Portfolio Value Update - December 2017

I would like to wish everybody all the best in the New Year! May you all be healthy, happy and surrounded by the loved ones. May 2018 bring us new investment opportunities.

Portfolio Value
As of December 31, 2017 my investment portfolio balance stood at $52,597.91. That’s an increase of $1,977.55 from last month. December was the best performing month in 2017.

Dividends
In December, I received a total of $348.19 in dividends vs $201.06 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $147.13 or 73% on year-over-year basis. My cumulative dividend income for this year is $2,709.82.

It wouldn’t be fair to compare my dividends to previous year because last year I did not receive any special dividends in December. First National (FN.TO) paid me a special dividend of $106.25. If I exclude the special dividend, I would have received $241.94 which represents a 20% increase in dividend income compared to last year.

Contributions
In December, I added $800 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. As of January 2018, I will contribute $700 per month into my TFSA account. This way I will max it out by December of next year.

My Investment Account (TFSA)
My portfolio consists of 30 Canadian dividend paying stocks. Most of my stocks pay dividends on monthly basis. This allows me to collect dividends and reinvest them into dividend paying stocks more rapidly.

Transactions
My recent and the last purchase of the year is RioCan. I decided to double my position in RioCan by purchasing another block of 45 shares. I paid $24.95 per share. This purchase will add $5.29 to my monthly dividend income. More details about this purchase in my previous post.

Online Income
December’s online income from side hustles.

Neobux: $29.97
LegerWeb: $3.50
Adsense: $12.20

Total income from online sources is $45.67. The biggest increase in online income came from NeoBux. I have about 150 referrals in my downline and I earn a small commission from what they earn. So Neobux is making me a buck a day on autopilot. By the way, I created a separate page to track my online income.

Recent Purchase: RioCan (REI.UN.TO)

RioCan Highlights

• RioCan is Canada’s biggest REIT with enterprise value of $13.9 billion
• They own 294 properties, including 16 under development
• They lease to reliable tenants such as Walmart, Canadian Tire, Cineplex and Metro

Stock Purchase
My recent and the last purchase of the year is RioCan. I decided to double my position in RioCan by purchasing another block of 45 shares. I paid $24.95 per share. This purchase will add $5.29 to my monthly dividend income.


Potential Risks

You may have mixed feelings about my purchase, since it’s a retail focused REIT and is sensitive to interest rates. So why invest in this name if retail space is challenging and interest rates are slowly going up?

Time Change

A few years ago I had a different opinion about RioCan. I did not want to buy it because it was losing big tenants including Future Shop and Target. But that is in the past. They were able to lease most of those locations to other retailers.

Property Consolidation
A few months ago they announced that they want to sell 100 properties in smaller Canadian cities. After the sale, they plan to focus mainly in Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Montreal. I like their plan because it will help them cut operating cost by focusing on fewer locations. They will capitalize on areas that are heavily populated. They also plan to buy back shares and develop mix-used properties for residential, shopping and offices.

My biggest reason to be bullish on the stock
The main reason why I decided to invest more money in this company is because they want to develop residential units around their properties. So it’s a win-win situation. RioCan will be able to benefit from residential towers and increase traffic to retail outlets. If more people live around those outlets, there’s more chance that those residents will shop locally. RioCan can use some parts of the empty parking lots to build residential buildings. They don’t need to buy land. It can take 3 to 5 years to realize their plans, but with their 5.6% dividend yield, I’m willing to wait.

Portfolio Value Update - November 2017

Welcome back, my friends! I can’t believe how fast November passed by. It seems like I wrote my October update just yesterday. Anyway, I’m happy to report that I finally reached my goal of $50K portfolio. It wouldn’t be possible without my new contribution, dividend reinvestment and stocks appreciation. Without further ado, let’s get straight to the numbers.

Portfolio Value

As of November 30, 2017 my investment portfolio balance stood at $50,620.37. That’s an increase of $1,215.34 from last month. A year ago, at the end of November, my portfolio value was $37,745.91. You will find my last year’s update here.