January 2015 Dividend Update!

    I am very happy to be able to make this post! As its my first dividend update of the year and its starting on a new dividend income record for me! This months total was brought up from the previous comparable month due to my recent portfolio addition of RioCan REIT and more shares of Algonquin Utilities as well as AQN's dividend increase/conversion to US Dollar
 which coincided with the decline in the Canadian Dollar. This months total dividends are $75.17! Beating my 2014 top month of $64.05, an increase of $11.04.

Portfolio Update: January 20th 2015

   It's mid January and time for my first portfolio update of 2015! Thought it would be a good time for one after my recent buy, where I added to my position in Dream Office REIT. My portfolio's value now sits at $12,791.19, and has an estimated annual dividend income of $644.19, which averages out to about $55 a month!

Recent Buy! January 2015

     Considering my much higher than normal expenses in December, I am very happy to say I was able to make a purchase this month. So I deployed my cash by adding to my position in Dream Office REIT (D.UN) with another 24 shares, making my total share count at 85. Dream is now back to being my largest single position in my portfolio, with a weighting on 18% and bringing my REIT weighting to 24% which is a bit higher than I am aiming for, so in the future unless an amazing opportunity to buy more of Dream or RioCan comes up I will not be buying more of them for the next while.
 

Next Buy Watchlist: January 2015

   I am pretty happy to be able to post a Next Buy Watchlist this January! In December I wasn't sure if I would have enough extra capital to make a new stock purchase for this month, primarily due to a lot of expenses incurred in December. But, after reviewing my current cash levels, projected income and expenses for this month and February I'v found that I do indeed have some extra cash to deploy this month! And with all of the recent trouble within the Oil and Financial sectors to name a couple, there are quite a few great companies whose stocks prices have become quite tempting for me. On my shortlist of names are: Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS), Royal Bank of Canada (RY), Toronto Dominion Bank (TD), Pembina Pipeline (PPL), Veresen (VSN), Suncor (SU), and Dream Office REIT (D.UN).

December 2014: Income and Expenses

    December and 2014 have come to a close as a new year begins. Throughout my Christmas shopping I have kept track of all my spending and managed to stay close to my general budget for presents and entertainment. This month in particular was trickier for me than others due to a large one time expense of paying for a trip in March, which is why my savings rate for the month is actually negative; although not too bad if you take away that one expense.

   My income this month was pretty good considering it gets a bit slower during the holidays and can be difficult to pick up hours, along with me wanting some extra days off here and there. I expect though January may be a bit lower, but it is hard to tell at the moment. Dividend income was pretty solid, with all my monthly payers comprising of most of the income and my first dividend payment from Suncor that month. My total dividend income this month also represents a nice 2.5% of my total income, which is a nice little raise from myself.  And my 'bonus's' in tips did nicely as well. For January I expect that category to be higher as well once I received payments for selling my restricted stock units, as well as including a GST rebate which I hope to be putting towards a new stock purchase to continue building my portfolio.