Saying a big thank you and farewell to TFI International Inc. (TFII)

The TSX closed this past Friday at 25,147.03 points. We lost 367.05 points, representing a -1.44% drop in our beautiful index. One positive fact is that we are still holding above the precious 25,000-point mark, at least for now. Those 25,000 points are quite important in helping me navigate market volatility these days. My stock portfolio closed the session with a $1,500 loss. Never fun, but I have to hold on and remain positive, it's not more than $1.5K. The value of my stock portfolio is slowly declining, but nothing I haven’t seen before. Still, it’s no fun.

This past Friday, I decided to sell all of my TFI International Inc. (TFII) shares. And it’s not because the company is likely to move its headquarters from Quebec to the U.S. TFI International is a phenomenal Quebec success story, so you can imagine the media noise surrounding the possible move. However, it's important to know that TFI already has three main offices in the U.S.—more than it has in Canada, from what I know. It has been said that TFI generates 70% of its business in the U.S. Given this, the company may benefit from relocating its headquarters there. That move would certainly make Donald Trump very happy.

I have been a shareholder of TFII since around 2020. I discovered the stock through Stockopedia. At the time, I bought my shares for less than $40 each. Let me say that I was sitting on a lovely pile of cash when it came to my investment in TFI International Inc. (TFII). The company hasn’t had an easy quarter, and I sincerely don’t think it will get easier. If Trump wouldn’t be the U.S. president, I probably would have held onto my shares and waited for a recovery. It sometimes takes time, but recovery sometimes happens. Personally, my way of seeing things is that the stock market always wins, but one condition being to hold on to quality assets. That’s how I’ve mostly dealt with stock market volatility over the past 17 years.

However, this time, things are different because of Donald Trump. He wants to bring Canada to its knees and won’t be kind to us. Trump, his press secretary, and other team members keep referring to Canada as the “51st state,” which is quite insulting. The relationship between the U.S. and Canada is likely to change permanently. Everything is being disrupted, making it harder than ever to figure things out. No one can predict how the stock market will react on the long run, but one thing is certain—we will be dealing with extra volatility for quite some time. Taking some profits from stocks could be a good idea.

I am usually very conservative. For the most part, I am a buy-and-hold investor, and that strategy has paid off for me. Until recently, my net worth reached $469,000. I never had large sums of money to invest. I built my net worth over time by investing in stocks that I believed would perform well in the long run. Luckily, most of my picks did.

When it comes to TFI International Inc., I had a capital gain of over $10K on it, and I wasn’t willing to simply watch it slip away. That’s why I decided to sell all of my TFII shares. This doesn’t mean I won’t reinvest in TFII later on. There’s always that option. But for now, I preferred to cash out. I was just too worried about seeing those valuable several thousands of dollars disappear from my sight.

Also, I am in a phase where I am building up my savings. With the cash from selling my TFII shares, I now have over $16,000 in savings. By the end of the year, I could reach between $30,000 and $36,000 in savings. And possibly even close to 40K if I receive more than expected from my tax refund. I am quite happy with that plan because, until recently, I didn’t have much savings at all. I only started seriously saving this year, after paying off my margin debt this past December.

Having savings is obviously important. It’s crucial to keep cash in an actual savings or chequing account at the bank—not just in a brokerage account. And more importantly, it’s wise to keep some physical cash on hand. In my opinion, a good number to have is at least $500 for one adult. It wasn’t that long ago that an incident prevented us from using Interac or credit cards for payments. That actually happened in July 2022 during the Rogers outage. It only lasted a short period of time, but if it happened once, it could certainly happen again.

As for cash held in a brokerage account, access could be blocked due to a technical issue with the brokerage or, in extreme cases, due to an asset freeze—if the TSX itself were to be halted. This also has happened before and could happen again. In recent Canadian history, trading on the TSX has been frozen on a few occasions. Usually, the term used for these events is “halted.” The last major market halts happened on March 12 and 16, 2020, when trading was temporarily paused to prevent panic selling caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These halts are necessary at times, but ultimately, if the market is going to fall, it will, and nothing can stop it.

With the sale of my TFI International Inc. shares, my dividend income from my non-registered and TFSA portfolios dropped to an equivalent of $902 per month, which is still quite good. Anything over $900 is good for me. A mix of savings and dividend income can be quite helpful in times of need. With my dividend income and a $30,000 savings cushion, I could cover my expenses for close to three years if I had to dip into my savings due to unemployment. In term of employment, I’m not worried about the rest of this year. My job seems secure for at least two more years, but you can never be 100% sure with those type of things. That’s why I prefer to be prepared.