February Update: Breaking Records, New Purchases & More

Another month has come and gone – which means time for the monthly update post!

Personal Highlights for February:

• Finished reading “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely.  Was a pretty interesting read – and reminded me of one of my favourite books “Thinking fast & slow”.  Currently looking for book recommendations on what to start next.  In the mean time I am flipping through “Warren Buffet & the Interpretation of Financial Statements” which I had read a long time ago.
• I was able to write 5 new blog posts in February.
• I reserved my Winnipeg Jet Playoff tickets.  These tickets will end up costing me between $300-$3500 depending how far they go which makes me both happy and frustrated at the same time..hah
• Started watching “Peaky Blinders” on Netflix.  So far so I like it.
• Found a home day care for BOTH kids – which will be able to take them by May 1st so Amber can go back to work once her maternity leave ends….and the best part – it’s 5 minutes from my house!
• Last month I had over 1000 visitors to the blog (which was a new record).  This month I smashed that record:

• I had over 1300 visitors this month!  Thanks for stopping by and reading/leaving comments.

Financial Highlights for February:

• February was the first full month since I transferred all my RBC Mutual funds into my Direct Investing account.
• I updated my portfolio page to make my holdings a little easier to read.
• Started preparing my taxes.
• Continued bi weekly payments into RRSPs & Spousal RSP.
• Made $1250 from selling some memorabilia that was just sitting in my closet.  You can read more about that here
• Made 2 new stock purchases in my TFSA.  Added to my position in Algonquin Power & opened a position in Interrent REIT.  You can read about my most recent purchase HERE
• My overall portfolio value went down for the first time in 6 months due to the volatility in the market, however as things leveled out it finished the month down just -1.07%.

 

Passive Income Update For February 2018.

TFSA’S:

Diversified Royalty: $9.10 (Dripped 2 new shares)

Artis Reit: $50.13! First time breaking $50 (Dripped 3 shares)

Plaza Reit: $25.75 (Dripped 6 shares)

Chorus Aviation: $10.84 (Dripped 1 share)

TFSA’s Total: $95.82  

RRSP:

Canadian Equity Income Distribution: $242.88

Total Passive Income January 2018:  $338.70 

 

Portfolio Update:

My portfolio decreased by 1.07% month over month.  This is first time my portfolio has decreased in 6 months. The early retirement portfolio now sits at $303,31.11.

Dividends grew by $48.67 vs last February(year over year growth of 16%).

Although February wasn’t a great month for dividend income, I expect to see huge improvements vs last year( mostly due to my funds being switched to direct investing).

Current Watch List:

Andrew Peller: ADW

Cascades: CAS

InterRent Reit: IIP

Northview Apartment Reit: NVU

Caledonia Mining: CAL

My Watchlist hasn’t changed from last month, but I did initiate a position in InterRent Reit.

 

That’s it!  Hope everyone else had a great February – and if you have any book recommendations let me know!!

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New Purchase..and the one that got away(for now)

About 3-4 years ago, I had my eye on a stock – a Residential Reit that kept showing up on all my stock screens.  Unfortunately I never pulled the trigger.  That stock was Northview Apartment Reit – and at the time it was trading around $14.00/share.  Today it is trading at $24 (and would have been paying me a juicy 7%+ dividend on cost for the last 3 years as well.

Truth be told – Northview is still a great stock, and trading at a great price, and one day I may initiate a position – but today is not that day.  For now Northview is still the one that got away….

I did learn my lesson though – and I won’t let another great stock get away!

For the last 6+ months, every time I ran a custom stock screen – another company kept coming up.  It trades at a very low multiple, has a reasonable payout ratio, pays a solid & more importantly SAFE dividend and a growing revenue/NOI.  In a lot of ways it reminds me of Northview REIT.

The company: Interrent Reit

About Interrent (From their website):
InterRent REIT is a growth-oriented real estate investment trust engaged in increasing Unitholder value and creating a growing and sustainable distribution through the acquisition and ownership of multi-residential properties.  

A few highlights from their most recent news release:

• Gross rental revenue for the year increased by 9.0%, or $9.0 million, to $108.5 million.
• Gross rental revenue from stabilized operations for the year increased by 4.4%, or $3.5 million, to $83.0 million.
• Occupancy up in 2017 to 98.4%
• NOI margin for the year was 60.7%.
• AFFO per fully diluted unit for the year was $0.374, an increase of 11.0% over 2016.
• AFFO Payout ratio decreased 3% over the year to 65.8%

Aside from all the fundamentals looking strong – it also fits into a category I was looking to get some exposure to (Residential REIT’s).  I already own Plaza & Artis, so it was a natural fit.

