January 2021: New Dividend Record & I did something crazy…

Dividend Income & Portfolio Update

Personal Highlights – January 2021

• I joined the Winnipeg Whiskey Club for the 2021 year with my brother and another friend.  We had our first virtual tasting last week which was a nice entry to the club.  It was a Bowmore tasting, where we sampled the Bowmore 12, Bowmore 15 & Bowmore 18 year expressions.  I made it a goal to try and broaden my horizons this year as for as Whiskey goes.  I am a big time bourbon lover – and joining the Whiskey Club should allow me to really try a ton of scotches to help achieve this goal.
• We are still in code red in Winnipeg, however restrictions have been slightly lifted, as we are now allowed up to 2 designated people in our houses.  This means the kids were finally able to sleep over at Grandmas house again for the first time in months (and they had a blast).  We probably enjoyed it more as we got to sleep in and watch a ton of TV.
• I’ve been continuing with my mini fitness kick.  I’ve been consistently running between 3-4 miles per day 5 days a week, and have cut out all pop, candy, chocolate, etc during the week.  I’ve also cut back my drinking as much as reasonably possible (mostly just weekends), with the occasional “cheat day” for wine with dinner.  As of last check I was down about 18 pounds!
• Hockey is back!  With everything going on in the world, I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get as excited about it as normal, but it didn’t take long after the puck drop and watching the Jets to get right back into it.  We also had our annual hockey pool draft which was (obviously) done virtually.  My team is off to a decent start (it helps when you have McDavid) , but it’s a long season and it’s been a few years since I’ve had my name on the trophy.
• I picked up a couple new bottles to add to the collection in January.  High West Campfire Whiskey & Highwest Bourye.  I haven’t tried them yet, but looking forward to opening these.  These were snagged from a private liquor store in another province, since we unfortunately don’t  have access to any high west products in Manitoba.
  
  

  
  Financial Highlights for January:

• I did something kind of crazy.  I debated if I should even post it on here or not – but what the hell.  On January 18th, when protestors were storming the capitol building and someone was shot, I had a feeling things were gonna get ugly fast. I ended up selling my entire position in XAW (5199 shares) for just over $161,000.  My thinking was if things get crazy, markets might tank and I can rebuy in at a lower price – and if not, worst case scenario, I’ll just buy them back in a few weeks.  I know it’s dumb to try and time the markets, but something just wasn’t sitting right with me.  That said, the next couple days XAW continued to rise and I started thinking I made a big mistake.  Then the Gamestop/WallStreetBets fiasco started to unravel.  I am still sitting on most of the cash from the sale, and my plan is to still rebuy shares of XAW, but I am okay sitting on some cash right now as things continue to be crazy in the markets.  I did actually use some of the cash to pick up 600 shares of Alimentation Couche Tard when it dropped 10% on the news of a possible deal.  I plan to write a more in depth post about my decision to sell XAW (for now) and when I plan to rebuy into it. 
• Made 2 stock purchase.  I picked up 600 shares of Alimentation Couche Tard @ 37.10, and 1213 shares of Greenlane Renewables @ 2.38.  The purchase of Couche Tard adds an additional $210.00 to my annual dividend income.  The XAW sale will reduce my dividend income by around $3000 – though in reality, as long as I buy back before June, I won’t miss out on any dividends.
• Had my all time highest dividend income month in January, and first time cracking $2000!
• Got dividends from 12 companies and 2 funds.  Including first every distribution from new holding Nexus Reit.  Dripped a total of 100 new shares/units!
• Started getting my info together for tax time.  Hoping to get a fairly decent return and will put the majority of it into TFSA.

Passive Income Update For January 2021.

TFSA’S:

Telus: $56.64 (dripped 2 shares)

Canadian Western Bank: $0.24

Artis Reit: $37.87 (dripped 3 shares)

European Residential Reit: $7.81(dripped 1 share)

Plaza Reit: 31.22 (Dripped 8 Shares)

Algonquin Power: $182.65 (dripped 9 shares)

Diversified Royalty: $24.05 (dripped 10 new shares)

Interrent Reit: $4.50

Nexus Reit: $14.49 (dripped 7 New Shares)

TFSA’s Total: $359.47

RRSP:

XAW: $1181.42 (dripped 32 shares)
Go Easy Financial: $123.75
New Flyer: $59.29 (dripped 1 share)
Transcontinental: $202.05 (dripped 9 shares)
Canadian Equity Income Distribution: $363.03 (dripped 12 shares)

Total Passive Income January 2021:  $2289.01

Portfolio Update:

My portfolio (including cash position) increased another 1.23% in January to a new record high: $435,305.98.   I am currently sitting on about $140,000 in cash in my RRSP which as discussed earlier will be plunked back into XAW eventually. Due to the temporary sale of XAW my forward dividend income dropped below $10,000, however I expect this to be back closer to $13,000 once I repurchase my shares of XAW.  The only cash I’ve used from the sale of XAW so far was to purchase 600 shares of ATD.B.  Ideally, the price will drop enough that I will be able to rebuy the same amount of shares of XAW I held previously, and the 600 new shares of Couche Tard will be icing on the cake.  This was the first time cracking $2000 in passive income, my previous record was $1884.84.  

My trailing 12 month return (excluding contributions) was 11.825%.  

