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 about my portfolio diversification strategies.
Canadian stock market started to move south due to the speculation news about rate hike. Recent job numbers have added additional reason for the BOC rate hike on July 12. But, unemployment rate is bit of high, so it is really hard to predict what will happen for benchmark rate.
My rate sensitive stocks, especially utilities and pipeline stocks lost some values as well. In my view, good economy is actually a good news for stock markets, but sometimes investors think opposite and sell their rate sensitive stocks.
I focus for long term growth with steady income. Thus, as usually, I take this as an opportunity to accumulate more income generating assets at discounted price.
Last month alone, I deployed over $2750 and added 3 different dividend stocks in my investment portfolios.
With new purchases and last month dividend hikes, my estimated yearly income has grown to $7981, with year to date gain of 13.0%.
I am expecting more dividend hikes in the coming months. So, I am pretty sure I will hit my short-term goal of $8400 per year passive income in couple of months.
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 anytime.
Any transactions I publish on this website are not recommendations to buy or sell any securities or investments.
Please do your own research or consult with a qualified financial professional before even considering using the information obtained from this website.
Here is the changes I made in my dividend portfolios in June 2017:
The changes made in my Canadian portfolio in June 2017.
- added 50 shares of KPT at $14.41
- added 35 shares of VNR at $22.78
- added 40 shares of ALA at $29.65
The changes made in my U.S dividend portfolio in June 2017.
- added 1 unit of XLV at $78.75 I will continue to add this ETF at least one per month as long as the price is reasonable.
My portfolio has a very little to health Care stocks, so I decided to buy health care ETF using dividends in my U.S dollar registered accounts. Hopefully, I could buy at least one unit per month using dividends receive in my U.S registered account (without injecting new money). I will continue to add this ETF as long as the price is reasonable.
Many readers asked me how or why I execute very tiny orders of ETFs. They were wondering about the commission fees. Actually, I use Questrade for ETFs purchases. There are no commission fees for ETFs purchases at Questrade. Therefore you could buy any number of ETFs without paying commission costs.
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 a affiliate link. Therefore, I will earn a commission if you decide to make a purchase (at no additional cost to you).
Now, let’s look my portfolio diversification.
Portfolio diversification
Portfolio Geographical Diversification
There are no big changes in my diversification strategies from the last updates.| Country | Target asset allocation | Current asset allocation |
| Fixed income (bonds and pension) | 20% | 5.79% |
| Canadian stocks | 40% | 79.76% |
| U.S stocks | 35% | 12.95% |
| International stocks | 5% | 1.50% |
My Canadian portion of my investments have increased a bit from my last update due to recent rally in my Canadian holdings.
My fixed income portions have been keep improving for last 18 months because of my pension plan contributions.
Portfolio diversification – sectors & fixed income
Actually, (I guess) there are only 10 sectors, but I have divided my dream portfolio by 15 sectors including fixed income/bonds/employer pension.
Please note this is not the way professional fund managers or experts diversify their funds. This is my own diversification strategy.
You may consider create your own diversification strategy (if you don’t have one) to minimize investment related risks in your portfolios.
Some information to highlight:
My fixed income portion is getting improving with my employer pension contribution. Since I have a defined benefit pension plan, I reduced/eliminated my bond holding.
Almost 80% of my investments are in Canada. Canadian dollar started to improve recently. I may get a chance to deploy some capital in U.S market and accumulate some U.S and international stocks.
As you might have noticed, I began to build health care sector using an ETF called XLV. It is now moved from 0% to 0.36%. I will keep adding XLV for upcoming months as long as the unit price stays low.
| Sector | Target asset allocation | Current asset allocation |
| Fixed income (bonds & Employer Pension) | 20% | 5.79% |
| Finance | 10% | 19.64% |
| Industrials & Infrastructure | 5% | 9.84% |
| Consumer Staples | 10% | 6.99% |
| Energy & Materials | 5% | 2.40% |
| Utilities | 5% | 16.45% |
| Pipelines | 5% | 11.40% |
| Consumer Discretionary | 5% | 2.23% |
| Health care | 5% | 0.36% |
| Information technology | 5% | 0.15% |
| Telecommunications | 5% | 6.54% |
| Real-estate | 5% | 7.39% |
| Miscellaneous & Preferred shares | 5% | 2.16% |
| Transportations | 5% | 7.15% |
| International & Diversified ETFs | 5% | 1.50% |
Please share your thoughts about my holdings and recent purchases. Also, do you have any portfolio diversification strategy? And how often do you balance your portfolio?
Leave a Reply