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.
After a year of stable growth, markets return to its common characteristics of volatility. I consider this as an opportunity to acquire high-quality stocks at discounted price.
If you have studied about the wealthiest individuals, then you might have noticed that they go against the tide of the opinion of financial experts. It is one of the most common characteristics of massively wealthiest people.
Most of us consider their behavior is risky, impulsive or even dangerous, yet they’re the ones with the massive fortune, not us. Therefore, if we want to build our wealth, then we need to swim against the tide of mainstream financial behavior.
Majority of the rate sensitive stocks came under pressure due to the rising bond yield, and I decided to go little deep into debt and accumulate some assets. Again, I just wanted to go against the crowd as many investors have been trimming their positions, while I’ve been buying them at a bargain.
I totally understand that rising rates could continue to pressure the shares in the short run, but over the long run, I believe that most of the companies I added will continue to grow their revenues and dividends, which in result should provide support for their share prices.
New purchases pushed my yearly estimated passive income (EPI) to record high. In addition, a couple of my major holding hiked their dividend last month.
With new purchases and the last month dividend hikes, my EPI increased to $8993, with year-to-date gain about 5.69%.
I expect this income growth will slow down for the next couple of months as a majority of my holdings have already announced dividend hikes for the year.
Let’s look at the changes I made in my portfolios. I admit the some of the stocks went further down after I made the purchases. But, I always try to catch them at the bottom, but no success.
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 consult with a qualified financial professional before even considering using the information obtained from this website.
Here are the changes I made in my dividend portfolios in February 2018:
The changes made in my Canadian portfolio in February 2018.
- Added 25 shares of AQN at $12.63
- Added 10 shares of BCE at $55.75
- Added 10 shares of FTS at $40.75
- Added 10 shares of EMA at $42.90
- Added 10 shares of TRP at $52.95
- Added 5 shares of CNR at $93.95
- Added 25 shares of NWC at $27.70
- Added 2 units of ZDH at $22.27
The changes made in my U.S dividend portfolio in February 2018.
- SOLD 12 shares of DPS at $120.15
- Initiated 42 units of DGRO at $35.87
No changes made in my Small Cap Growth stocks in February 2018.
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, 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.
Hey FJ!
Still loving the blog. You come off as such an every day common guy that it feels like anyone can do it too!
I think you already answered my question in another reply, but just to confirm are all your dividends bought / traded using Questrade?
Hi A.T,
Thank you for stopping by and your comments 🙂
Actually I have a multiple brokerage accounts, but majority of my holding are in my Questrade accounts. I have TD direct investing, RBC direct investing and I recently opened an account with Interactive Brokerage.
Cheers,
Why do you have these other brokerageswith TD RBC and Interactive? Do they provide different accesses or features?
Hello A.T,
Actually, I opened my first brokerage account with TD before I knew about Questrade. But, I didn’t want to close it, so I keep some stocks there (a very small portion of holdings)
I opened an RBC direct investing account for my son’s RESP to take advantage of their multi-rebate. Also, I opened an account with Interactive brokerage recently to test out their futures and take advantage of their low margin interest rate.
I am a stronger believer in diversification, not just stocks but also where I keep them. In case of system outrage or other technical issues in one online brokerage won’t stop my journey. Many people won’ agree with this, but I wanted to make sure my investments are safe.
Best Regards,
Hi FJ
I am a newbie investor at the ripe young age of 70, so please excuse my lack of knowledge where it comes to calculating dividends. I came into a bit of cash and decided to buy some dividend stocks which i hold in a TFSA trading account. So far so good. I have enrolled them in a re-investment plan, and i am curious to know how you know what your monthly dividend amount is as you report them. Please bear with me and provide the exact calculating steps you use to come to the amount you report on a monthly basis. Say we use one of my holdings: BEP.UN, 1013 shares as an example.
I also hold CM.TO, CNR.TO, AQN.TO, ENB.TO. Am planning to acquire some TD bank and BNS and ALA. So far I am comfortable with my retirement income and can even use some of it to increase my positions. My goal is to grow my portfolio for 10 years God willing i make it to 80.
I enjoy your site and congratulate you, I only wish i would have started years ago, but life happened. I am now showing how easy it is to my young adult children. Read, research, read some more, and make informed decisions. Thank you FJ, and will be following your journey with you.
Hello Grace,
Thank you so much for stopping by and your kind comments 🙂 Age is just a number, and our mind decides everything else. I have very glad to see that we have similar holdings in our portfolio.
How do I calculate my dividend amount?
I have over 70 different investments (holdings) in my portfolio. Most of them pay quarterly dividend and few of them pay monthly.
Let’s say I have 100 shares of each BEP.UN, CM.TO, CNR.TO, AQN.TO, ENB.TO, EMA.TO, BMO.TO, ALA.TO and FC.TO.
When I create a dividend income report, I calculate the dividend income I received in each month from my holdings.
From this example
I hope this makes you clear. Please feel free to let me know if you need more details.
Disclosure: I/we personally own all the stocks mentioned in this comments
Hi FJ,
Thanks for quick reply, so i understand that you don’t use a re-investment plan but have the dividends deposited in your brokerage account. I was wondering about this exact thing, and seeing my age where I might not have 20-30+ years of compounding to look forward to, a friend suggested to get the dividends and diversify in more positions. It will make it more fun.
