
December 13, 2015 10:33 pm
Reply to  frank

All I can tell you is, they ( VirtNext ) got me for the minimum $250, I checked 2 days later and it was a balance of 9 dollars with a request for further deposits. I have yet to comply nor will I.

alex!
Member
alex!
December 26, 2015 12:52 pm
Reply to  El Gordo

refuge ranch—-miracles ceased with the resurrection.your testimonial is fiction.

John
Guest
January 13, 2016 5:53 pm
Reply to  alex!

Alex – miracles happen everyday you just have to look between the lines a little harder.
At 15 with cancer over 70% of my body including spread into my lymph nodes with a limited future I died. I met my creator and while I won’t go into the whole conversation the last thing he asked me is ” are you ready to go” and I said no and he said “why not” and I replied because I have not accomplished anything with my life yet. With that I opened my eyes to a parametric frantically calling my name, that was 40 years ago.
The next day I stopped at a pay phone and noticed a bright orange card that said – If you meet a man and forget him you have lost nothing but if you meet me and forget me you have lost everything. I remember like it just happened

Add a Topic
3397
Add a Topic
372
Rod
Guest
Rod
December 27, 2015 7:36 pm
Reply to  frank

Frank, Virtnext is a scam. The video promoter says they’ve only lost one trade in four years. However, when I put on auto trade (trusting their so-called track record), I lost 8 of 10 trades. My minimum deposit with the broker vanished in a few hours. When I tried to communicate via their chat, they never answered. I left numerous messages but no response to the chat service, email or phone # I provided. Total scam. Sorry.

Add a Topic
1340
chapter86
chapter86
November 30, 2015 9:02 pm

IMF including China into SDR’s today. This won’t take effect till October 1, 2016. I wonder what effect this will have on dollars continued strength. And currency wars.

Add a Topic
108
👍 3
👍 21650
Enrique Miralles
Guest
November 30, 2015 9:29 pm

I would like for you to make a comment about the stock that has been touted by Mr. Tom Dyson of the Palm Beach Research Group, called by him “The Babylonian Money Code”. It got me quite curious to know what it is: Would you please disclose the riddle?
Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,
ENRIQUE MIRALLES

Add a Topic
5971
Add a Topic
503
Add a Topic
370
👍 21650
Richard Post
Guest
Richard Post
March 19, 2016 4:36 pm

Hahaha The Babylon Money Code? Anyone dumb enough to be curious in something as obviously phony as that old scam deserves to lose it ALL!

Harold Hansen
Member
November 30, 2015 11:11 pm

Thanks Again to all that would care to help me.
My Meds alone right now for my CPS are over
$300 and it comes out of my pocket!
Please find me on ” gofundme /Harold, “and I can’t
Tell you how much this will help me fight this
Cancer, Bless You All!! Harold Hansen

Add a Topic
3397
g holden
Guest
g holden
December 5, 2015 10:47 pm
Reply to  Harold Hansen

For Harold Hanson. What is CPS???
I am unable to find any cancer with the initial CPS
Cannot help, unless I have the facts.
Reply direct – and copy me please
Holden

Add a Topic
3397
David
Guest
David
December 10, 2015 11:15 am
Reply to  g holden

I would have to assume he is referring to Chronic Pain Syndrome (CPS). Currently it is a medically appropriate diagnosis a portion of the population that are truly debilated to the point of rarely achieving relief from severe pain of non-specific origin. Unfortunately, too many people are able to malinger into this or like diagnoses that assist them in receiving disability benefits which are way easier than most of us that work for an honest living.
The worst part about it is those who really have severe and chronic pain conditions are viewed with skepticism probably more often than they should be.

Robert Rickenbaugh
Guest
Robert Rickenbaugh
December 27, 2015 5:11 pm
Reply to  Harold Hansen

MMS will cost about $35.00 per month for 2-3 months and cancer should be gone

Add a Topic
3397
rockyeast
rockyeast
December 1, 2015 5:59 am

For an American investor this “may” turn out just fine. The Canadian $ is quite low these days trading around US$0.75. Last time it was lower was in 2002 when it hit US$0.62. This was when WTIC (crude) hit US$18 per barrel. If crude goes to US$30 per barrel then there is further exchange rate risk.

