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.

Advertisement