Let me share this, my 95 year old dad holds BMO, BCE and TransAlta Corp, bought through a work investment program back in early 70’s, and back when you got stock certificates, he let those grow in a re-investment plan. After retiring he cancelled his DRIP and today he gets 35,000$ a year in dividends and lives comfortably with company pension. This to say it can easily be done and to be patient and let your money grow and you will retire early, do what you want to do and retire a millionnaire. Good luck.
Thanks again for sharing and your input.
Hello Grace,
I don’t use re-investment plan. I let the dividend build up in my brokerage accounts and buy one/two stocks that is trading at discount at the time.
Thank you so much for sharing your dad’s investment success story. It is a great inspiration for younger people like me. We would like to hear more stories like this to inspire 🙂
Best wishes and have a wonderful healthy & happy golden time 🙂
Great website, thank you for sharing your knowledge, I find it very useful and encouraging.
I have a question for you. If you were to buy a Canadian company stock that is listed on the US Stock Exchange, for example you buy BCE on the NYSE, will the US 15% withholding tax apply to the dividend from BCE? The 15% US withholding tax on dividend typically applies on all US listed companies and I do have it deducted on all my dividend from US companies but I don’t no if it will applied to Canadian origin companies. Thank you.
Hi Sam,
Thank you for stopping by,
It is very good question, but, to be honest, I really don’t know the answer 🙂 ….
As a Canadian investor, I don’t buy Canadian company at U.S exchange :). It costs us unnecessary fees and headaches (in my opinion).
I understand that your situation might be different and you may need to keep your cash in US dollars. I would encourage you to discuss with a qualified account and please let me know the answer.
Best Regards,
How do you decide what to buy? What is your principle/guideline?
Do you have like, an equation or a rule that you go by?
Hi Alex,
Thank you for stopping by,
I check couple of things before make any investment in a company.
Very first thing is I try to understand companies, their business model and how they make money. If I don’t understand a company, then I skip and move on to another company. Then check if they can continue to generate income in good and bad economic cycles. Best way to check this is go back to recession periods and see how they performed in a difficult period.
Second thing I check whether the company pay dividend or not. I would prefer more if they increase their dividend at least once a year. Also check their payout ratio and dividend sustainability.
If they meet the above two criteria, then I continue to check the companies fundamentals (P/E ratio or AFFO/Price, book value, cash-flow, ROE, ROIC, insiders ownership, major shareholders, etc etc etc)
Then, I add them in a watch list, and check what experts, analysis, portfolio managers, follow bloggers think about the companies and also set a target price for entry because everyone sees a company in a different angles and view. Thus, all their opinions are valuable to make good decisions.
Once the stock prices come down to my target prices, I start adding them to my portfolio (small position at a time).
I also have sector cap (max 20% per sector) and position cap (max 5% per stock).
Please understand I am not a professional financial adviser. Please do your own research or discuss with a qualified financial adviser before make any decisions. My financial situations and risk tolerances will be much different than others.
Also, my stocks pick methods are not 100% perfect because some of the stocks I purchased didn’t perform well as I expected and they cut their dividend. So, please do your own research and create your own strategies based your unique situations.
Best Regards
Thanks
And do you have somewhere your list? Like some GDOC’s that you manage and update that we can monitor?
Hello Alex,
I update my holdings every month on the following page:
https://www.financejourney.com/my-dividend-portfolio/
I believe this is what you asked for. Please correct me if I was wrong..
Cheers,
Good investments FJ! I added EMA, ENB, BCE and TRP last month and looking to add few more this month.
Hi Davis,
Thank you for stopping by,
Glad to see we have been buying same companies. ENB makes me little nervous nowadays as it is one of my biggest holding, and keeps falling. I hope things will turn around soon than later.
Best Regards,
Just curious why you execute such small purchases? Wouldn’t you be better off making (1) large $5k+ purchase instead of doing tons of little ones?
The transaction costs will eat into your profit plus you have little skin in the game per stock.
Hi Jake,
Thank you for stopping by!
Right now I have an Interactive brokerage account. It charges me only $1 per transaction. Even if I am use or not I still need to pay $10 per month for inactive charge in Interactive Brokerage. So, there are no harm for me to execute small orders. So, I paid almost 0% commission for all the transactions last month 🙂
Personally, I like Questrade and I keep majority of my holdings and ETFs in Questrade. All my ETF purchases were made in Questrade as there are no trading for ETF purchases.
I hope this make senses!
Cheers,
FJ,
I’ve hardly followed the opinions of financial experts, and when I did I’ve always had trouble keeping the stocks they have suggested. I really like the idea of doing your own homework, it’s much more convincing, and a whole lot rewarding. This whole financial experts thing is just one big oxymoron, (as Peter Lynch would say).
For me, I did my research, and picked up IFC (Intact Financial), into my portfolio, and sold parts off TTWO (Take Two Interactive) as the position was getting too large. I think your best add was AQN, which I added before the selloff (regret), and I agree with selling DPS, which I also sold mine, but before the big price leap (which I’m also kicking myself). Oh well, thats the game. =)
I’m thinking about starting my own investing blog as well, focused around dividend/growth investing. Not quite sure where to start though.
Justin
Hi Justin,
Thank you for stopping by,
Glad to see we are in same mind-set 🙂 I like IFC too but I already have around 20% in financial sector, so I am not ready to add FOR NOW.
For AQN, I still have enough room in my portfolio for AQN, it is still relatively smaller position. I will keep building it if it stays lower.
Very glad to see that you would like to start a blog! Here is a step-by step guide to start a blog.
https://www.financejourney.com/step-by-step-guide-to-start-your-own-website/
If you need any help, please feel free to contact me at info at financejourney.com
Best Regards,