Over the last couple of months, I’ve been trying to focus a little more on Asset allocation, geographical diversification and taking as much control of my portfolio as I can by selling some funds and starting to funnel everything into my direct investing portfolio.
I decided it would be fun to do a “deep dive” into my own portfolio. I had a rough idea of what I held in each fund, what % of my funds are in equity vs real estate – etc – but I thought it would be interesting to dig into each one, and take a look. I was also curious at what rate my overall portfolio was growing, my monthly dividends were growing, and how my asset allocation changed if I included my house & cabin vs just looking at my investment portfolio. I also thought it would help if I made it as visual as possible – so I created some charts & graphs to help along the way.
Investment Portfolio Growth:
Let’s start with the basics: Total Investment Portfolio. When I first started tracking my investments (January 2015), I had a portfolio valued at $160,314.49. It has been 37 months since I started tracking my journey….let’s see where are now:
At the time of writing this my investment portfolio sits at: $303,131.11. In a short 3 year period – I have almost doubled my portfolio value. Not too shabby – but before I start getting to excited it is important to understand why this happened…
This was due to a few factors:
- Cash injections (regular bi-weekly automated contributions, and some one off stock purchases)
- Continued bull market run
- Got lucky on a few marijuana stocks which I sold/flipped for 300+% gains into some safer stocks. You can read more about that HERE
- Dripping/Compounding effect.
I obviously don’t expect to double my portfolio every 3 years, in fact I am somewhat expecting the portfolio to take some big dips over the next few months – or whenever the market decides to correct itself.
The market has been red hot the last few years – and nobody knows when it will come crashing down (but it will – and that’s okay). If I was closer to retirement, I’d probably be reducing my equity % in my portfolio, and increasing my fixed income % – but I have time on my side. That said – I did start to wonder how my current portfolio looks in terms of Equities Vs Fixed Income Vs Real Estate. So let’s take a look.
Asset Allocation/Geographical Allocation:
I decided to look at this in 2 ways – first just looking at my investments, and then including my house & cabin. I will only include the equity I have in my house (deduct the mortgage) and I will include the full cabin, since it has no mortgage.
Let’s see how it breaks down.
I am sure 99% of financial advisor’s would cringe at the low fixed income %, however to be honest what worries me most is how over exposed I am to the Canadian market. In fact, prior to switching one of my Mutual funds to direct investing and swapping it to XAW (All world, EX Canada) my Canadian exposure was closer to 60%. All my accounts are registered so there are no tax implications right now – or need to have a higher and more preferential Canadian % of equities. My plan is to slowly try and get to:
- 30% Canadian Equitiy
- 50% Foreign Equity
- 10% Real estate
- 10% Fixed Income (increasing as I get older)
I was curious to see how much this would change, if I included my real estate (just what I actually own). Results are:
When I include my physical real estate (minus mortgage) the real estate % jumps up to 35% of my assets – which I *THINK* is normal – but I could be way off. Let me know if these numbers seem about where they should be.
Passive Income:
The number one thing most people online who blog about finances/investing (at least the people I follow) seem to cover/focus on is there monthly dividend/passive income streams. If I am being honest, I never paid too much attention to my monthly “passive income” and probably still don’t as much as most bloggers I follow. I’ve always been more interested in overall total portfolio growth/gains. I always figured – as long as my overall gains are beating the markets, eventually I can switch my portfolio to more income producing assets – and the larger the portfolio – the more income i’ll get. That said – I’d be lying If I said I didn’t get a thrill from seeing monthly income going up – or seeing a stock I own getting a dividend raise. Also now that I am getting older I think it is important to start thinking about how much income i’ll need each month and looking for ways to grow my monthly income.
I only have 3 years of data to look at – but I figured I should look at how my monthly dividend income is coming along. Here are two ways to look at it:
Monthly Gains Year over year:
Total Monthly Dividends:
*One important thing to note, 40% of my total portfolio is currently in a fund that pays ZERO dividends. Once I inevitably switch this fund to my direct investing, my monthly dividends should increase substantially (an extra $275-$400 per month depending what I invest it in).
The good news is – that even though monthly passive income hasn’t been a priority for me over the last 3 years – it is still going up each month(for the most part) . When you look at the year over year growth it looks even better.
Account Allocation:
Lastly, I wanted to look at what types of accounts my investments are held in to get a better understanding of if I am on the right track – specifically from a taxable income in retirement view. Here is what the numbers say:
My RRSP accounts for over 80% of my total investments, while my spousal RRSP is currently under 2%. If this keeps up – it clearly won’t be the most efficient use of savings in retirement as my taxable income will be pretty high. Our TFSA’s currently account for 16% of our investments which will be nice in retirement. The kids education fund doesn’t have anything in it yet – as I just opened it – but this will be a focus over the next few years as well.
A couple takeaways:
- My personal yield is pretty low. If I look at my total average dividends paid out last year vs the average value of my portfolio – my personal yield is only 1.7%. The good news is – I can easily increase this when I need more income by switching my funds with no yield to something that pays a monthly/quarterly dividend.
- My fixed income allocation is extremely low(2%). Personally I am okay with this right now, as I consider myself an aggressive investor and I am still fairly young (contrary to what my body says)….but I should start to slowly increase this over the next few years.
- I would like to reduce my exposure to Canadian Equities – this can be replaced with some fixed income/foreign equity.
- To ensure maximum tax efficiencies in retirement I need to get my spousal RRSP closer to mine – as well as ensure our TFSA’s are maxed. I’ve already started the process by reducing my RRSP contributions and increasing what I put into the spousal RRSP.
Some questions for other bloggers/investors:
- What % of real estate do you hold? How much if you include your personal residence(s)?
- What is your personal yield? Do you focus more on total growth or monthly income growth?
- Would you be concerned with my high exposure to Canada or low exposure to fixed income?
I am having dinner with a good friend of mine tomorrow who is a financial advisor. I am very curious to hear his thoughts 🙂
As always – Any other questions or concerns/comments? Let me know in the comments!
