(This was originally published in the August 2017 version of The Dividend Growth Newsletter. It is available here.)

NAFTA talks aren’t going anywhere. North Korea continues to be a thorn in everyone’s side. Hurricane Harvey is the worst natural disaster on American soil since Katrina. The Bank of Canada is seriously contemplating an interest rate hike. Stock market valuations remain high. Housing prices continue to climb. We’re nearly three-quarters through the year, but we’re still no closer to figuring out the head scratchers of 2017. The TSX is down more than 1 percent this past month, and the S&P 500 a little less than that.

It could be a lot worse… but that’s not the proper mindset for investing. Investors don’t want to just lose less money than the next guy, they want to see their portfolios grow. Losing money doesn’t feel good, even when you lose less than the market. And when the markets fall, selling positions to generate cash isn’t a sustainable strategy.

Investing isn’t always about total return. Achieving financial objectives can be planned using specific income goals, and that’s where dividend aristocrats come in with their fixed payments and attractive yields. The key is to hold steady through rough waters, and that’s what these portfolios are designed to do – no new portfolio positions have been initiated this past month.