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!