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.

12 comments:

  1. Hi German, I'm a 1st time visitor. Looks like you had an incredible December as far as the portfolio goes. Your progress over the past few years has been consistently good. Congrats! You've got a monster yield at 5%. Do you keep track of total return as well?

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    1. Hey ED,

      First of all, a warm welcome and happy new year! I'm always happy to see 1st time visitors. So thanks for stopping by.

      My portfolio yields an average of 5% because I'm heavily exposed to Canadian REITs and I like it that way. My Reits pay me from 4% to 7%, but I also have low yielders as well. So on average it's about 5%.

      I only track my portfolio balance and the dividends. If I were to track capital appreciation, I think my total return would be around 8% per year.

      Cheers,

      German

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  2. Yay fantastic end to 2017 for you. Congrats on the growth of your portfolio and the rising income you are receiving. Happy New Year all the best to you in 2018.

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  3. That's quite a hefty special dividend from FN.TO. What's awesome though is that even without that special dividend you still crushed it with a 20% increase compared to last December. All the best in 2018.

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    1. Yes, FN.TO was very generous to its shareholders. All the best in 2018 and beyond!

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  4. Holy Special Dividend! That is quite the extra payment. Regardless of whether you consider this or not, congrats on the great results this month German.

    Bert

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    1. Thanks Bert! I just went over your December earnings. That 1.7K dividend is very impressive. It will take me a long time to get there. Good job!

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  5. Congrats! Looks like another great month. I've had First national on my watch list for a while now...

    Hope next month is even better!

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    1. First National should be a long-term hold. In rising interest rates environment, mortgage lenders should do well :)

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  6. Nice numbers. Really impressive growth of 73%. Incredible.

    Congratulations and happy investing with new year.
    TDK

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    1. Thanks TDK! All thanks to the special dividend from First National Corp. Otherwise my YoY growth would have been 20%.

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