2019 Plans and Goals

In today’s post, I would like to share with my readers about my plans and goals for 2019. With only one week left until the New Year, right now would be the perfect time to plan my investing strategy and new goals. 

TFSA Contributions

Let’s start with TFSA (Tax-Free-Savings-Account) contributions for 2019. The contribution room was raised by $500 so the new contribution room for 2019 will be $6,000 instead of $5,500. I also have an unused contribution of $900 from previous years. Therefore, my total contribution for 2019 will be $6,900. My monthly contributions towards my portfolio will be $575 (6900/12=575). 

Monthly Stock Purchases

Just like this year, I will continue to make monthly stock purchases in 2019. My monthly contributions and dividends will be combined to make one purchase per month. My monthly purchasing power will be around $900 ($575 fresh capital + $300+ monthly dividends). 

Stock Picks

In 2019 I will focus more on Bank stocks, residential REITs, and Energy stocks. On my watch list, I will have stocks like TD Bank, Royal Bank, Nova Scotia, Killam REIT, Canadian Apartments REIT, and of course the whole basket of Brookfield businesses like Brookfield Properties, Infrastructure and Renewable. I will also grow my existing positions whenever the stocks are on sale. 

Portfolio Goals

• Reach $70,000 in portfolio value 
• Reach $350 in regular monthly dividends 
• Reach $4000 in dividends 

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That’s it! I would like to thank you all for another great year! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Have a great and relaxing Holiday! Enjoy the break. Relax. Come back strong. Hassle hard. Invest wisely. Best of luck in 2019!

New Buy - Restaurant Brands International

Today I made my last purchase of the year. I always wanted to have an exposure to Tim Hortons and Burger King so I went ahead and purchased 11 shares of Restaurant Brands International, ticker QSR.TO on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Restaurant Brands International is a multinational fast food holding company that was formed in 2014 when Tim Hortons and Burger King merged in a $12.5 billion deal. In 2017, RBI acquired Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen and became the fight-largest operator of fast food restaurants in the world.

Purchase
I bought 11 shares of QSR.TO for $71.70 per share. This is a new position in my portfolio. Eleven shares is not much, but I plan to add to this position later on, especially if the share price remains around $70 or less. I believe that QSR is a great holding company with great growth prospects.


Dividend
The company pays a quarterly dividends in US currency and when converted to CAD dollars it comes up to 3% yield. Not a bad payout from a solid, growing business. It’s also worth mentioning that the dividend was doubled in March 2018 and I expect more dividend increases in 2019.


Dividend Payout Ratio
The current dividend payout ratio sits at 46% making it a safe investment for someone who relies on dividend income.


Ex-Dividend Date
The ex-dividend date for QSR is December 14, 2018 and the dividend payment is on January 4, 2019. By purchasing the shares today, I will receive my very first payout as early as next month. Right now is a good time to buy to get the dividend as early as possible.

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That's it! That was my last purchase for this year. Let me know what you think of it.

Portfolio Value Update - November 2018

Portfolio Value
As of November 30, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $62,184.00. Just like expected, the stock market held up pretty well in November, which contributed to positive return. My portfolio value increased by $486.00 from last month.

Dividends
Dividends received in November 2018: $311.61
Dividends received in November 2017: $222.71
Year-Over-Year Dividend Growth: $88.90 or 40%
Year-To-Date Dividend Income: $2,943.92

Recent Purchase - Pizza Pizza (TSE:PZA)

Today I bought one of the most hated stock on the TSX. You probably guessed it, it’s Pizza Pizza Royalty. I want to build a solid position in Pizza Pizza and the recent slide from $12 to $9 opened up a new buying opportunity for me to buy more shares. So I bought 100 shares for $9.49 per share and called it a day.



Problems with Pizza Pizza
When I think of Pizza Pizza, there could be a few reasons why the market doesn’t like it.
First: Minimum wage hike in Ontario from $11 to $14 – hurts the bottom line.
Second: Increased pizza prices – less traffic now.
Third: Payout ratio is 106%.

How to Make More Money with Adsense

A lot of bloggers, including myself, are using Google Adsense to make some money from ads. For a long time, I’ve been placing ads manually, in specific places of this blog. My manual ad placements didn’t perform very well because my ads never made more than a few bucks per month. But it all changed when I decided to switch to Auto-Ads.

Last week I logged in to my Adsense account and found out about the new feature called Auto-Ads. Auto-Ads is a cool feature and it’s easy to use. All you got to do is place an <html> code to your website and the program will decide on your behalf where to place ads. That’s why my ads are randomized every time you go to my blog. Sometimes these ads could appear in awkward places. 

Anyway, I’ve been testing Auto-Ads for a week now and I noticed that my stats have improved big time! And this is why I decided to share with you. Maybe this is something you would like to try as well and see if you start to earn more money from Adsense. Let me know if you try it. That would be very exciting if you could increase your adsense earnings. Because higher earnings means more moola in your pocket to buy stocks and increase your dividends.

