Recent(ish) Buy: Algonquin Power & Utilities

    In November I  made a small stock purchase, adding to an existing position in my portfolio. Using a market limit order, I bought 56 shares of Algonquin Power & Utilities (AQN) at the price of $10.94 per share. I continue to hold, buy and build up my position in this company as it has proven to continue to grow its operations, revenue and dividend over the past few years.

September 2016: Dividend Update

    My favourite update to post about, my dividend income! Not only is it among the easiest money to earn, but also the most fun to write about. And September made it even better with a new high water mark for its comparable month of dividends, with over $100 in passive income! With the additional shares of Manulife Financial helping to push it over the $100 mark.

August 2016: Dividend Update!

    August continued the steady stream of dividend income for me. This month it edged up a bit higher than the previously comparable month by $0.28. The increase in income is from both Pizza Pizza Royalty fund and the National Bank of Canada paying out higher.

   In just a little bit more time, I am hoping to have another dividend raise, or perhaps a new purchase to bump the second month of every quarter's dividend income to over $100.

July 2016: Income & Expenses

    Well, July is certainly long gone at this point since I am writing this post in October! Been rather busy the last few months and to be honest I have not been overly motivated or inspired to write. I have kept up with tracking my monthly income, expenses and dividends though. And I do intend to get back into the swing of things on my blog here, and on Twitter as well.

June 2016: Income & Expenses

   June is quite a ways behind us now, with summer in full swing now that August has begun! Either way, here is my income and expenses update for the month of June. Which all things considering went quite well for me. Now that I have been in my new job and position for a few months now, it is getting a lot easier and I am better able to help the customers who come to me. The only 'downside' is that at the end of June, and throughout a good portion of July I had not been getting as many hours as I would have liked, so my income from working is lower than usual, especially considering it was a triple pay month.

July 2016: Dividend Update!

    July is a great month for so many reasons; summer is in full swing with warm weather, the sun is out after 8pm and I received my highest month yet in dividend income! July beat out last April's payout by $12.46 on dividend increases and a weakening Canadian Dollar against the U.S Dollar alone. No extra effort on my part to earn it besides holding onto those shares.

June 2016: Dividend Update!

    June continued the steady pace of dividends being paid out into my brokerage account. The third month of every quarter has so far consistently been my lowest month for dividends, with mostly just my monthly dividend payers. Although I am slowly working on that with the addition of Manulife Financial to my portfolio this year, and more recently adding again to the position during the Brexit market 'discount'.

Recent Buy! June 2016

    I recently took advantage of the Brexit situation, where the people of the United Kingdom voted on a referendum to completely leave the European Union, with a winning vote of 52%. (BBC) So when North American markets opened on June 24th, they followed the trend of every other major stock market and plummeted. Global markets fell roughly around 3%, and wiped out a whooping 2 trillion  in wealth around the world!

May 2016: Income and Expenses

    The month of May was a fairly quiet one for me. With lower than average spending and income as well. And because of this I did not get to save quite as much cash as I would have like, however I am happy that I still managed to do so. At least I got to enjoy some extra leisure time.

May 2016: Dividend Update!

    May made for a steady month of dividend income.With very little in terms of changes to my dividend income from the previously comparable month. My total dividend income for May was $98.83, a mere $0.34 less than last time. Nearly breaking the $100 mark once again!

How To Research Stocks

How I Analyze My Stock Picks

  When I go looking for companies in which to purchase shares in I start out by compiling a list of stocks which I am interested in and try to balance them within my portfolio's sector weighting.  Once I have selected a Watchlist of company's I look at a few key pieces of financial information. All of which are readily available either on the company's website, or Google Finance, your brokerages research tools and/or additional sources of financial information. 

Blog Update! New Picture

   

    Just a quick post showing off my new Twitter and blog profile picture. It is a wonderful piece designed and created by the artist The Art of Justice, you may find on Facebook, which also has some of her other works. Definitely check her out if you are thinking of getting a new profile picture, and want it to be completely original.

