Dec 2017 Fiscal Update

Summary of Financial Market Returns

2017 was a great year for investors, particular for those with long exposure to emerging markets overseas. 🙂 Nearly every asset class experienced positive returns. The best performing one was cryptocurrencies. It grew from a market capitalization of $20 billion to $800 billion in the last 12 months. To put that into perspective that’s about 1% of the global stock market which is valued at roughly $80 trillion.

North American Markets in 2017

• Canadian dollar stronger by 7.0%
  (This means more purchasing power and cheaper imports, such as produce from California. Yay!)
• U.S. dollar weaker by 6.6%
  (U.S. investments are on sale.)
• The average CAD/USD exchange rate was 0.77
  (This may be important for tax filing purposes if you traded U.S. securities.)
• Canadian S&P/TSX stock index total return = 9.1%
  (6% from price appreciation + 3.1% from dividends.)
• S&P 500 U.S. stock index total return = 21.8%
  (Amazing! But the Nasdaq index which contains technology stocks was up 30%.)
• Canadian Aggregate bond index ETF (ZAG) total return = 3.0%
  (Interest rates are still very low.)

Foreign Markets in 2017

The MSCI group contains thousands of stocks from 24 developed markets around the world. Data below courtesy of Yardeni Research.

• Average change across all MSCI countries in 2017 = 17.5%. Up from 8.2% in 2016.
• EMU refers to the European markets specifically.

In December I sold some Bitcoin and Litecoin to pay down some of my debt. I’ve saved up a cash cushion of $10,000 because I intend to pick up some new stocks over the next few weeks.

Liquid’s Financial Update

*Side Incomes:

• Part-Time = $1100
• Freelance = $1200
• Dividends = $900
• Interest = $300
• Trading income = $2,500

• Fun = $500
• Debt Interest = $1300

*Net Worth: (ΔMoM)

• Assets: = $1,158,900 total (+8,200)
• Cash = $10,500 (+2000)
• Canadian stocks = $168,200 (+4000)
• U.S. stocks = $107,000 (+1200)
• U.K. stocks = $21,400 (+400)
• Retirement = $91,300 (+200)
• Mortgage Funds = $32,200 (+200)
• P2P Lending = $22,200 (+200)
• Home = $270,000
• Farms = $436,000

• Debts: = $462,300 total (-6,400)
• Mortgage = $180,600 (-300)
• Farm Loans = $185,800 (-500)
• Margin Loans = $57,500 (-1400)
• TD Line of Credit = $5,500  (-1200)
• CIBC Line of Credit = $18,000 (-3000)
• HELOC = $14,900

*Total Net Worth = $696,600 (+$14,600 / +2.1%)
All numbers above are in $CDN. 

My net worth has increased $126K year over year. Not too shabby. 🙂 This gain was mostly thanks to the Canadian and U.S. stock markets reaching record highs.

Many experts suggest to rebalance one’s portfolio once a year to ensure it still matches up with long term goals. Stocks outperformed bonds last year. So here is what my asset allocation currently looks like.

My liquid investment portfolio contains 82% equities, and 18% fixed income, while a year ago it was at 90% and 10% respectively. I have increased my fixed income exposure because I’m closer to retiring. Yay.

As we head into 2018 I plan to reduce my debt while continuing to max out my tax advantaged investment accounts. By the end of the year I aim to be collecting $18,000 in forward dividend and interest income. 🙂 My liquid asset allocation goal is to be somewhere between 75% to 80% equities, and the rest in fixed income.

My 2018 watchlist includes the corporate bond ETF (TSE:ZCM), Parkland Fuel Corp (TSE:PKI), North American Preferred Shares ETF (TSE:XPF), and more Lending Loop loans. 😀

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Random Useless Fact