Acura Update #3 – All Repairs Completed

Hey guys! Well here we go. All repairs are done and the car is ready to be plated.

I’m just missing the fog lights, but I will take care of that later. I’ll either get a set from the scrapyard, or I will just get the covers to cover the holes.

The quarter panel has been primed and painted and it came out really good and all body pieces were put back together.

Luckily, the existing bumper and fender were in repairable condition.

A new headlight was built from two headlights. We used the housing and the xenon ballast from the old headlight.

Also, the dent on the wheel was fixed and the car is back on its original 17” rims.

Acura Update #2

If you missed Update #1, here it is! 

The car is at the shop ready to be repaired. As you can see it in the picture, the frame is not damaged at all. Even the bumper reinforcement is straight. I found a used headlight on kijiji to replace the damaged one. The wheel is at the repair shop to fix the dent, this is why the car is still on a spare rim. The existing bumper and fender will be fixed.

Portfolio Value Update - October 2018

Welcome back, guys! It’s time for October update! And what a turbulent month it was! Did you feel it? I certainly did. The TSX has lost over 1,000 points in October. That chart looks choppy, but luckily we got a relief rally in the last two trading sessions. Should we be scared? No! Markets usually behave that way every year in October, then rallies in November and sell off again in December. I think October was a great month to buy good quality stocks.

Portfolio Value
As of October 31, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $61,698.00. The portfolio value decreased by $1,471.00 from last month. Not bad, considering the stock market dropped by 6.5% in October and my portfolio dropped by 2.3%. I think markets will do better in November.

I bought an Acura! Update #1

Hey guys! Today’s post is a bit different from other posts. I bought a car and wanted to share with you the details. I was planning to change my old car this year for a newer model because I wasn’t sure how long my 14-years old Honda Civic is going to last. So, I put aside $10,000 to buy a reliable used car in case my old car breaks down.

My 14 years old Honda Civic

My friend is a car dealer with access to auctions to buy and sell cars. Before looking for regular used cars, I asked my friend to screen the auction run list for good cars. We found a slightly damaged Acura CSX 2010 that was written off by the insurance company, because the body shop estimated the repair cost at around $10,000. The book value of this car is around $11,000 CAD because it’s a premium trim with leather seats and navigation system.

Recent Purchase: Emera (TSE:EMA)

Last week I posted my top three picks for October: Emera, Canadian Utilities, and AltaGas. I decided to invest more money in Emera since it was the smallest position compared to other two holdings. I bought 26 shares of Emera and I paid $38.97 per share.

Emera Holding
With the recent purchase I now have 49 shares of Emera. Eventually I would like to hold at least 100 shares so I have enough room to add more shares if the stock price goes down. 

Average Cost
When I initially bought Emera, in July, I paid $42.65 per share. This week I paid $38.97 per share and lowered the cost average to $40.69. 

Dividend
At the current price the stock yields 6%. With the purchase of 26 shares, I increased my yearly dividend income by $61.10. The ex-dividend date is October 31 so it was the perfect timing to increase my position.

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Let me know what you think of Emera and would you buy it at the current price.

My Top Stock Picks for October 2018

Hey guys! Welcome back to my blog! It’s mid-October and my monthly contribution fund is on the way to my brokerage account. Time for me to decide what to buy this month. Let me tell you, lots of buying opportunities have emerged after the two-week selloff. Looking back at September 30th, the TSX was about 16,000 points and now it’s down to 15,400 points. That’s a nice correction and a great opportunity to buy stocks cheaper.

Here are my top 3 picks for this month:

Portfolio Value Update - September 2018

Welcome back to my blog! The month of September have passed and it’s time for me to give a little update about my portfolio.

Portfolio Value

As of September 30, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $63,169.00. The portfolio value decreased by $294.74 from last month. I saw this coming because last month I had the best performing month, so the stocks had to pull back a little bit. They can’t always go up. But no complains. A little retracement is always good for buyers like me.

Dividends

In September I hit a new record. I received $284.65 in dividends. That’s an increase of $57.55 or 25% from the same period of last year. I’m looking forward to hit a new milestone of $300/month in dividends probably in December. My total year-to-date dividend income is $2,341.18.

Contributions

Every month I transfer $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I plan to keep that pace until the end of the year. Next year I will adjust my contributions, depending on 2019 TFSA limit.

Transactions
I only made one transaction by purchasing 28 shares of Laurentian Bank.

Charts

YouTube Channel Update

I have a YouTube channel that was demonetized in February of 2018 because of the new monetization rules. Back then I had 500 subscribers and 150,000 of watched minutes. The new rules required channels to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 240,000 of watched minutes for monetization.

In September, I finally reached 1,000 subscribers on my YouTube channel and accumulated over 260,000 of watched minutes in the past twelve months. The monetization is not turned on yet because it takes about a month for YouTube to review my channel again.