Portfolio Update! May 29th, 2016

    It has been a few months since my last Portfolio Update at the end of January. Since then I have made additional purchases to Pembina Pipeline Corp., and Toronto Dominion bank, adding 25 and 14 shares respectively. I have also done some trading, with selling and buying some of my Veresen shares.

    The Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) has also been doing quite a bit better overall since its horrible start to 2016 and is now positive for the year so far. Which has reflected quite nicely on the total value of my portfolio. For the first time I am now consistently sitting above $35,000!

Recent Buy! April 2016

    Following up on my Watchlist post, I went ahead and added to my position in Algonquin Power and Utilities (AQN). I have held shares in this company since first starting my portfolio, by year end it will be 3 years! I still consider this stock as a long-term hold, and is the largest single holding in my portfolio, with a weighting of 14.87%. Which is from adding more shares and the stocks steady appreciation in value over time.

Recent Buy & Sell! April 2016

    There had been a bit of volatility in the markets a couple of weeks ago. In particular with my holding of Veresen (VSN). In a single day it jumped up from $8.87 a share to $9.51, roughly 8%! So I took the opportunity to sell a portion of my shares. I sold 71 shares at $9.42, which lowered my monthly dividend income by $5.91, and $70.97 annually.

April 2016: Dividend Update!

    April provided me with a solid month of dividend income.Where monthly distributions continue to be the base of my passive income, and a few of my larger quarterly payers such as Algonquin Power, Bank of Nova Scotia and BCE contributed big boosts to my income.

March 2016: Income & Expenses

    March was a busy month for me, between working, sorting out my taxes. Applying for and figuring out my workplace health benefits and dealing with multiple computer issues. Overall though, even with having to buy a lot of extra computer parts I am very happy with my end results for the month.

Next Buy Watchlist: April 2016

    While I have been rather busy lately with some recent buys, mainly building up and cost averaging down my position in Manulife Financial, not once, but twice! Adding to Pembina Pipeline as well, as my most recent buy in TD Bank. I have been buying stocks and building up my portfolio while neglecting to post about those stocks which are on my radar. Sometimes it is due to seeing an opportunity crop up and I go for it, or being just a bit too busy to post, or not having any particular stock in mind.

    This time around since my last buy of TD I have a definite purpose for my next buy. My holdings in the Financial sector, and oil related companies has become more heavily concentrated than I would like. In part due to buying more of those stocks as they sank in value, and have now rebounded a bit resulting in their further weighting in my portfolio.

Belated Recent Buy! From February 2016

    This post has been put off for quite awhile! Sometimes it is hard to believe just how fast time is able to fly by us. I made this purchase at the end of February on the 29th, a happy leap year buy! This buy in particular was on the smaller side of my trades and a good portion of the capital was from accumulated dividends since I had not made any purchases in quite some time.

    At the time all three of my larger bank positions were down (TD, BNS, RY) quite a bit and I decided to take advantage of it. I choose TD Canada Trust primarily for two reasons: One being their growing presence in the United States, and secondly to balance out those banks positions within my portfolio.

March 2016: Dividend Update!

    March made for a pretty good month of dividends. Falling just short of breaking the $100 mark for dividend income. I still increased the amount received from the previous third month of the quarter by $11.54 . So I am very happy to see the progression. Had Dream Office REIT not cut its dividend, I would have been closer to $110!

February 2016: Income & Expenses

    February ended up being a fairly standard month for my income and expenses. Work income was a bit lower than usual though, due to working fewer hours. I did mostly enjoy the extra rest though. Also kept my spending down nicely for the most part, with only one irregular expense, but well worth it.

    Generally speaking at the moment I do not usually aim to work full-time hours at my current work position. I prefer to have a bit more free time while I am able to get it for now. Even if that means a slight hit in my income, I value the extra free time higher than a few more dollars. I offset that by being my fairly frugal self, not spending a lot nor going out to restaurants, bars or events too often. Luckily for me, my lovely lady also usually prefers to relax at home as well. Although sorry March's budget, a sushi date is coming up. Yum!

February 2016: Dividend Update!

