So I have been tracking my monthly income and expenses for quite some time now, almost fully a year. Pretty much since I graduated from university and started working a retail job. I'v been lucky in that I went to school close enough to home to take transit to my classes and lived at home during that time, which allowed me to save a lot of money on living costs. I'm also a pretty frugal person and try to keep down reoccurring costs as low as possible and I resist and don't feel the need to buy the newest and best gadgets, toys, clothes etc etc. The end result is that I graduated in a very advantageous position of having less than $1,000 in debt after my studies, which I owed to my parents and was able to pay off quite quickly. Living at home also means that my rent is very low, not nothing but quite low which has allowed me an ~savings rate of 48%!
Monday, 30 June 2014
June 2014 Dividend Income
So another month has passed and as expected this month was fairly light on the dividend income due to having no quarterly payouts from my investments. However I did receive the following monthly distributions:
Dream Office REIT (D.UN) $11.39
Pizza Pizza (PZA) $4
Pembina Pipeline (PPL) $1.31
BMO Cdn. Div ETF (ZDV) $.93
Ishares 1-5yr GovBond (CLF) $.64
Dream Office REIT (D.UN) $11.39
Pizza Pizza (PZA) $4
Pembina Pipeline (PPL) $1.31
BMO Cdn. Div ETF (ZDV) $.93
Ishares 1-5yr GovBond (CLF) $.64
Wednesday, 25 June 2014
Dividend Income: January - May Catch-up Post!
So since I'v only recently started this blog and also having only really gotten my portfolio going since January I shall do one 'big' month by month catch-up post on my dividend income thus far. Going forward I'll do a monthly posting. I know its one of the aspects of my portfolio that I look forward to during and at the end of the month to see how much money iv made not working! On other blogs as well I always love seeing how people's portfolios have grown in income from the previous year.
January
Dream Office REIT (D.UN) $4.11
Algonquin Power (AQN) $7.57
BCE Inc (BCE) $4.66
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) $3.72
Scotia Mutual Fund $1.17 * Sold off in Febuary.
Total: $21.23
January
Dream Office REIT (D.UN) $4.11
Algonquin Power (AQN) $7.57
BCE Inc (BCE) $4.66
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) $3.72
Scotia Mutual Fund $1.17 * Sold off in Febuary.
Total: $21.23
My Portfolio Goals and Investing Criteria!
As I am just starting to build up my portfolio, I have a few goals and criterion for going about it.
My goals are:
1) To generate income; preferably monthly with stable dividends and distributions. Which is why if you look at my portfolio most of the holdings pay monthly, and the two ETF's I hold also pay monthly.
2) Maximize tax efficiency; currently all my holdings are Canadian tax eligible investments, which makes their dividends, distributions and any capital gains 100% tax free! The power of compounding returns, when combined with no having to pay taxes on your investment income is amazing! Not to mention it makes tax season less complicated!
3) Dividend growth; for the long term in order to keep pace with or beat value eroding inflation I look for companies who have a history of increasing their dividends. However, if management is reinvesting into the company in order to grow the business then so long as the company has a yield of 3%+ then I will discount the dividend growth in favour of a stronger business in the long term.
My goals are:
1) To generate income; preferably monthly with stable dividends and distributions. Which is why if you look at my portfolio most of the holdings pay monthly, and the two ETF's I hold also pay monthly.
2) Maximize tax efficiency; currently all my holdings are Canadian tax eligible investments, which makes their dividends, distributions and any capital gains 100% tax free! The power of compounding returns, when combined with no having to pay taxes on your investment income is amazing! Not to mention it makes tax season less complicated!
3) Dividend growth; for the long term in order to keep pace with or beat value eroding inflation I look for companies who have a history of increasing their dividends. However, if management is reinvesting into the company in order to grow the business then so long as the company has a yield of 3%+ then I will discount the dividend growth in favour of a stronger business in the long term.
Monday, 23 June 2014
My Blog Plan Moving Forward...
So as I have only just started actually writing the posts, I have been thinking for some time on what I would like to publish here. So over the next little while I would like to cover/ put up the following things:
1) My portfolio goals and basic reasoning behind how I go about getting to them - Done!
2) Simple ways to use Excel for tracking and researching - In the works! 1/2 Completed
3) Put up my monthly expenses/income(including monthly dividend payouts) which I have saved from a few months back, and on an ongoing basis post those changes monthly. I'v always loved going to other bloggers sites and seeing their monthly dividends going up! - Done!
4) My views on using RRSP's, TFSA's and taxable accounts. i) for youth/younger people like me ii) and for those nearing retirement, such as my parents.
5) Figure out a consistent and appealing formatting structure for my posts... - Ongoing!
6) And last, to perhaps make this a quarterly feature(or more) where I outline topics I want to cover, and get input from readers on what they would like me to research and post about :)
1) My portfolio goals and basic reasoning behind how I go about getting to them - Done!
2) Simple ways to use Excel for tracking and researching - In the works! 1/2 Completed
3) Put up my monthly expenses/income(including monthly dividend payouts) which I have saved from a few months back, and on an ongoing basis post those changes monthly. I'v always loved going to other bloggers sites and seeing their monthly dividends going up! - Done!
4) My views on using RRSP's, TFSA's and taxable accounts. i) for youth/younger people like me ii) and for those nearing retirement, such as my parents.
5) Figure out a consistent and appealing formatting structure for my posts... - Ongoing!
6) And last, to perhaps make this a quarterly feature(or more) where I outline topics I want to cover, and get input from readers on what they would like me to research and post about :)
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