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That's it for now. Feel free to ask any questions!

Recent Purchase: Laurentian Bank

Hey guys! Just a quick update about my latest purchase. I increased my position in Laurentian Bank by purchasing 28 shares at $44.51 per share. I bought this bank for the same reasons I stated last month, except that I was able to buy it cheaper. At this price, the bank offers a 5.75% dividend yield which is fully covered and safe. I now own a total of 92 shares of Laurentian Bank which equates to 6% portfolio weight. My position in LB is now full, but I also plan to start new positions in other Canadian banks.

For the next few months, I will be looking to average down some of my losing positions. Stocks like Pizza Pizza, Morguard REIT, Crescent Point, and Cominar are really getting attractive.

That’s it for today! Cheers!

My First Investment in Cannabis Stock: FSD Pharma

Hello folks! Canadian cannabis stocks are on fire as of late so I decided to give it a try and invest in that space. Most of the weed stocks are already very expensive, but I found one stock that could potentially multiply just like Aurora, Aphria and Canopy Growth.

The new company I’m talking about is FSD Pharma, symbol “HUGE” on the Canadian Securities Exchange. I believe this company has a perfect blend for success. They are transforming a former Kraft facility into world’s largest, indoor, hydroponic cannabis facility. The facility is on scheduled to be completed in 2019 and the first harvest will start in the first quarter. The balance sheet is in top shape with 31 million cash and zero debt. I don’t know how high the stock can go, but it will be a lot higher in 3 to 5 years. Anyway, I encourage you to visit their website to learn more about their growth plan. If you click on the logo, you will be redirected to their website.

STOCK PURCHASE
Today I bought 4,000 shares for 49 cents per share. This stock purchase is an exception and will not affect my monthly contributions to buy dividend paying stocks. The purpose of this post is to make you aware that I’m buying something else on the side. If I can make a good return from this investment, I will use the gains to invest in dividend paying stocks. Hopefully it works out! I will not include this stock in my “Portfolio” page because it’s not a dividend paying stock. But I will keep you posted when I decide to sell it and invest the capital in dividend stocks.

DISCLAIMER
Please note that I do not make any buying recommendations. There’s still a big risk attached to this stock, just like any other small cap, penny stock. Please do your research before making any investments. If you believe that cannabis space will be huge in Canada, then all odds are in your favour. And if you do invest in that space, make sure to invest the amount you can easily afford to lose. Just like gamble. But be prepared to walk with a ten bagger out of this deal.

Portfolio Value Update - August 2018

Hello guys! It’s time to share my monthly update about my investment portfolio and dividend income. To be honest, it felt like the month of August was a bit stretched. For me, it didn’t pass as fast as the other months. I was counting the days to finally write this post. August was a great month. My wife and I celebrated our birthdays. We did a few cosmetic renovations around the condo. Daughter started fourth grade and newborn girl turned three months. I also published four blog posts, which is a lot, because usually I post once or twice per month. So I’ve been pretty active on my blog as well. Anyway, let’s talk the stock market. 

Portfolio Value

As of August 31, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $63,463.74. That’s an increase of $2,938.70 from last month. This was the best performing month of all time. The main increase came from the buyout of Enercare (TSX:ECI). When the takeover was announced in the beginning of August, my ECI position went up by $2,000. The rest of the value increase came from my monthly contribution and dividends.

Dividends

In August, I received $260.18 in dividends vs $224.79 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $35.39 or 15% on year-over-year basis. My total year-to-date dividend income is $2,056.53. Last year, it took me ten months to exceed $2,000 in dividends. That’s the power of compound growth! Also, I just wanted to let you know that when I receive dividends from companies that pay quarterly, I split them in three parts and report them on monthly basis. It’s just the way I prefer to do.

Contributions

Every month I transfer $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I plan to keep that pace until the end of the year. Next year I will adjust my contributions, depending on 2019 TFSA limit.

Transactions

August was probably the busiest month for capital relocation. I liquidated my Enercare position and bought Canadian Utilities (TSX:CU), Fortis (TSX:FTS), and Brookfield Property (TSX:BPY.UN). A few days later I sold Magna (TSX:MG) and bought Laurentian Bank (TSX:LB). In total, I relocated around $10,000 from one stocks to another. You can always refer to my previous posts to read more about those transactions.

Performance Charts

Thank you for your time and I’m looking forward to read your updates.

My Largest Holding: Killam Apartment REIT

Hello guys! For the past few months, Killam Apartment REIT has been leading the way as my top portfolio holding. Killam is in rental business. The REIT owns residential properties in six Canadian provinces. You may want to consult the company’s website if you want to see their rental properties.

I started to invest in Killam last year when the stock was trading under $13. I purchased 290 shares of KMP between February and May of 2017. At that time it was probably my 5th biggest holding. However, the stock has outperformed all of my other stocks and became number one. This year alone, the stock is up 23% and continues to trade at all time high.