    As 2016 continues on, February has already passed us. Even with the extra day afforded to us from having a leap year! With the extra day or not, my dividends have steadily kept on coming in. Even better they continue to grow at a steady pace (for the most part).
    February was another great month of dividends for me. Once again getting over $100 in dividend income, and progressively pulling ahead of the previous comparable months dividend income by $8.76. Also a huge improvement from February 2014, where that months dividends were $44.89.

Using Dividend Reinvestment Plans

    Using a Dividend Re-Investment Plan is an easy method of increasing ones position within a company over time, and a passive method of putting dividend payouts to work. DRIP's work by buying a new full share, or multiple shares of a company and/or fractional shares through the stocks dividend payments. 

January 2016: Income & Expenses

    After posting my January Dividend Update I kind of forgot about my other main monthly post, my Income and Expenses report. What better time to write it then being relatively snowed in (don't want to go outside again) and having the day off of work? So here it is! January had me back to a relatively normal level of spending from what I have recorded in 2015. Except of course for the usual outlier month of December, where holiday spending increases my expenses. Thankfully that month also saw a large increase in income.

    This January however did prove to have quite a bit more income than I was generally expecting. In

Recent Buy! February 2016

     This Tuesday I had the day off, and so I had the opportunity to take a closer look at my portfolio, as well as my watchlist. After the TSX had such a rough day on Monday, falling 1.8%, I was looking forward to buying! To my relative delight, when I logged in at 10am the TSX was down another almost 2%! While it always hurts to see ones portfolio value decrease by so much in so little time, it is great to see when looking to buy.

January 2016: Dividend Update!

    January, being the first month of Q1 is usually always a great month for dividend income for me. January 2016 is proven to be no exception to that, having been an excellent month with my new high mark for passive income. My monthly payers continue to give me a solid base of dividend income, while the quarterly dividends pushed me well into the $200 mark!

    While the Canadian dollar may have gotten weaker against the US Dollar, making some imported products more expensive here in Canada, I did benefit a bit from it with my US Dollar dividend from AQN rising by $5.06 simply from the change in exchange rate.

Portfolio Update: January 26th, 2016

    Just a quick portfolio update since my first and second buys of the year. Added to my position in Manulife Financial twice, averaging down further each time with the market slide.

Recent Buy(2)! January 2016

      Just recently I posted about my first buy of 2016, where I bought 46 shares of ManuLife Financial (MFC). So I had bought 46 shares of MFC at $20.24 during the first week of January. The stock boasted a 3.36% dividend yield, which means an additional $7.82 per quarter and $31.28 in annual dividend income. I had also lowered my average cost basis for this position from $20.38 from my first purchase to $20.31, and my MFC share count rose to 88. Then, markets decided to give just about every company a 3-8% 'discount' and I was fortunate enough to have some more spare capital to deploy along with some dividends so I once again bought more MFC last week.

Recent Buy! January 2016

    So far 2016 has been a rough couple weeks for stock markets and so I used my first buy of 2016 to build up my newest position in Manulife Financial. MFC was also one of the stocks that I was watching closely with my last Watchlist.As mentioned in my Watchlist post, I generally consider MFC to be at an attractive price when it is priced at under $21. Generally the stock will fluctuate between the $20-24 range.

December 2015: Income & Expenses

    Wow the New Year is already starting to get into gear and pass us by! It has already been a full week since we said goodbye to 2015. And while financial markets may be doing their thing, going up and down, although mostly down for the moment. The part of my finances that I do control however went quite well in December. Those being my income from work, and my spending, trying to keep expenses down as much as possible, especially considering the usual surge in spending that comes with Christmas and other holiday festivities.

My 2016 Financial and Blogging Goals

    With 2015 having come to a close and having achieved a good portion of the 2015 goals I had set aside for myself, it is now time to look towards the future! Once again this year I want to challenge myself to save more of my money each month through controlling my spending, while setting clear goals for investments, dividend income and also now branching out to diversify my overall investment portfolio.

Portfolio Update: January 1st, 2016

    It is the beginning of the new year and so here is an updated snapshot of my portfolio as of January 1st, 2016. 2015 was a rough year for the TSX and my portfolios stocks for the most part ended down for the year. However, I have made great progress in growing my dividend income, and buying addition shares in my positions at lower prices.