I don’t have anything too high on my watchlist right now, however I’d like to add to my positions in Telus and Manulife this year if they drop.  I am still hoping to see dividends reinstated for Western Forest and a dividend raise from Artis Reit, Algonquin & Power Corp in 2021 as well.

Hope you had a great January. 

Cheers!

 

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December Dividend Update & Year in Review

Dividend Income & Portfolio Update

Personal Highlights – December 2020

• My fitness kick has slowed slightly over the last week as I was on holidays and Christmas and New Years made it tough – but I fully plan on continuing into the new year.  I’ve got a fitbit tracking my steps, i’m running on the treadmill almost every day and besides the last few days I’ve been eating better and drinking less. Over the last month I’ve already lost around 10 pounds.
• Christmas & New Years Eve although very tame (we stayed home obviously) were great.  We had a very low key Christmas, but were able to see our families on both sides via video calls, and the kids got spoiled as usual.  We had a bunch of appetizers for Christmas, and I made some cocktails, and for NYE the wife made Manicotti with salad and garlic bread (I chipped in with more cocktails, including a Raspberry Margarita to start the day off in the new Blender that Santa brought)!
• We started out the new year by heading to Kildonan Park and going sledding. The kids had a blast (okay I did too) and since the weather is supposed to be great all weekend, I think we will probably be heading back the next couple days.
  
  
• My Brother turned 40 on December 29th.  For his birthday his lady turned one of the spare bedrooms into a study/library/whisky room.  It looks great, and his shelves are now full.  My sister and I decided to get him (and myself) a membership to the Winnipeg Whisky Club, which will allow us to sample a ton of fine & rare whiskies over the course of the year.
• Over the last couple weeks we finally got some snow.  I’ve started piling it all in the backyard for the kids to play on…so far they love it and it’s been nice to get outside when we can.
  
• The wife and I started watching Lost.  She has already seen it – but I never did, so we’ve been spending almost every waking hour (when the kids are asleep) binging it.  Currently on season 2.  There are a LOT of episodes…
• Last but not least, a good buddy had a layover in Calgary on his way home, and stopped by the World of Whisky and was nice enough to bring me back a few bottles that we cannot get in Manitoba.
  
  

  
  Financial Highlights for December:

• Made my first purchase in 3 months.  I picked up 1078 shares of Nexus REIT.  This purchase adds an additional $173.92 to my annual dividend income.
• Portfolio hit a new all time high.
• With the addition of December’s dividends my dividend income for the year was over $10,000 for the first time ever.
• Next month should be a very nice month as far as dividends go.  A few large positions are paying dividends in January such as: Algonquin Power,  Telus, Go Easy, Transcontinental and most importantly XAW (which is my largest holding).
• Already got my T4, so I plan on filing my taxes within the next couple of weeks.  Normally I wait for the first 60 days RRSP contributions, but since I had taken a temporary pay cut for part of 2020 due to covid my income was lower so I’ll save those RRSP contributions for next year.

Passive Income Update For December 2020.

TFSA’S:

Artis Reit: $36.63 (dripped 3 shares)

European Residential Reit: $7.78(dripped 1 share)

Plaza Reit: 31.03 (Dripped 8 Shares)

Diversified Royalty: $24.05 (dripped 10 new shares)

Interrent Reit: $4.50

Manulife: $41.44 (dripped 1 share)

Intertape Polymer Group: $55.15

TFSA’s Total: $200.58

RRSP:

Canadian Equity Income Distribution: $361.76(dripped 12 shares)

RBC US Equity Index Fund: $292.38 (dripped 9.978 units)

Total Passive Income December 2020:  $854.72

Portfolio Update:

My portfolio increased nother 2.73% in December to a new record high: $430,000.53!  Although I still think the market is insane right now considering the state of the global economies and unemployment rates I am feeling pretty optimistic about a few of my holdings for the future.  Specifically Western Forest and New Flyer which both had a terrible year, but things have started to run around.  I am hopeful Western Forest will reinstate the dividend before the end of 2021.

As I mentioned above 2020 was the first year I made over $10,000 in dividend income.  Since January 1st, I earned $10,822.54 in passive income.  Assuming no dividend cuts or increases, my current Forward 12 month dividend income is $12,294.49.  My goal for the year was finish 2020 with a forward dividend income of $12,000 – which I accomplished even with a few dividend cuts due to Covid!  I still haven’t made a goal for 2021 yet, but I’m leaning towards $15,000.

Here is a look at my total dividend income per year since I started tracking this 5 years ago:

Here are my year end Portfolio values on Dec 31 each year since I started as well:

One thing I’ve been working on this year was to try and get more income from my TFSA vs RRSP.  Currently 26.4% of my dividend income is tax free.  Hopefully when I write this recap next year that number is even higher.

This last year has been a wild ride.  We said goodbye to our fur baby Penny, I started a new job after being laid off from my previous job of 16 years, we went to Mexico in January and basically when we got back the whole world shut down.  All things considered the year could have been a lot worse.  We both still have jobs, we have got to spend a lot of time with the kids and we have all remained healthy.  We miss our friends and family, but we are hopeful things start to return to normal in the next few months and until then – like the rest of the world we will continue to stay positive and wait out the storm.

I hope you all had a great year, and have an ever better 2021!

Cheers.