So what should I do with the stock? Can it go higher? Should I trim my position and re-enter at pullback? These are the questions that are going into my head. So let’s evaluate the stock and decide what to do with it.

It’s current P/E ratio is 8.9x which is slightly higher compared to industry average of 8.5x. It’s current P/B ratio is 1.2x, inline with industry average. So based on these metrics alone, I wouldn’t say that the stock is expensive. It looks expensive on the chart, but it could easily go up another 10% from here. I’d put a price target of $17 for this year. I think this company should be traded at a premium because of the high quality properties and sound fundamentals. In fact, I’m ready to invest more money in it if the stock pulls back. They have exciting developments coming along in 2019 and 2020 so that also could be the catalyst for the stock to go higher.

Here are a few high-rises to be developed in 2019-2020. These buildings look very nice and occupancy rate is usually higher in newer buildings.

Let me know what would you do if this was your top holding. Would you let it run further?

New Buy : Laurentian Bank of Canada (LB.TO)

Well, August turned out to be a busy month for me. As you already know, I sold Magna shares on August 8th, and received around $2,250 from the sale. Also, my monthly contribution of $700 was on the way to my TFSA account and the amount got posted today. 

So today I had a bit over $3,000 to play with and I decided to buy a bank. I had enough money to buy 64 shares of LB.TO for $47.37 per share. Why Laurentian Bank and not TD, RY or BNS? Well, my decision was purely based on valuations. The Laurentian Bank is the cheapest dividend paying stock compared to other banks. Laurentian is currently trading at P/E ratio of 8.4x and 10% discount to its book value. The current dividend yield is 5.41% and the payout ratio is 44%. How sweet is that?

Here’s the valuation of other Canadian Banks:

Banks	P/E Ratio	P/B Ratio	Dividend Yield %
Royal Bank (RY.TO)	13.2	2.1	3.69
TD Bank (TD.TO)	13.7	2.0	3.45
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS.TO)	11.2	1.6	4.26
Bank of Montreal (BMO.TO)	13.3	1.7	3.69
Laurentian Bank (LB.TO)	8.4	0.9	5.41

Here’s the chart for the last three years. It’s certainly lagging behind, compared to other banks, but I feel like the stock price is turning around. At some point, it will have to catch up with other banks. Based on its 5 years average, the stock has at least 20% upside potential. 

Your thoughts and critics are welcome. Do you hold Laurentian? Would you buy it here?

Recent Sale: Magna (MG.TO)

Magna released its earnings report today and the stock tanked 8%. The report wasn’t bad at all, but the outlook is not as rosy as it used to be. Their bottom line will be impacted by US tariffs on metal, so I decided to sell my shares and wait for a better entry point.

I invested in Magna two years ago when the stock was trading at $54. Last month the stock was trading at $80 and I was thinking of getting out because of high valuations. When the stock dropped to $70 this morning, I decided to get out and lock my profit. My capital gain is 30% from two years of holding the stock. Had I sold the stock last month, my profit would have been much higher.

I think today’s drop is only the beginning. There’s more downside. The stock could easily drop another $10 from here. If the stock gets back under $60, I will be buying it again. But for now I will be watching it from the sidelines and will invest the money in something else.

Investment summary:

Bought 32 shares for $54 per share

Sold 32 shares for $70.50 per share

Return on investment 30% or $513

If you own Magna, let me know what you plan to do. Lock in profits or buy more?

I Sold my Enercare Shares and Bought Three Companies

Good day guys, last week I sold my Enercare (ECI.TO) shares, but didn’t have a chance to write about the transaction. Brookfield Infrastructure offered $4.3 billion to buy the company. I decided not to wait until the deal is approved and closed. So I sold all of my 215 shares for $28.86 per share. I received around $6,200 from the sale, or 64% return on my investment, excluding the monthly dividends I was receiving for the past 6 years.

The cash from proceeds is already invested. Here’s what I bought:

• 60 shares of Canadian Utilities for $32.15 per share 
• 50 shares of Fortis for $42.38 per share 
• 80 shares of Brookfield Property Partners for $26.08 per share 

The two utility companies are new positions for me. I mentioned in my previous posts of my intention to increase utility exposure because utility stocks are down and they are great businesses to own. Last month, I bought another utility company – Emera, and I plan on adding more maybe in August or September.

Brookfield Property is the stock I already own so I added 80 more shares to have a full position. I love the company. They have great assets around the world. My total investment in Brookfield Property is around $4,000 which is about 6% of my portfolio weighting.

Portfolio Value Update - July 2018

Portfolio Value
The month of July is now in the past and it’s time to report my monthly progress. As of July 31, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $60,525.04. That’s an increase of $1,803.98 from last month. It was the second best performing month, but most importantly, I achieved a new milestone. I finally crossed the 60K mark in my TFSA account.

