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.
Another month has passed by so quickly. We are almost getting close to the summer season. I am very excited to go outside and enjoy warm weather without carrying a big jacket and winter-boots –especially after a long winter season.
We have some travel plans for this summer, but not sure whether we can go with plan with a two years old little man. He is an amazing kid and growing so fast. But, he is still little young to handle a long road trips.
In my investment side, my portfolios’ value and income grow steadily month-over-month and year-over-year.
The past few months have been really good for my investment assets.
So many stocks in my portfolio increased their dividend payments. It is not a surprise one for me because they hike every year at this time 🙂 .
In March 2017, I added two real-estate units, one renewable utility stock and a health-care ETF.
With new purchases along with last month dividend hikes, my estimated yearly passive income has increased to $7610, with year-to-date gain of about 7.7 per cent.
This income growth will slow down in the next couple of months as majority of my major holdings already announced dividends hikes for this year.
In addition, my portfolio sent me over $900 cash in March alone. I will discuss this in my dividend income post in couple of days.
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 March 2017:
The changes made in my Canadian portfolio in March 2017.
- added 25 units of BPY.UN at $29.13
- added 25 units of BEP.UN at $38.14
- added 25 units of BEI.UN at $44.00
The changes made in my U.S dividend portfolio in March 2017.
- added 1 unit of XLV at $74.37 I will continue to add this ETF at least one per month as long as the price is reasonable.
My portfolio has a very tiny portion in health Care sector, so I decided to buy a health-care ETF using dividends accumulate in my U.S dollar registered accounts. Hopefully, I could buy at least one unit per month using dividends alone (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.
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).
I have updated the portfolio pages with these changes.
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% | 5.11% |
| Canadian stocks | 40% | 80.20% |
| U.S stocks | 35% | 13.24% |
| International stocks | 5% | 1.46% |
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.
My 80% of investments are in Canada. I am waiting for improvement in Canadian dollar to move some money into U.S market. It is really a long wait. I really don’t want to purchase U.S stocks using Canadian dollar at this time. It is like paying around 35% premium to the current price.
As you might have noticed, I began to build health care sector using an ETF called XLV. It is now moved from 0% to 0.25%. 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% | 5.11% |
| Finance | 10% | 19.28% |
| Industrials & Infrastructure | 5% | 9.98% |
| Consumer Staples | 10% | 7.19% |
| Energy & Materials | 5% | 2.72% |
| Utilities | 5% | 15.98% |
| Pipelines | 5% | 12.03% |
| Consumer Discretionary | 5% | 2.15% |
| Health care | 5% | 0.25% |
| Information technology | 5% | 0.16% |
| Telecommunications | 5% | 6.94% |
| Real-estate | 5% | 7.67% |
| Miscellaneous & Preferred shares | 5% | 2.19% |
| Transportations | 5% | 6.87% |
| International & Diversified ETFs | 5% | 1.46% |
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?
Nice post on dividend stocks. What thoughts do you have on using covered calls as part of a dividend strategy?
Hello Josh,
Thank you for stopping by,
I may consider covered call strategy, but not at this moments. I need to learn a lot about option trading buy put my hard earned money into it 🙂
Cheers,
Hi Finacial Journey,
That makes perfect sesnse. I am starting a site focused on tools and content to help value investors leverage options. Would if you interested would love your input on the project.
Feel free to take a look at the site and email me if you are interested.
Josh
Hi Josh,
I just checked your site. Wow, you have lots of useful tools and contents.
Thank you for sharing,
Best Regards,
Great blog. Lots of information. I started my divident income portfolio recently. Thanks for sharing.
Hello Syed,
Thank you for stopping by and your comments,
Glad to hear that you’ve started to think about your future. Please learn as much as you can and understand what you are investing with your hard earn money.
Wish you all the best in your success 🙂
Cheers,
Nice to see your health ETFs growing slowly. I have been investing since 2009 (mostly in small cap stocks), but just recently switched to dividend investing. I like to follow your diversification strategy. It makes sense.
Best Regards,
GP
Hello GP,
Thank you for stopping by and your comments,
I am so glad that you like my diversification strategy. Please understand that this not the way professional diversify sectors. Please do your own research before consider using the information from this website.
Best Regards,
Thanks for sharing. BEP is a wonderful stock, my holding doubled in few years.
Hello Peter,
Thank you for stopping by,
I love BrookeFields stocks. The performed really well over the last few years. I hope they will continue to do well.
Cheers,