Unfortunately I didn’t have much capital to deploy so I was only able to pick up 103 shares.  This purchase will add $2.31 to my monthly income.

I plan to add to my position over the next few months – until I am able to fully drip a share each month.  At the current stock price & dividend , this means I need to acquire another 340 shares or so.

What do you think of this purchase/stock? Do you own it?  Let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does this count as a side hustle? Also I made a *New Purchase*

I see a lot of personal finance bloggers talk about side hustles. This is just a “cool” way to say make some extra cash on the side.  People do all sorts of things (monetize their blogs, complete surveys, drive Uber, rent out their home on AirBnB, etc.  I don’t really have the desire or time right now to worry about anything like that – however one thing I can get behind is getting rid of the clutter in my house and selling some of the things I’ve accumulated over the years that I really have no need for.

I’ve always been somewhat of a collector, everything from comics, to hockey cards, to coins, and memorabilia.  I realized I have a lot of sports memorabilia, and now that we moved I am not sure if I will ever hang any of it up.  At our old place I had the basement walls full of things – however we recently moved and the rec room in the new house doesn’t really suit a “man cave”.  One day I may redo the basement into a bit of a man cave – but probably not…so in the meantime I have a few cool items that are just collecting dust.  I decided to list one of my more unique pieces for sale since it was literally sitting a closet collecting dust.  It was a game worn NHL All star Jersey which I had won in a sports auction by our local team.  The team said the prize was valued at $2700 although I knew i wouldn’t get that.  I listed it on Kijiji and a Facebook group and within 3 days had about 10 offers.  I finally ended up settling on an offer for $1250 to a local collector.

Here is a picture of me wearing the Jersey the day I won it:

I felt a little bad about losing the jersey – but thought to myself in the 3 years that I’ve had it – I’ve probably looked at it 5 times.  In the end – I am really happy with the decision and the next day I transferred the proceeds into my TFSA and made a new purchase!

I was debating between the following stocks: (all which have been on my watchlist for some time)

Andrew Peller, Cascades, Interrent Reit, Northview Apartment Reit, Caledonia Mining.

I looked at each of them again today – but ended up deciding against all of them (mainly due to the fact I wouldn’t have enough to drip a full share of any of them).  I decided to start looking at some of my current holdings to see if any were at a price I felt comfortable adding to (and would put me in a position to drip more shares).  I eventually narrowed it down to Western Forest, Algonquin Power & Power Corp of Canada.

In the end I settled on ol’ faithful Algonquin Power.  I was able to add 98 shares – which means I should now drip 10 full shares each quarter.  This purchase will add $57.10 to my annual dividend income (based on the current exchange rate).

I am not sure if or when I will list anything else for sale – but it definitely feels good to get something out of the house that we weren’t using and be able to to put the proceeds to work for us.

PS — Happy valentine’s day.  Go get laid!

Worried about this stock market dip? If so – you’re doing it wrong!

I cannot believe the amount of worried/panicked Tweets, Facebook posts & Articles I have seen the last couple of days (especially from people in the personal finance community).

Everybody breathe.  It’s going to be okay.

I’m going to break this down for you: Markets go up AND down.  Crazy right?

The last little while has been an exceptional run for the markets, and now it looks like a correction or perhaps even a big pull could happen.  THIS IS NORMAL.  It has happened before and it will happen again.  What should you do? NOTHING!  Stick to your plan.

Everyone knows the phrase “buy low, sell high” but so few people actually follow this advice.  Don’t get me wrong I GET IT – holding during a big drop can really test your nerves…but PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD – don’t fall for the sky is falling routine – you will be better off holding (or buying more during a big dip).  If you are close to retirement or  the phase of your life when you need to start withdrawing funds – chances are you have already adjusted your portfolio accordingly and have nothing to worry about – and if you haven’t then why are you reading this post – you clearly don’t listen to good advice:)

Don’t worry about timing the market for good buys.  Just remember:

TIME IN THE MARKET >>> TIMING THE MARKET 

Keep finding solid companies, with proven track records and don’t worry about the rest of the noise.  Of course you would be better off buying a solid company at its low point – but SPOILER ALERT you don’t know when that will be – and neither does anyone else.

If you routinely look at your portfolio and get excited or upset about hourly, daily or weekly fluctuations, you are doing it wrong.  Find companies you believe in, and will let you sleep well at night.  If you are making decisions based on daily stock price  fluctuations you are not an investor, you are a gambler.

Sorry for my little rant – but my news feeds are seriously filled with panic, and people asking insane questions about what they should do.  My answer:

Sit tight and don’t do anything you will regret it.  You have a plan (obviously since you are reading personal finance blogs) so stick with it and you will be fine. Now ignore the noise and enjoy the rest of your day!