The main increase came from stocks appreciation, followed by fresh capital allocation and dividend income. There were three stocks in particular that pushed my portfolio higher:

Alaris Royalty (AD.TO) was up by 17%
First National (FN.TO) was up by 6%
Morneau Shepell (MSI.TO) was up by 6%


Dividends
In July, I received $277.31 in dividends vs $227.97 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $49.34 or 21% on year-over-year basis. My total year-to-date dividend income is $1,796.35, already surpassing dividend income of 2015.


Contributions
Every month I transfer $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I plan to keep that pace until the end of the year. Next year I will adjust my contributions, depending on 2019 TFSA limit.


Transactions
I made one purchase in July. I bought 23 shares Emera (EMA.TO) for $42.65 per share. Please refer to my previous post for more details about that purchase.


Charts

Thank you for your time and I’m looking forward to read your updates.

Recent Stock Purchase - Emera (EMA.TO)

Last week I started a new position in utility company. I purchased 23 shares of Emera (EMA.TO) for $42.65 per share. Emera is serving customers in Canada, the U.S, and the Caribbean. 

Utility sector will be under pressure for a while because of the interest rates slowly going up. Since my exposure to utilities is very small, it’s a good opportunity for me to pick up great utility companies such as Emera, Canadian Utilities, and Fortis. Utility stocks are down 15% to 20% from their highs and trade at historically low valuations. 

What are your thoughts about the utility sector? Would you buy them right now or wait for better entry points?

Portfolio Value Update - June 2018

Portfolio Value

As of June 30, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $58,721.06. That’s an increase of $1,065.86 from last month. The main increase came from fresh capital contribution and dividends, not so much from stocks appreciation. My portfolio value is getting closer and closer to 60K milestone. Hope to get there next month, but a lot will depend on market performance.

Dividends

New Record! In June, I received $280.41 in dividends vs $233.57 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $46.84 or 20% on year-over-year basis. My total year-to-date dividend income is $1,519.04. 

Contributions

Every month I transfer $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I plan to keep that pace until the end of the year. Next year I will adjust my contributions, depending on 2019 TFSA limit. 

Transactions

In June, I purchased 75 shares of Pizza Pizza Royalty at $12.36 per share. This is my first tranche. If the stock continues to trade below $13 in the coming months, then I will buy a second tranche. Ideally, I would like to have around 250 shares of PZA in my portfolio. This purchase should add around $5 to my monthly income which will cover two slices of pizza and a coke.

Recent Stock Purchase - Pizza Pizza Royalty

Here’s the update on my recent stock purchase. Today I started a new position in Pizza Pizza Royalty Corp (PZA.TO). PPRC is a royalty pool that collects 6% royalties from Pizza Pizza restaurants and 9% royalty from Pizza 73 restaurants. The stock currently pays 7% dividend and trades a little more than its book value.

I used to own PZA shares in the past but sold all my shares at around $17. I made a good profit back then and kept the stock in my watchlist in case it drops to its lows. Right now the stock trades under $13 so it’s the perfect timing to get back in the game.

I purchased 75 PZA shares at $12.36 per shares. This is my first tranche. If the stock continues to trade below $13 in the coming months, then I will buy a second tranche. Ideally, I would like to have around 250 shares of PZA in my portfolio.

This purchase should add around $5 to my monthly income which will cover two slices of pizza and a coke. Not bad!! Let me know if you are familiar with this stock and if it was a good entry point under $13.

Portfolio Value Update - May 2018

Portfolio Value

As of May 31, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $57,655.20. That’s an increase of $1,882.70 from last month. This is getting exciting as I’m getting close to 60K milestone. So far, May was the best performing month of the year. For the second month in a row, Magna (MG.TO) was the best performing stock, increasing in value by another 9%. 

Dividends

In May, I received $244.06 in dividends vs $200.91 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $43.15 or 21% on year-over-year basis. My total year-to-date dividend income is $1,238.63. May dividends are slightly lower than it should be because I did not receive the dividend from Student Transportation. The company was in the process of sale so there was no ex-dividend date in April.

Contributions

Every month I transfer $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I plan to keep that pace until the end of the year. Next year I will adjust my contributions, depending on 2019 TFSA limit. 

Transactions
Sold 340 shares of Student Transportation (STB.TO) for $9.48 per share
Bought 110 shares of CT REIT (CRT.UN.TO) for $13.26 per share
Bought 75 shares of Riocan REIT (REI.UN.TO) for $23.42 per share
Bought 55 shares of Alaris Royalty (AD.TO) for $16.53 per share

Recent Purchase: Alaris Royalty

New funds are now deposited to my investment account so it’s time to put that money to work. Today I purchased 55 shares of Alaris Royalty (AD.TO) for $16.53 per share. I’m a few days late on this purchase because last week they were just under $16, but I did not have the funds available. My total position in Alaris now consists of 195 shares with the market value of $3,159. With the recent purchase, my monthly dividend income will increase by $7.40.

