Dividend stocks portfolio – recent purchases – May 2018

For those of you new to this website, in this post, I discuss the recent changes I made in my dividend portfolios, and also discuss my portfolio diversification strategies as well.

Canadian market made a decent gain last month, but there is still room to break its record and catch up other markets. Some recent reports have indicated that the Canadian market is one of the poor performing stock markets in the world.

I wish I would have put more money into U.S market when the Canadian dollar was on par with U.S dollar, but it is little late to think about it now. I still believe that we will get the opportunity once again, but nobody knows exactly when it will happen.

Thus, I should be prepared to take advantage of the opportunities. In other words, my buying power should be in good shape, so I can convert money and start adding more U.S dividend growth stocks to my portfolios.

I already have a sizable portfolio with Canadian dividend growth stocks, but I still have some rooms for some high-quality Canadian names. So, I am adding them using the dividends I receive in my investment accounts, and slowly paying down some debts using my saving.

Also, I don’t have enough knowledge about the international markets, but I like to diversify my investment by owning some companies. Thus, I decided to have exposure using an ETF called BMO International Div Hedged to CAD (TSE: ZDH).

We could buy any number of ETFs at Questrade without paying any commission fees, so I deploy cash and buy one (or more) ZDH (ETF) as soon as I have enough money to place an order.

I will continue to do this for a while (at least for this year).

Let’s look at the changes I made in my portfolios.

Please note the information posted on this website is the opinion of my own and should not be considered as professional financial advice. I am not a financial professional, and I can buy, sell, or hold any investment at any time.

Any transactions I publish on this website are not recommendations to buy or sell any securities or investments.

Please do your own research or discuss with a qualified financial professional before even using the information obtained from this website.

Here are the changes I made in my dividend portfolios in May 2018:

The changes made in my Canadian portfolio in May 2018.

• Added 5 shares of BCE at $54.07
• Added 3 units of ZDH at $23.01

The changes made in my U.S dividend portfolio in May 2018.

• Added 3 units of DGRO at $33.67

No changes made in my Small Cap Growth stocks in May 2018.

New purchases and recent dividend hikes helped to boost my yearly estimated passive income (EPI) to $9320, with year-to-date gain about 10.77%.

As expected, the EPI growth is slowing down recently because the market is moved up from the recent sell-off and also I turned my focus (temporarily) on debt reduction, instead of asset accumulation. I just wanted to bring-down my debts to below my comfort zone of $300K.

Many readers asked me how or why I execute very tiny orders of ETFs. They were wondering about the commission fees. As mentioned above, I use Questrade for ETFs purchases. There are no commission fees for ETFs purchases at Questrade. Therefore, we could buy one or any number of ETFs without paying any commission fees.

I personally use Questrade for most of my investments, especially ETF purchases. For those looking to start investing with little money, Questrade is one of the good options to consider because of their commission-free ETF program and minimum requirement to open an account.

If you have a plan to open an account with Questrade, please take advantage of this $50 trade commission rebate.

There is a trading charge of $4.95 when you sell them. All the details are at the time of writing. If you have a plan to open an account at Questrade, please check all the information (including current commission fees) on their website and see if it is suitable online brokerage for your needs.

Disclosure: Please note above is an affiliate link. Therefore, I will earn a commission if you use the above links to open an account at Questrade (at no additional cost to you).

I have updated the portfolio pages with these changes.

Please share your thoughts about my holdings and recent purchases. Also share your investment strategies with us.