Myron Martin
Irregular
December 1, 2015 10:16 am

With even Wal-Mart suffering from a moribund economy, prospects in Canada are not looking good. With a new Prime Minister that “dreams in technicolor” an idealist “central planner” likely to spend us into oblivion, while oil revenues continue to drop further with climate change commitments destroying the viability of oil sands production and militant environmentalists stalling pipelines to either coast to facilitate export, things look pretty bleak. The only positive I can see for American investors is lower costs for miners as the loonie declines and makes sales of base and precious metals priced in U.S. dollars profitable for Canadian based miners, as long as it holds up, but that itself is a “BIG IF.”
Will new technology and innovation rescue us, only time will tell.

Add a Topic
976
Add a Topic
1515
Add a Topic
359
kpanzer
kpanzer
December 1, 2015 1:47 pm

What a fool believes he sees.

Tampabob
Member
Tampabob
December 1, 2015 4:19 pm

Canadian income tax is withheld on Canadian dividends.

Add a Topic
996
Add a Topic
152
Brainbox
Member
Brainbox
December 6, 2015 11:49 am

Hi Travis. Have you heard of Jeff Siegel & his $1999 report on how to tap into legal drug trading, based in Canada? Apparently this involves investing in one or two Canadian companies, whose share price has doubled recently. Would be interested to know which companies these are.

Add a Topic
264
Add a Topic
1515
carolyn hurst
Member
carolyn hurst
December 19, 2015 6:12 pm

Don’t people have better things to do, than to get peoples hope up. I feel sadden by this, I’m suure your mother is unhappy with you as well.

Mrs. Hopkins
Guest
Mrs. Hopkins
December 21, 2015 7:44 pm

HI, can you tell me how to sign up for the Wal-01 (k) plan as I am interested in trying to generate more income. Thanks

Add a Topic
996
👍 21650
promqueen
Guest
promqueen
February 15, 2016 3:59 pm

Thank you Travis, for this very informative article. They almost had me hooked, but that little voice inside kept saying “If it sounds to good to be true, it usually is”

OWEN BLACKBURN
Guest
January 20, 2016 12:01 am

Good Morning. I live in South Africa.[DURBAN]
How can i invest in South Africa?
I await your response.
Kind Regards.
Owen.

Add a Topic
22
Chris Hayne
Guest
February 1, 2016 4:49 pm

The most money being made today is having a lot of people to pay me $100 each to tell them how I made a million about seven times over starting at age 18 in great detail. As soon as I have 100 takers (taken) I will start my book and every paid member will receive one,
I guarantee the value of this book will be returned to you, no questions ask! Who knows? I may make a few more millions after my soon 84th birthday?

Add a Topic
372
SoGiAm
February 1, 2016 5:40 pm
Reply to  Chris Hayne

Wheare do I send the money? 😛

👍 11604
anwar ahmad
Guest
anwar ahmad
February 1, 2016 6:55 pm
Reply to  SoGiAm

I Want to open wal 01k plan.

anwar ahmad
Guest
anwar ahmad
February 1, 2016 11:46 pm
Reply to  anwar ahmad

I want to open wal 01k plan.

anwar ahmad
Guest
anwar ahmad
February 1, 2016 11:46 pm
Reply to  anwar ahmad

I want to open wal 01k plan.

promqueen
Guest
promqueen
February 15, 2016 3:58 pm
Reply to  anwar ahmad

Anwar, do not open a Wal-01K. See Travis Johnson’s article at top of page on SmartREIT

arto525
arto525
March 19, 2016 6:34 pm

Anyone here interested in buying a used bridge? 🙂

👍 4
Mamiki
Guest
Mamiki
March 20, 2016 5:31 am

I’m a house wife I want to make money or earn monthly tell me the first step to do

We use cookies on this site to enhance your user experience. By clicking any link on this page you are giving your consent for us to set cookies.

More Info  
32
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x