About the company

Alaris provides capital to private businesses in return of royalty payments. The company currently has 15 income streams with $98 million in annual revenue. Alaris has approximately 80% of its fair value of investments in US based companies; 49% of invested dollars are exposed to business services, 40% to industrials, and 11% to consumer products and services.

Dividend History and Sustainability

• Current dividend per share of $0.135 per month ($1.62 annual)
• 10 consecutive dividend increases totalling 93% gross increase
• Current annualized payout ratio at ~90%
• Included in the Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index

Recent Purchase: CT & RioCan REITs

My Student Transportation (STB.TO) shares got sold last week and I received about $3,200 for my 340 shares. I will certainly miss this holding in my portfolio. It was one of those recession proof stock with good monthly dividend. 

I decided to use the cash and add to my existing positions instead of buying new companies. So I bought two reliable REITs to strengthen my portfolio. 

CT REIT

My first buy was CT Reit (CRT.UN.TO). I doubled my holding by adding 110 shares at $13.26 per share. They mainly lease properties to Canadian Tire stores and I feel very comfortable about Canadian Tire business model and growth. The dividend yield is 5.5% and they pay every month. This purchase will add $6.67 to my monthly dividend income. 

RIOCAN REIT

My second buy was RioCan Reit (REI.UN.TO). I almost doubled my holding by adding 75 shares at $23.42 per share. RioCan is the largest reit in Canada which owes 289 properties. Riocan also pays out every month and their dividend yield is 6.15%. The yield is slightly higher to its historical average, but that’s because the share price is low. This purchase will add $9.00 to my monthly dividend income.

Well, here goes my capital rotation! Happy investing, guys!

Portfolio Value Update - April 2018

Portfolio Value 

As of April 30, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $55,772.50. That’s an increase of $1,658.24 from last month. The stock market rebounded slightly, helping my portfolio cross the 55K mark. Two stocks in particular that fueled my portfolio. Magna (MG.TO) and Pure Multi-Family REIT (RUF.UN.VN) increased in value by 9% and 16% respectively. 

3 Years Portfolio Value Growth

Dividends 

In April, I received $255.89 in dividends vs $208.59 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $47.30 or 22% on year-over-year basis. My total year-to-date dividend income is $994.57. So far my portfolio generates enough income to cover property taxes and energy cost, or 2 weeks of groceries. I don’t need to use that money so I reinvest it back into dividend paying stocks.

Purchased more shares of AltaGas (ALA.TO)

Hello folks. Today I made another purchase in AltaGas company. I couldn’t resist the sell-off of ALA stock and decided to take advantage of the low share price. I purchased 39 shares for $25.57 per share. This was my third purchase in this stock and my position in AltaGas is now full.

I started to accumulate ALA shares in 2016 by purchasing 30 shares for $33 per share. Later in 2017, I purchased another batch of 30 shares for $31 per share. In April 2018, I purchased my final batch of 39 shares. My total position of ALA consists of 99 shares.

 

AltaGas is a North American energy infrastructure company based in Calgary, Alberta. The company operates in three business segments: gas, power generation, and utilities. The company is in the process of acquiring WGL Holdings. 

So that was my purchase for the month. I’m glad I finally filled my position in AltaGas. Next month I'm planning to buy more shares in Brookfield Property Partners if the share price stays low.

Portfolio Value Update - March 2018

Portfolio Value

As of March 31, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $54,114.26. That’s an increase of $772.79 from last month. March was another volatile month for the stock market. However, my portfolio did better compared to January and February. I’m glad to have a positive growth despite volatile swings. Daily price fluctuations do not affect me. I just execute my plan when I see good buying opportunities. I'm looking forward to see what April will bring us.

Dividends

In March, I received a total of $261.40 in dividends vs $214.37 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $47.03 or 22% on year-over-year basis. This is the first time I crossed $250 mark from regular monthly dividends. This is certainly a nice chunk of cash that is reinvested back into the stock market. So far this year I receive a total of $738.68 in dividends. That's already more than my regular monthly contribution. That means that every quarter I receive enough money from dividends to make a regular purchase.

Purchased More Shares of Plaza Reit

Hey guys! Just a quick follow up on my recent purchase. Just like planned, I did purchase another batch of Plaza REIT for $3.90 per share. I had enough money in my account to buy 235 PLZ shares. For me it’s no brainer, under $4 bucks it’s a great buy! The dividend yield is 7% and it’s growing every year. The company have raised the dividend every year since 2003.

On Friday March 24th, I noticed a little rebound in share price. The stock was up 15 cents or 3.88% and closed above $4.00. There was no news to influence the stock price so it could be a normal rally from oversold levels. Anyway, I'm glad I had chance to buy the shares under $4.

My position in Plaza now consists of 665 shares which is pretty full considering the size of my portfolio. However, I plan to buy more shares in the future as my portfolio grows.

