Cold cash: $9,800.70
Stocks and Units investment portfolio $CAN
RSP investment portfolio:
CIBC Dividend Growth Fund + CIBC Emerging Markets Index Fund + CIBC Monthly Income Fund: $3,447.36
Others: $1,159.90
Because life is all about money and a bunch of other things
Cold cash: $9,800.70
Stocks and Units investment portfolio $CAN
Others: $1,159.90
I finally arrived this past Sunday night in Montreal. I spent a few hours in Rivière-du-Loup. At first, I had planned my departure on Saturday, but it was rainy on that day so I decided to switch for the next day. My old folks didn't do much as activities and I wanted them at least to have a great day. Those are among the last pictures I took from our backyard. Following the heavy rain, we had a little flooding situation, but nothing dangerous:
The river was quite high when I left. It's a good thing I change my departure date for Sunday because we were able to really enjoy the outdoors and it was quite fun. I took a few pictures when I was around Kamouraska on the bus, because it was just too pretty:
After BNS, both Royal Bank of Canada (RY) and Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce (CM) announced today some interesting dividend increases. Unfortunately, Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) decided not to increase its dividend yield. That's totally fine with me. I prefer to have a safe, steady dividend income, rather than having to deal with dividend cuts later on. On the other hand, you have BMO Bank of Montreal (BMO) which didn't meet expectations but decided to increase its dividend distribution anyway, which is pretty much irresponsible coming on their part. It's easy to be successful over the TSX by sticking to boring stocks like banks, but you still need to be gifted with good grounded common sense to be able to recognize the good investments from the bad ones. In my opinion, that's the only quality that an investor needs to have. And you'll also need to be super careful while entering your buy orders online in your broker account... You'll understand where I am going with this in a moment. :-)
But before, I wanted to say that my annual dividend income from all of my investment portfolios is now at a good $11,275.54. The $12,000 is not out of reach. On top of that good news, the TSX closed today's session on a very good 20,532.18 points. My non-registered portfolio closed today session at $147,666.08, my US portfolio at $4,868.43 US, my RRSP stocks-only portfolio at $65,650.68, and my TFSA portfolio at $122,734.46.
I never wrote anything on this blog regarding Wescan Energy Corp. (WCE). Only if WCE only appears one single time in this blog, and that is in my investment portfolio update of this past May 20. The "intruder", Wescan Energy Corp. (WCE), stands there, shyly, inside my TFSA portfolio, hoping that no one will notice... It would have come to be sooner or later eventually, but it arrived quite soon actually, someone notice the intruder in my TFSA portfolio... Unfortunately for me.
I, unfortunately, have to confess that I did a trading mistake when I enter my order. I wanted to invest in Jean-François Tardif's Whitecap Resources Inc. (WCP), and not in the little Wescan Energy Corp. (WCE). Even if you see the name of Wescan Energy Corp. (WCE) as my last stock entry for my TFSA portfolio, it doesn't mean anything. In this unfortunate move, luckily, the investment made was very very small so no worries.
All this to say that you need to remain focused while entering your buying - or selling order online. Personally what happen - I remember clearly - is that I had a few stocks that I wanted to buy, and I did. But I place my buy orders on a day where I had exchanged my shit with a colleague and I had started my day quite earlier than usual. When I change shifts, I am always getting tired at some point during the when I do so. Basically, it's not a good idea to place trades when you are tired...
In Stockopedia, my unwanted Wescan Energy Corp. (WCE) appears on a short-selling screen, which is never good when your main goal is to actually invest and not trade... Basically, Wescan Energy Corp. (WCE) is a big no-no. I do not recommend WCE as an investment and I am terribly sorry that I tried to hide that mistake from my beloved readers.
Sorry sorry sorry.
I was going to start this post with an "I hope you enjoyed the long weekend", but I know it's been a very rough one for too many Canadians. Some still don't have electricity yet. For the past few days, even in New Brunswick, the weather had been quite hot, so warm that I needed to buy some summer clothes as my summer wardrobe is all in Montreal... We heard some strong thunder in the sky during the weekend, and we got heavy rain, but nothing devastating. Where I am located in New Brunswick, we are in a valley, which seems to protect us from any bad weather. We are surrounded by mountains, as you can see from those pictures. You simply cannot have a more beautiful backward than this.
