Weekend Reading - Aug 8 2015

 

    So the US dollar continues to gain strength against our Canadian Dollar.  At this very moment while typing this, the exchange rate is a follows:

                              $1 USD = $1.31 CDN

                               $1 CDN = $0.76 US

    The weaking of the Canadian dollar has been greatly impacted by the lower price of a barrel of crude oil. It is strange how Alberta has the greatest amount of oil in the world except for Saudi Arabia, but Alberta economy is dependent on the actions of OPEC for the most part.  With the exchange rate as it stands right now, a lot of Canadian investors are only investing new money in Canada. An investor can also buy a Canadian ETF that holds US equities, if they want exposure the the US companies.

     In Canada at the moment, their is a federal election going on right now in which the voting takes place on October 19.  Who ever Canadians elect to form government is going to affect the markets also along with the low oil prices

Some articles that I read during the week, that you might find interesting are as follows:

Dividend Mantra recently published about his averaging down in CAT in his Recent Buy post. I do believe this stock will face some headwinds in the short term, but it will be a great long term holding for dividend income now and increasing dividend income in the future.

Liquid Independence wrote an article about How Much Money Is Enough For His Retirement. Some people put off saving and investing until later in life, but it is definitely a lot better to start right now. Compounding is said to be the 8th wonder of the world. So the more time you have, the more time money has to compound. 

Liquid Independence talks about how he got started in farmland investing as he was interviewed by Jessica at momoneymohouses.com, which you can listen to here.

Dividend Hustler wrote about Recent Sales which you can read about here. At the top of this post I wrote about the low Canadian dollar. To avoid the exchange rate  if you have US equities doing well, you can sell them and purchase other US equities that are undervalued.  Dividend Hustler is going full steam with investing in dividend growth stocks. 

Tawcan recently published a post about Recent Buys in the Health Care space. As the population ages, there will be a greater need for  nursing homes and long term care facilities. These purchases will make great long term holds. 

Passive Income Mavericks recently published his dividend income for July.

There are some interesting articles and videos recently published at www.sharpetrade.com.

Photo  Credit : www.cafepress.com

DISCLAIMER

     I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant or tax attorney. The information on this blog represents my own thoughts and opinions and should NOT be taken as investment or business advice.  Every individual should do their due diligence to make their own financial decisions based on their financial situation and tolerance for risk

Dividend Update July 2015 - New Milestone Achieved

      The month of July is another month of dividend income landing in my accounts. This money is used to help pay my expenses if it is needed. If the money is not needed, it is ALL used to purchase new investments to further increase my cash flow.

       The price of a barrel of crude oil is still a major focus of the markets and the economy. Some analysts are predicting the WTI price of a barrel of crude oil to remain between $40 to $55 for the next year. Recently some major players in the oil and gas sector in western Canada have started to lay off a lots of specialists. These specialists are the geologists, geophysicists, engineers and scientists.


 Non-registered Account

• Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) - $65.00
• Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) - $20.70
• Enerplus (ERF)  -$ 26.45
• Killam Properties (KMP)  - $5.75
• Restaurant Brands International (QSR) - $6.19  
• Roger's Communications Class B (RCI.B) - $48
• Shaw Communications (SJR.B)    - $19.75
• TD Bank (TD) - $51.00

TFSA

• Boston Pizza  Royalties Fund (BPF.UN)   - $25.34
• Claymore 1-5 yr Laddered Corporate Bond (ETF) - $0.92
• Cominar REIT (CUF.UN ) - $5.39 
• Dream Office REIT   (D.UN)  - $ 16.61
• Killam Properties (KMP) - $  14.70 

Total = $305.80

     This monthly dividend income result represents the first time that I surpassed the $300.00 total in a month. This total represents a 2.783% increase from 3 months ago and 53.91% increase  year over year.  My dividend in Rogers Communications Class B stock, RCI.B,  was on 100 shares only. When the   put option was assigned in RCI.B, it was after the dividend record date.
  
       I also received a $3.50 dividend payment from Sherritt International Corporation. I purchased Sherritt International Corporation shares as a trade, so it is not counted for in the dividend income above.
 
    I also received another distribution payment of $56.00 for my swing trade in Dream Office REIT in my non-registered account. This is not listed above since it is a trade, so I keep the money in the account and do not pay myself first with this payment. I have received $1379.47 in distributions so far on this trade.

     I will update my dividend income tab with the new amount. It is great to see money from passive income sources deposited into my brokerage account every single month.

How was your dividend income for July?

Disclosure : Long all securities above.

Photo Credit: www.mipaq,co.za

DISCLAIMER
I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant or tax attorney. The information on this blog represents my own thoughts and opinions and should NOT be taken as investment or business advice.

Every individual should do their due diligence to make their own financial decisions based on their financial situation and tolerance for risk.

Portfolio Update - July 2015

The month of July is now behind us. The major issue of the month continues  to be the low price per barrel of crude oil. A few days ago, as reported on BNN,  it appears that OPEC will not be cutting production for the foreseeable future.  This will mean the price of oil will remain low until the supply dwindles.

    I was not active in the accounts this month very much. I initiated an options trade on July 14 by purchasing call options in  Toronto Dominion Bank (TD) on a Canadian Exchange. I closed this trade rather quickly on July 16 as my limit order was filled. I own 100 shares of TD in my margin account which I purchased months ago.

    The other activity in my account was the purchase of Bank Of Montreal shares. I purchased 35 shares at $72.20, which you can read about here. The Bank of Montreal is one of the five BIG banks in Canada. I did not have enough cash on hand, so I used some margin to make the purchase possible.

   I still own shares in Sherritt International as the stock price has fallen below my purchase price.  With the state of China and low price of Nickel, this placed fears in a lot of investors.

  I did acquire more shares through DRIPs.

Shares added due to drip

2 shares of ERF @ $10.33 for a total of $20.66
1 share of KMP @ $10.27 for a total of  $10.27

      On July 29, Scotia Bank paid a dividend. I hold my BNS shares directly with the transfer agent. The entire dividend gets reinvested.  I received the dividend  but I do not know how many shares are acquired or the dividend re-investment price. This usually takes 3 to 7 days to show up in the account.

As of  August 1, 2015, the value of my portfolio stands at $79266.82. This is an increase of  0.40 % over last month. I will update my investing account tab above.

Disclosure: Long KMP,  ERF, TD,  BNS,  BMO

DISCLAIMER

I am not a financial planner, financial advisor, accountant or tax attorney. The information on this blog represents my own thoughts and opinions and should be NOT taken as investment or business advice.

Every individual should do their due diligence to make their own financial decisions based on their financial situation and tolerance for risk