So that's it guys! Let me know if you own Plaza reit or if you plan to invest in it! Right now would be the great way to accumulate. Take care!

Geman

Stocks I want to Buy in March 2018

What’s up guys? I hope everybody is doing fine! My monthly fund contribution is on the way to my brokerage account and it will be cleared in a few days. I will be making a new purchase by the end of this week.

If you remember, back in January 2018, I was debating between Brookfield Properties (BPY) and Plaza Reit (PLZ). Back then I bought BPY and I’m glad I did, because today PLZ’s shares are 10% cheaper.

Today, you can invest in Plaza Reit for just under $4.00 per share and collect 7.11% dividend. Just a few months ago the dividend yield was 6.3% because the shares were more expensive.

Historically, this stock trades between 10 to 20 % premium to its book value. However, at the current share price, the market offers these shares for 13% discount to books. They never been so cheap in the last 5 years.

Plaza Reit also has the cheapest Price/Book ratio among its peers.

Plaza - 0.9 P/B
Riocan – 1.0 P/B
Smart – 1.1 P/B
Choice – 1.2 P/B
CT Reit – 2.4 P/B

With my monthly contribution and accumulated dividends I will have enough cash to buy around 220 shares of Plaza. Let’s hope for the share price to stays below $4.00 before the end of this week.

Portfolio Value Update - February 2018

February was a very volatile month for me. There were more swing days than typical market days. It looked like the market was looking for any noise as an excuse for the sell-off. Having said that, my portfolio performed better compared to January. The buyout of one of my stock helped a lot to get my portfolio value higher. Anyway, I’m glad this month is over and I look forward to market stabilization in March.

Portfolio Value
As of February 28, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $53,341.47. That’s an increase of $556.27 from last month.

Dividends
In February, I received a total of $236.45 in dividends vs $186.26 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $50.19 or 26% on year-over-year basis. I have to admit that my YoY dividend growth is still high, but that will slowly come down to single digit once my TFSA is maxed out by the end of this year.

Fun Fact
In the first two months of this year I earned more dividends than I earned for the whole year of 2011.

Dividend Increases
Plaza REIT increased their dividend by 3.5%.
RioCan REIT increased their dividend by 2.1%.

Contribution
In February, I contributed $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I mentioned in the past that my contribution amount will be lowered in 2018 from $800 to $700 per month. This is because I want to equally spread out the purchasing power throughout the year.

Transaction
I made one transaction in February by purchasing more shares in Morguard REIT (MRT.UN.TO). I doubled my position in MRT by purchasing 70 shares, so now I have a total of 140 shares of MRT. More details about my purchase here.

Online Income
I have some important updates regarding my online income. As you know I used to report my Neobux, Surveys, and Google Adsense earnings from this blog and YouTube.

However, there were some changes made to YouTube Partnership Program and I will focus only on growing my YouTube channel. I will stop doing surveys and Neobux, because I won’t have much time for that. I will be focusing on making more videos and growing my subscription base.

Student Transportation is up for Sale!

Hello everybody! I would like to share some news about the recent acquisition of Student Transportation (STB.TO). Student Transportation will be acquired privately for $7.50 US per share which is about $9.60 in Canadian currency.

With 340 shares on hands, I will receive over $3000 in cash. My capital gain will be at least 50%, plus the dividend income I received over the past five years. STB paid a great monthly dividend which yielded on average 8%. I have mixed feelings about this deal because I will lose a great dividend payer.

I always was a buyer of the stock when it was trading below $6.00. Over the past five years I accumulated 340 shares. All of my STB shares will be exchanged for cash. The deal should be closed in a few months.

All proceeds will be reinvested. I don’t have any ideas yet about my next purchase, but I will be monitoring my existing positions for bargain prices.

If you have shares in STB, let me know what you plan to do next? Would you sell here or wait for a higher offer?

Recent Purchase: Morguard REIT

The second purchase of the year is in the books. Today I bought 70 shares of Morguard REIT (MRT.UN.TO) for $13.33 per share. I took advantage of the recent market volatility and decided to double my position in MRT. My total position in MRT is now 140 shares.

Thank you Mr. Market Volatility because I was able to double my position with less capital. The first time I bought MRT was in June of 2017. Back then, I paid $14.80 per share. Today, the same amount of shares costed me a $100 less. Now I need to figure out how to spend an extra $100.

What I like about Morguard REIT is that their business is well diversified. They have exposure in industrial properties, offices, residential buildings, and shopping malls. MRT pays a monthly dividend of $0.08 per share so this purchase will add $5.60 to my monthly income.

Portfolio Value Update - January 2018

The first month of 2018 is in the books and it’s time for me to report my monthly progress. In January, the Canadian stock market started strong and continued to march higher, except for the last week. The last week of January, the markets tumbled. We saw a sharp sell-off and my portfolio lost about $1000 in just a few days. I have to admit that the correction was anticipated because of the rich valuations.  I’m in buying mode so any corrections are welcome because it allows me to buy cheaper shares. So why not?

