You’ve got to watch Derek Foster’s interview with Robin Speziale on YouTube!

Hey, I just found this interview with Derek Foster on YouTube. Derek was interviewed by Robin Speziale about two weeks ago. Go check it out! It clarifies an important fact: for some reason, I’d recently been thinking about Derek Foster and had a question in my mind about how many kids he and his wife have. The last number I remembered was six, but I knew that wasn’t quite right. Seven didn’t feel correct either, and eight seemed like… too many, lol! Well, it turns out Derek Foster has a beautiful family of eight kids (if I heard correctly)! And he’s now a grandfather! You’ve got to check it out. 

I started investing in stocks after reading Derek Foster’s books back in 2007–2008. If I hadn’t read his books, I probably wouldn’t have started investing in stocks in my late twenties. To this day, he remains the best author in the field of personal finance. Honestly, you can skip all the others or save them for later and go straight to his work. He still has his original website, and I’d love to read an updated version of Stop Working or The Lazy Investor.

I won’t be updating my investment portfolio this evening—it’s already quite late. My portfolio closed the day with a loss of over $1,700. Here’s where my accounts stand as of today:

Non-registered portfolio: $150,730.72

U.S. stock portfolio: $5,962.55 USD

RRSP stocks-only portfolio: $84,492.11

TFSA portfolio: $138,592.19

Since I paid off my margin debt in mid-December, I’ve noticed that my participation in National Bank Direct Brokerage’s Fully-Paid Securities Lending Program has started to kick in. It began with my shares of iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index (XRE) and National Bank of Canada (NA). Then, my shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) were lent out, and more recently, I noticed that my shares of Methanex Corporation (MX) and South Bow Corporation (SOBO) were also borrowed.

I was quite surprised to see MX shares being borrowed, but it makes sense since MX is highly volatile. December is ending tomorrow, and I can’t wait to see how much I’ll earn from the program—even if it’s just a few dollars. I should receive my financial compensation around January 4. It seems logical that the earnings from U.S. stocks will be deposited into my U.S. account.

This Fully-Paid Securities Lending Program is new to me. I’ll keep providing updates as I go along, and eventually, I’ll write a summary of everything I’ve learned. There isn’t much information out there about the program and how it works, so I think it could be helpful. So far, I’ve noticed that only non-registered portfolios (both Canadian and U.S.) are eligible. It also seems that if you carry margin debt, your accounts won’t qualify. I noticed my stocks started being lent out as soon as my margin debt was paid off in mid-December. You don’t get to know who is borrowing your shares, as that part remains a mystery. Each time my shares are borrowed, I receive a PDF notice in the form of an activity receipt. 

This past Friday marked my last paycheck for 2024. I earned a bit over $65K before taxes and around $5K from dividend distributions, bringing my total income to roughly $70,000 for 2024.

As I mentioned before, I sold all of my BCE shares and partially sold my BYD shares, planning to reinvest that money into my RRSP. I’m glad I did because BCE closed today below $33 per share. I had been holding those BCE shares in my TFSA. To reinvest, I transferred the funds to my non-registered portfolio before contributing them to my RRSP yesterday.

By doing this, I hope to recover the $5K I lost by selling BCE shares. Overall, I’ve contributed $15K to my RRSP this year, including $4K from my work RRSP. I’m usually not a big fan of RRSPs, but since I registered a $5K capital loss in my TFSA, I felt this was the quickest way to recover. I’m hoping for a $5K tax refund, though it might only be $3K—it’s hard to estimate. Regardless, I won’t be contributing any more to my RRSP in 2024. I also have some medical expenses and interest on my margin debt to declare as financial fees. Hopefully, these will help me maximize my tax return.

On a brighter note, thanks to my last paycheck, I now have close to $1,000 in savings. This is the first time since paying off my margin debt in mid-December that I’ve managed to save something in my chequing account.

I’ve created a mini budget for the upcoming year. If I can stick to it, I could save $26,000 by the end of 2025—or, if I’m lucky, even hit $28K with some overtime. It’s going to be tough because the budget is quite restrictive. It’s not entirely realistic, but that’s how I approach budgeting: aim high and push myself. And it sincerely doesn't matter if the objective isn't reached—because it's honestly quite far-fetched!