I got a very quiet Black Friday here in New Brunswick. I wasn't in need of anything in particular so I just skipped it. If I would have been in Montreal, I would probably have done a bit of shopping. A few days ago, I cancel my subscription to Stockopedia. Not that I didn't like it anymore, but the annual subscription and even their monthly subscription don't come cheap. I just didn't feel like I needed to renew it, at least not for now. However, I am not closing the door to Stockopedia. My plan is to subscribe for a month or two later on during the year 2023, when it will make a long time since I didn't consult it. Or whenever I really miss it.
I could afford to keep Stockopedia, especially since I will be receiving very soon a $400 credit coming from the Quebec government, but I prefer to stay on the safe side when it comes to my expenses. Here at home in New Brunswick, a few windows are in great need of changes and I will probably give that $400 to my old folks, to change the very old window that is in my bedroom. We have at least 3 other small windows that are in critical need of a replacement. It makes my old folks laugh when I tell them that I am a Quebecker. Here in New Brunswick, nothing is being given to the population in terms of an "inflation" bonus. I make less than $100,000, but more than $50,000 per year, which qualifies me for the $400, and not the $600 bonus. However, for 2023, I can already say that I won't be earning as much as I did so far in 2022. It's not necessarily a bad thing.
Anyway, despite the fact that I am really happy to receive that extra $400, I feel the Quebec government is not doing the right thing. With that money, they should cover the education cost for young adults who want to become a nurse or doctor, or for whatever profession in the healthcare industry. Giving money to give money is not doing any good to fight inflation. Giving away money for just the heck of it - and that's really what the Quebec government is doing - doesn't serve any social purpose. While having the luxury to hold to so much money like the Quebec government does, it would be nice to see that money working at making things better. A lot can be done, and I am excessively jealous of Quebec society, to have as much as they have. Currently, I feel that New Brunswick is kind of falling apart. The province is dealing with many problems, homelessness in the big cities, lack of care - some people had died at the emergency room in Moncton, lack of apartments available - we have some foreign students who have a really really hard time just finding a place to live etc... None of those problems are brand new, but now, it feels like the problems are hitting the population in a harder way.
The end of the year is coming in a hurry and soon enough, it will be time to invest a bit in my RRSP contribution. Again this year, I did several extra hours at work and the only way not to pay extra in taxes or ease the process is to invest in my RRSP. I already invest in my RRSP at work, but it's only a small amount. I would need to invest I guess another $3,000-$4,000 inside my RRSP to make a positive difference. Now that I have a good amount in my non-registered and TFSA portfolio, I can certainly afford to invest in my RRSP, but I never find RRSP to be very interesting.
I updated my investment portfolio this weekend. I was quite pleased to find out that my net worth is now in the $347,000. The old $360k doesn't appear to be that far anymore. Today wasn't a very good day for the TSX. I was listening to BNN this morning, just to learn that RBC is looking forward to buying HSBC Canada. As result, RBC closed today's session on a little +0.42% gain. It's better than no gain at all. My non-registered portfolio closed today's session at $146,796.70, my US portfolio at $5,341.23, my RRSP stocks-only portfolio at $61,243,21, and my TFSA portfolio at $125,113.04.
Other than RBC, Saputo had to deal with some troublemakers. I hold some Saputo Inc. (SAP) shares in my TFSA portfolio. Recently, I was looking into the holdings of JFT Strategies Fund Class A Units (JFS.UN), as I taught maybe find in there something that will blow my mind, but I just find some really basic boring stuff. Among others, JFS.UN is invested in Telus, Wajax, BCE... and Saputo. You can find a more detailed list right here. Today, because of this, Saputo's value decreased by -5.92%. It's a major drop. But it didn't seem to affect my investment in JFT Strategies Fund Class A Units (JFS.UN), which gain today by +1.195%.
I don't know how things will turn out for Saputo, but that saga between Saputo and Spruce Point Capital Management reminds me of what I went through a little while back between Exchange Income Corporation (EIF) and Exchange Income Corporation (EIF) and Marc Cohodes. In both cases, we are dealing with some American idiots who are looking forward to destroying some valuable Canadian businesses with their short-selling shitty business. This will pass. Just like it did for Marc Cohodes. Do you ever hear of Marc Cohodes these days? The answer to that question is no.
Sometimes, you have Americans like Cohodes who are short-selling loudly our Canadian businesses, but that's more noise than anything else. People like Marc Cohodes and the other guys are just big on noise, but at the end of the day, the offensive is limitless, just like their brains. Don't be scared of the noise. Next to the TSX, those little guys are worthless.
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