Stocks Continue to Climb
Technology stocks in the U.S. have recently performed exceptionally well. The Nasdaq index (full of technology stocks) reached a new high, passing 6,000 points. Stock markets reaching new highs is actually quite common. On average, this happens about once a month. But unlike the tech bubble of 2000, this time I believe technology giants such as Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet are here to stay. The industry has matured now and high tech companies have become similar to utilities. Just imagine an entire week without using any of Google’s services or any iPhones or Apple products lol.
Over the years I’ve written about why AMZN, AAPL, and GOOG are some of the best companies to own for long term investors. I hold all 3 of course. Although I am primarily a dividend investor, I will put money into growth oriented stocks as well if there’s a profitable opportunity. Amazon is up 25% so far this year. Apple is up 27%. And Alphabet (Google) is up 20%. Not bad for a span of only 4 months. 😀
Liquid’s Financial Update
*Side Incomes:
- Part-Time = $500
- Freelance = $800
- Dividends = $700
- Interest = $500
- Fun = $300
- Debt Interest = $1100
*Net Worth: (ΔMoM)
- Assets: = $1,112,800 total (+14,900)
- Cash = $4,200 (+2000) ~ Saving up to make a major purchase in May.
- Canadian stocks = $146,800 (+1100)
- U.S. stocks = $95,300 (+5200) ~ Strong gains here partly due to a lower $CAD
- U.K. stocks = $20,700 (+1100)
- RRSP = $78,900 (+2500) ~ I have many U.S. stocks in there.
- Mortgage Funds = $30,600 (-200) ~ Most MICs lost ground in April.
- Peer-to-Peer Lending = $20,500 (+200)
- SolarShare Bonds = $9,800
- Home = $270,000
- Farms = $436,000 (+3000) ~ Increasing farmland value due to inflation.
- Debts: = $494,800 total (-400)
- Mortgage = $183,800 (-500)
- Farm Loans = $189,800 (-500)
- Margin Loans = $64,600 (+1800)
- TD Line of Credit = $14,200 (-600)
- CIBC Line of Credit = $26,000 (-500)
- HELOC = $16,400 (-100)
*Total Net Worth = $618,000 (+$15,300 / +2.5%)
All numbers above are in $CDN.
I am so glad I have investments outside of Canada in April. The British Pound gained a lot of strength boosting my U.K. stocks by about 6% in $CDN terms. The United States dollar and stock market also went up a lot. My U.S. stock portfolio gained $5,200. Sweet! But on the flip side, my U.S. margin loan increased by about $1,800. This is the reality about buying U.S. stocks on margin; it’s great for my investments when the U.S. currency appreciates, but it also means I owe more money when everything is converted back into $CDN, lol. Oh well. I hope everything will work out in the long run. 🙂
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Random Useless Fact:
MoM 2.53% increase in net assets, good one, well done.
Any plans on the MIC positions?
I will continue to hold my MICs. The minor setback in the mortgage lending market that started with the fall of Home Capital Group is short term and overdone in my opinion. I don’t have plans to add more MICs to my portfolio in the near term though.
Liquid,for the April 30 report,is there a list somewhere of your portfolio of the different stocks that are in your registered and non-registered accounts as well as any delta MoM?
If not would you consider posting the list?
Thanks
There isn’t one yet, but I’m going to put together a list of stocks I own in my different accounts. I will update that to the website once it’s done after this weekend. 🙂 But I probably won’t be showing any MoM changes as that would take too much time. I’ll post the list soon.
Looking forward for you to continue your series on leverage. At this point you’re using double the leverage I am. imo it’s not you using too much leverage, it’s me not using enough. So looking forward to reading more of your methodology.
I don’t think many people could have predicted this Trump rally from a year ago. I got pretty lucky there. 🙂
Can you post your excel in read only format on google sheets or something?
I’ll post my spreadsheet this coming week. 🙂
Another solid month on all fronts. $700 for dividends is an awesome total for April. You make some good points about owning non-dividend paying tech stocks that have become like utilities these days. There’s little reason not to expect GOOG, AMZN and the like to not be around in ten, twenty or more years.
Yup, people are becoming very reliant on technology and social media. If the internet shut down for even one day around the world there would be devastating consequences lol.
I’m an old guy & maybe a bit slow on the uptake, so please whoever is looking at this, please be patient. There’s a thing that puzzles me a bit when looking at blogs where folks show net worth, their porfolio and performance & that is mth over mth or year over year is trying to figure out the starting point, what was added to the account, how the account performed with or without drips. An example (without leverage) might be starting point Jan 2015, starting with $100,000 invested in dividend stocks that rewarded average 5%. Across four quarters or maybe monthly dividends were reinvested. At the end of 2015 the account balance based on all stocks remaining at the price they were purchased in Jan 2015, add in the dividends, the account balance 31 Dec 2015 is $106,000. In Jan 2016 $10,000 was added to the account making the new balance $116,000. During 2016 dividends average 5% are DRIP, on the basis again the portfolio book price & holdings remained constant, the account balance at the end of 2016 is $118,000. Looks good, but not so good… what do you think? I suppose adding margin at 2% with an… Read more »
It sounds like you might be referring to the internal rate of return of a portfolio. It can be complicated with margin accounts, so I’ve only written a post about the returns I get over time from my accounts that use cash only. 🙂 This shows how much my existing portfolio returned not counting any new money I put in during the year.
https://www.freedomthirtyfiveblog.com/2017/01/dont-compare-returns-market.html
To actually calculate the Mom or YoY internal rate of returns would give a more accurate look into my investments. I don’t really have time to track that now though.
Thoroughly enjoying the series on leverage. Keep up the great work!
Thanks. 🙂
You can start selling out of the money puts on the side to build up your USD cash reserves since you have IB now! 🙂
Good idea. I can generate some income every month this way. 🙂
Nice update my friend! Makes me think I should be leveraging more… but in time, not leveraging, we should attain our long term goals anyways so for now, I have no need or want to increase our stress. Being single with none of the responsibilities of raising a family certainly helps. Great planning on your part to take advantage of this phase of your life. Smooth curves are a beautiful thing. The markets have been kind to you in your time of leverage. – Cheers
Makes sense to me. 🙂 If you can reach your goal without using leverage then rationally it would be in your best interest to not use leverage. I know I probably won’t be single forever. But in the meantime I’m grateful to have the means and the advantage of a 8 year bull market to experiment with different financial strategies.
Just curious, who will buy the SK farm? Besides the farmer potentially.