Last month, February 2020, I received over $410 dividends from 18 different companies.
I usually get excited when I calculate my monthly dividend income, but not this time.
My portfolio value has been melting like snow because of the ongoing health issues around the world.
If you are an investor, like me, you know what I mean. Your portfolio value probably down, too, unless you made a timely decision to exit the market.
Direct or indirect way, we all have been going through a difficult situation. Thus, you or I am not alone.
Nobody ever experienced these types of extreme scenarios before, and nobody exactly knows how bad this will go or how long it will last.
During the great recession, many analysts refer to this s a terrible economic situation, businesses had a decline in revenue and growth, but now many companies have zero revenues. It is tough to justify this.
Besides, many people and businesses don’t have any idea about what is next in their life.
Therefore, if you are going through this challenging time, then you are not alone. We all have been experiencing this issue direct or indirect way.
Anyways, the current pandemic may change the way we think, invest, work, travel, live, etc. As I always say, I am a learner, and I have been getting new experiences and learning new things about how to improve my life physically, mentally and financially.
Nevertheless, there is an end for everything, and eventually, things will return to normal.
Thus, stay healthy, stay strong and follow the guidance given by your local health officials.
Portfolio changes
As you know, I invest using borrowed money. I had a considerable margin loan at the beginning of the month. To avoid getting margin calls, I made a difficult decision and trimmed a couple of positions in my non-registered accounts (margin account).
I usually a buyer in difficult times, and I rarely sell my stocks (unless if they receive any take-over offer). But, this time was indeed a difficult situation for me. I made the difficult decisions to trim my favourite holdings. I will try to get them back as soon as I have enough money to buy them.
Also, I sold a couple of positions in my registered accounts and purchased some ETFs to minimize the portfolio risks.
I will discuss more these changes in my upcoming portfolio update post.
Let's get back to the numbers.
Dividend income from Canadian stocks
- XRE - $9.45
- NVU.UN - $9.51
- PLZ.UN - $6.16
- FC - $9.36
- CAR.UN - $3.45
- NWH.UN - $3.33
- REI.UN - $16.80
- CHP.UN - $12.33
- EMA - $61.26
- IPL - $7.12
- ALA - $12.00
- KEY - $32.00
- RY - $105.00
- BMO - $74.20
Total dividend I received from Canadian stock holdings: $361.97
Dividend income from U.S stocks
- KMI - $12.5
- CVS - $7.5
- ZUD - $2.59
Total dividend I received from U.S stock holdings: $22.59
Dividend income from my International dividend portfolio
- ZDH - $26.79 Total dividend I received from my International investment holdings: $26.79
Total: $411.35
Please note that I do not convert dividends received from U.S stocks to Canadian dollar, and I use a 1 to 1 currency rate approach to keep the math simple and avoid fluctuations in my dividend income reports due to changes in the exchange rate.
Estimated passive income
For those new to this site, the Estimated passive income is the income I estimated to receive in a year based on my current investments holding and their distribution rate.
My Estimated passive income is currently at $12493.
One of my long-term goals is receive $25000 dividend income from investment portfolios. I have achieved 49.97% of my goal.
Thank you so much for your great support, encouragement, and being in my financial journey.
Hello,
Those are all great information you shared! Just wondering if you have considered adding average yield on cost as well as disclosing average ACB, current yield, FMV and unrealized gains in the updates. It is a great way to show us learners how investments grow and compound over the years and the importance of regular investing and start saving early on.
Kind Regards,
T
Hello Tony,
Thank you for stopping by,
To be honest, I keep my investments in multiple brokerages and in multiple accounts (registered-TFSA & RRSP, non-registered accounts), and I didn’t document the details properly at the beginning. Therefore, it will really hard to gather and get the real numbers for the updates. I will try my best to gather and post those information..
Thank you for your suggestions 🙂
Regards,
I am looking forward to seeing your next net worth update. Do you plan to get back to it soon?
I hope you are dealing ok with the current situation and I wish you the best for the remainder of these difficult times.
What would you say are the main lessons you have taken away from the current situation? Will you change anything about your investing strategies going forward because of it or are you happy with your strategy and how it has been working out during this downturn?
Thank you for stopping by,
Due to the high workload (work from home) and challenges with a new way of work, I missed my last month’s net-worth post. I will update two months’ net-worth updates in the coming days.
Lesson learn – I learn a lot from the current situation. Gained a lot of experiences in how and how-not-to invest. I will share more about it soon :). I am not going to change my investment strategies going forward because of it.
See you soon with my portfolio update.
Best Regards,
Try reading Jason Heath’s column in Money Sense from a day ago. When I read this it calms me down about my investing.
I’m a little more seasoned than you are as I’ve weathered the “dot com” crash, the Iraq wars, 911 & the great recession.
Even though this market meltdown is unprecedented, I think it is a great buying opportunity. I don’t think we have hit the bottom yet so there may be more bargains to come.
Hang in there & be safe
Peter
Thank you Peter for stopping by and your positive approach.
I am relatively new to the investment world. I started to invest in 2014, so I just came through 2015 & 2018 crashes. Those crashes look very small compare to the current one.
I feel it is a great buying opportunity; however, I little hesitate to pull the trigger because I have to dig into margin or line of credit to purchases them. I prepared for a crash, but not this magnitude.
Best Regards,
Sorry to hear you had to sell couple of positions. Why you didn’t get unsecured line of credit or something similar with a low interest so you’d be safe from a margin call?
Hello Earlierretirement,
Thank you for stopping by,
I have some credits available, but I didn’t want to use them now as the current uncertainties are more prominent than I initially thought. Hopefully, I will be able to repurchase them at even much lower prices than I the sale prices.
Regards,