Today, the fabulous Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) announced an increase in its dividend distribution. Luckily, this brings my annual dividend income to exactly $11,228.86. When it comes to my non-registered ad TFSA, my dividend income is now equivalent to over $780, which is quite good. I had a small amount available in my TFSA, so I decided to invest in the Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce (CM). Bank of Montreal (BMO) also came with its Q2 result, but they were barely met. I own many of the big bank stocks - BNS, CM, RY, TD. Bank of Montreal (BMO) is not from my investment portfolio, and there are some good reasons behind that. One of those reasons is quite simple: I only want to hold on to the best Canadian banks in my portfolio and Bank of Montreal (BMO) is simply not up to my standards. I never found Bank of Montreal (BMO) to be an interesting and appealing stock.
The TSX closed today's session at 20,383.75 points. My non-registered portfolio closed today session at $146,584.68, my US portfolio at $4,829.32, my RRSP stocks-only portfolio at $65,254.34 and my TFSA portfolio at $122,153.64.
I am leaving really soon for Montreal and I am somewhat excited.
In the meantime, I have quite some stuff to do as I am cleaning up my papers and everything. I already went through many papers and old floppy disk stuff, which really helped to clean up some drawers. Back in the days (I am talking of more than 20 years ago), the only way to save files from a computer was by using floppy disks - and maybe also by burning a disk. The only way to have a backup for files was to copy them again on another floppy disk... I was the queen of backup disks because I had so many of them... Those floppy disks took some serious space, were heavy (when you had many of them), and were so not convenient! But now, I am proud to say that I have put all of those floppy content on my laptop, I also put a copy on two external hard drives, and one day, I will go through all those files' content... One day. For now, that floppy cleaning process had been done, and it was quite liberating. I still have a lot to do in my papers, unfortunately, but I did quite a lot.
Actually, I am looking forward to reducing the things that I don't need and reducing my mass of papers. I am slowly getting there.
I decided to update my investment portfolio. I usually publish an update strictly and only when it plays in my favor. I knew I was no longer on top of my game, that I was no longer sitting on a $361,442.42 net worth like I was back on April 20 of this year - which is exactly one month on the date of today - but I was just too curious to see where my numbers were at. My overall investment portfolio closed today session at $385,843.39. My margin debt is at $45,686.92. So my net worth for this Friday session is at not so bad $340,156.47, which is a capital loss of -$21,285.95 compared to April 20. Sincerely, I taught I was going to be more in the red than that.
In my opinion, a $340,156.47 net worth is not too bad.
Cold cash: $8,833.48
Stocks and Units investment portfolio $CAN
Others: $1,159.90
Margin account debt: $45,686.92 @ 4%
Annual interest: $1,827.47
On the date May 20, 2022
**For a complete update regarding my debt, click on the label "Debt situation" located in the right column of this blog.
Today wasn't s bad as I expected it to be. My stock portfolios closed the day with a gain of +0,09%... But that's ok. I prefer tiny little gains to big massive losses, that's for sure. My non-registered portfolio closed today session at $145,599.12, my US portfolio at $4,689.61, my RRPS stock-only portfolio at $64,548.84, and my TFSA portfolio at $122,412.74. It was about time, but the federal government finally managed to do its job properly, wear its pants, and banned Huawei from getting any close to our 5G infrastructure. Other than my investment portfolio gaining +0.09%, that was the other major news of the day. I think that businesses and individuals already have enough spammers and cyberattacks to deal with, no need to add China intruders to our infrastructure. After what they did to the two Micheal, we owe that to them. As a democratic country, we should do better.
Today, I was able to make a few small investments. I bought some Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce (CM) shares for my non-registered portfolio, North West Company Inc. (The) (NWC) shares for my RRSP portfolio, and Telus Corp (T) shares for my TFSA portfolio. Those were only tiny small investments.