Portfolio Value
As of January 31, 2018 my investment portfolio balance stood at $52,785.20. That’s an increase of $187.29 from last month. That’s a lousy increase because of the sell-off we had on the last week of the month. Still, a positive change is better than a negative.

Dividends
In January, I received a total of $240.83 in dividends vs $195.63 for the same period a year ago. That's an increase of $45.20 or 23% on year-over-year basis. The best part of dividend growth investing is no matter what the market does, the dividends are growing like a snowball that’s rolling off the mountain.

Contribution
In January, I contributed $700 of fresh capital to my TFSA account. I mentioned in the past that my contribution amount will be lowered in 2018 from $800 to $700 per month. This is because I want to equally spread out the purchasing power throughout the year. Had I continued to contribute $800/month to my TFSA account, I would have reached my limit before December.

Transaction
I made one transaction in January by purchasing more shares in Brookfield Property Partners. More details about this purchase in my previous post.

Online Income
Neobux: $21.37
LegerWeb: $4.50
Adsense: $10.96

Total income from online sources is $36.83. This is the area that I find it hard to maintain and keep growing.

My Neobux earnings are on autopilot, but in January there were fewer ads available. The LegerWeb earnings are based on the amount of surveys I do. I received fever surveys this month as well.

And my Adsense earnings are almost the same, but will be heavily affected as of next month. My YouTube channel will be demonetized because it will not meet the new criteria as of February 20, 2018. I will need to grow my channel to 1,000 subscribers in order to qualify for the YouTube Partner Program. I will be working on that this year.

YouTube is Demonetising my Channel

Ahh… YouTube…

As of Feb 20, 2018, my YouTube channel will be ineligible to earn money.

YouTube Partner Program (YPP) announced new rules for channel monetization. Eligible channels need to have at least 1,000 subscribers and 240,000 of watched minutes in the past 12 months.

My channel does not qualify for the new rules because I only have about 500 subscribers and around 150,000 of watched minutes. That means I will have to work harder to grow my audience.

So what’s my pay cut?
My YouTube channels currently makes around $100 per year. It’s a tiny amount that I can survive without. However, once I reach the minimum requirement for YPP eligibility, my income will at least double.

I estimate that it will take me at least a year to grow my channel in order to get enough subscribers and watched minutes.

If you would like to support me, feel free to subscribe to my YouTube channel. If you do subscribe, please let me know in the comment section below. That would be so helpful.

My videos have improved this year as I invested in a good camera, mic and a tripod for my video shoots.

Recent Purchase: Brookfield Property Partners

My first purchase of 2018 is Brookfield Property Partners (TSX: BPY.UN). Just as planned in my previous post, I wrote about two stock picks and I chose BPY. At this point BPY offers a better valuation compared to Plaza REIT. With fresh capital and monthly dividends, I had enough money to buy 36 shares for $26.75 per share. 

My position in BPY is not full yet. Eventually I would like to have about 150 shares of this company. By the way, Brookfield is the owner of the luxury resort in Bahamas, Atlantis Paradise Island.

Let me know if you own stock in this company and what you think about it. Please share your January purchase. I'm always interested to see what other investors buy. Take care!

January Stock Consideration

This month I want to buy shares in a company that I already own. So I screened my portfolio to see which of my companies trades at 52-week low. I screened out two REIT stocks that offer good value today.

Brookfield Property Partners (TSX: BPY.UN)

Brookfield Property owns, operates, and invests in commercial properties in North America, Europe, Australia, and Brazil. They diversify themselves into different sectors such as Office, Residential, Retail, Industrial, Hospitality, and Others.

The stock currently trades at 0.7 to its book value and offers a dividend yield of 5.6%. Its 5-year historical average suggests that the stock can trade as low as 0.5 to book value and as high as 1.0 to book value.

The 3-year chart suggests that the stock reached a solid support level and should bounce off from here. But it struggles every time it reaches the $31 level. My intuition tells me the next time it reaches $31, it will break that resistance.

If the stock trades below $27 level in two weeks then I will buy it. If it bounces off from here and rise above $29 then I won’t touch it.



Plaza Retail REIT (TSX: PLZ.UN)
Plaza Retail REIT is a developer, owner and manager of retail real estate, with a focus on central and eastern Canada. It’s a pure Retail play.

The stock currently trades at 1.0 to its book value and offers a dividend yield of 6.3%. Its 5-year historical average suggests that the stock can trade as low as 0.9 to book value and as high as 1.1 to book value.

The 3-year chart shows that the stock peaked at $4.90 and started to go down. However it built a nice support base around $4.20 and held up very well. 

If the stock trades below $4.30 in two weeks then I will buy it. If it bounces off from here and rise above $4.60 then I won’t touch it.



So these are my two picks for January. Let me know what you think about both companies. Would you buy them at those levels?