Unfortunately, I cannot invest more at this time, unless I withdraw some money out of my savings, which I won't do at this time. I am going to spend the whole month of June in Montreal, so I plan my budget accordingly. Unfortunately, I have to pay my rental insurance for the whole year in June, which comes to an amount of $330, and I also have an appointment with the dentist in June. My insurance at work cover it partly, but not all, so I budget $500 for it, but I think it will come at around $250 or something like it. With those two expenses, it's already close to $600 that is already gone. In total for the month of June, I had planned a $2,612.36 spending budget for that month, which include $100 for coffees, and $300 for activities, among others. I may actually spend a bit more than that. My two highest spending months will be the months of June and July so be ready.
:-)
Yesterday, my stock portfolios registered some nice gains. My non-registered portfolio closed yesterday session at $146,706.65, my US portfolio at $4,993.99, my RRSP portfolio - stocks only - at $64,962.85, and my TFSA portfolio at $124,323.39. Unfortunately, today, it was a whole different story. Luckily, the TSX is still in the 20,000 points, at least for now... My non-registered portfolio closed today session at $145,528.24, my US portfolio at $4,755.62, my RRSP portfolio - stocks only - at $64,224.70, and my TFSA portfolio at $121,973.04.
Yesterday morning, I place a quick call to National Bank Direct Brokerage to find out if my non-registered portfolio qualified for their Fully-Paid Securities Lending Program. Unfortunately, because of my margin debt, I do not qualify for their securities lending program, which was strange for me because while listening to their little YouTube video, I was really under the impression that my non-registered portfolio did actually qualify for the Fully-Paid Securities Lending Program, even if I had a margin debt, but it seems it's not the case. Anyway, I will check that again a bit later. Regulations change from time to time, maybe I will be qualified one day, who knows.
Currently, my margin debt is of $45,342.32. On the date of yesterday, my "buying power" left on my margin is at a good $51,582.62. Eventually, I could sell some investments that I hold in my TFSA portfolio to pay off my margin debt, but it's not something I will do anytime soon, especially now that stocks are trading so low. Another possible option was to transfer some of my non-registered stocks over to another separate non-registered account with National Bank Direct Brokerage, but that would have cut off the value of my margin, and it is simply not a good option for me at this time.
This morning at BNN's The Open, viewer learns that inflation was near a 30-year high... This came with no surprise and is not good news. It seems like ranking interest rates hasn't been done aggressively enough by the Bank of Canada to beat inflation. It's interesting that the US is having the exact same problem as us right now, and other countries in the world as well. For the UK, it's been announced that the inflation was at a 40-year high...
Personally, I really feel the effect of inflation, and it's no fun. The gas prices are super high here in New Brunswick. In a place like New Brunswick, you cannot really save on gas, unless you don't do anywhere and limit your traveling to the strict minimum. It's hard to do because you really need to have a car around here. My mom was at the grocery store the other day and she saw a roast at $30... Generally speaking, I find that the price for grocery items is generally higher than what I pay in Montreal, but these days, it's higher than I have ever seen before and it's a bit scary.
I am getting paid this Friday, and I was thinking about investing in some Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce (CM) stocks. Even high-quality bank stocks, like CM, BNS, RY, and TD - basically all of them react quite badly when the TSX is being turned upside down like it is now. Chances are that Canadian Imperial Bank Of Commerce (CM) will trade again lower tomorrow, I am actually pretty sure of that. I may invest in a bit of CM stocks tomorrow, will see.
It's hard to see my net worth value going down and all that, but there are some good opportunities right now on the TSX. No need to invest in extravagant stocks, the simple the better. Since the market is so volatile, no need to rush, you can invest little by little - but only when the stocks you have an eye on are trading down. Currently, my dividend income made in my non-registered and TFSA combined make a bit over of an equivalent of $777 per month. Trust me when I say I will buy all the dividend stocks I possibly can to increase my dividend income. BCE is still super appealing to me.