Fiscal Update May 2014 – Rental Income

May was another great month. Net worth increased by $5,600, mostly thanks to my tenant’s $5K rental payment 🙂 This represents half the year’s annual rent. The other half is due in October. The first farm I bought in 2012 using $20,000 of my personal savings is now worth $50,000 more. Luckily my aggressive 8:1 leverage has paid off and has earned me over 100% ROI every year so far. I don’t think it’s too late to buy farmland today, as long as investors plan to hold it for 10+ years 😉

But how would rising interest rates affect farmland prices in the future? I don’t try to time the market or predict when rates will rise. But I believe higher interest rates will be caused by higher growth and inflation in the economy, which means higher commodity prices, which could mean even higher farmland values. In my humble opinion hard assets generally perform well under inflationary periods. Of course I could be wrong. I’m still cash flow negative so my farmland investment is only speculation at this point 😐 And if you noticed groceries costing more, sorry. It’s because people like me have been speculating and driving up the cost of farmland, and farmers are paying higher rent.

 

*Side Income:

  • Part-Time Work = $400
  • Dividends = $400
*Discretionary Spending:
  • Eating Out = $100
  • Others = $100

*Net Worth: (MoM)

  • Assets: = $818,900 total (+9,000)
  • Cash = $10,300 (+10,000)
  • Stocks CDN =$88,800 (-900)
  • Stocks US = $51,000 (-100)
  • RRSP = $41,800 (same)
  • Home = $254,000 (same)
  • Farms = $373,000 (same)
  • Debts: = $531,300 total (+2,900)
  • Mortgage = $198,400 (-400)
  • Farm Loans = $206,500 (-500)
  • Margin Loan CDN = $31,000 (+3000)
  • Margin Loan US = $26,100 (-200)
  • TD Line of Credit = $33,000  (-400)
  • CIBC Line of Credit = $13,500 (-100)
  • HELOC = $19,800 (+2000)
  • RRSP Loan = $3,000 (-500)

*Total Net Worth = $287,600 (+2.17%)
All numbers above are in CAD. Conversion rate used: 1.00 USD = 1.08 CAD

I’m pretty happy with May’s results, even though it’s not as exciting as my $53,000 wealth increase in the previous monthly update 😛

After depositing the $5K rent, I borrowed an additional $2K from my HELOC and $3K from my Margin account, so now I have $10K total in cash. I have written a cheque for $10,000 made payable to a company called Canadian Western Trust for a major purchase coming up. I need to keep the $10K in my bank account until the transfer goes through. I normally don’t keep this much cash idling around though. I like Warren Buffett’s analogy that cash is like oxygen. It’s important to keep enough of it around, but you don’t need excessive amounts of it, lol. It’s much better to hold profitable businesses or productive real estate than to keep a lot of cash on hand. I hope everyone else also had a great month financially 🙂

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Random Useless Fact: Hedgehogs are lactose intolerant

hedgehogs fiscal update

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Phil
06/02/2014 6:59 am

Awesome as usual, but not unexpected as you have a financial plan and continually execute on it. What I find interesting, is that many never figure out that it is the plan that is the key to financial success. Have you started that volunteering we discussed a few posts back? If not, add it to the plan and execute! – Cheers

Roadmap2Retire
Roadmap2Retire
06/02/2014 7:29 am

Congrats on another great month, F35. I like reading how people use leverage to vault ahead…adn your blog provides a great use case. Keep it up

R2R

Debs @ debtdebs.com
06/02/2014 8:00 am

Awwww, poor little hedgehog. I love milk.

RickPsyGuy
RickPsyGuy
06/02/2014 11:15 pm

I’m curious whether you know your credit score? Borrowing money on margin and LOCs negatively affects one’s score (even if you pay all your bills on time). Might this affect your ability to get a larger mortgage or a car loan in the future?

David
David
06/04/2014 5:31 am

I don’t understand what advantage there is to an 800+ score, other than being able to brag about it. Anything over 680 and you will still get secured and unsecured credit at competitive rates. A creditor is more interested in your debt service ratios on existing and new debt.

R
R
06/03/2014 4:03 am

Hello, I live in Regina. I’m a residential appraiser and I work with 4 commercial appraisers. Also, some of my family are farmers. So naturally, I’m interested in your farm value posts (but I also enjoy many of your posts). I was thinking about your 29% increase in farm land prices over last year. And I asked my co-workers about it. I’ve also discussed it with my farmer family members. And they both had some interesting things to say and I’ll share them with you. My co-worker says of the 29% increase that the numbers are skewed because property near the city limits is also considered farm land. So for example: http://beta.realtor.ca/propertyDetails.aspx?PropertyId=14349335 This property is only 140.98 Acres but it has a selling price of $7,250,000 or $51,425.73/Acre. Why? Because it’s right off Highway #1 and 2.5 miles east of Regina. I’ve heard about some appraisals where they bought the property in the last 3 years, in the city limits and then sold it for huge profits. Sometimes they even sell them for huge profits after only owning 1 year. So when you mix $50,000+/acre into the prices with the $1000/acre prices, the average will be higher. Regina and Saskatoon… Read more »

Wes Tibbetts, CFA® (@GenWiseWealth)

What’s your end game with your wealth…freedom only?

Asset-Grinder
Asset-Grinder
06/03/2014 2:19 pm

Wow monster net worth gains. Congrats man! I was wondering about your farmland. How hard is it too lease out? term of lease? what areas are they in? I got a rental commercial warehouse but my yield will be shrinking soon due to low lease rates. Might be time to switch it up for me.

DivHut
06/03/2014 2:59 pm

Thanks for sharing the info about your rental income. And $400 for the month of May in dividends is huge. My intermediate dividend plan is to generate $1000/month. I had a pet hedgehog a while ago. No more.

myroadtowealthandfreedom
06/04/2014 9:06 am

Great job on the net worth Liquid! I like how you’ve levered up to propel you to your goal. I think I need to do the same to help me reach my own goals. Also great job on the monthly dividends – $400/month is not too shabby at all.

Elizabeth McCarthy
Elizabeth McCarthy
06/04/2014 12:05 pm

That’s pretty neat you invest in farmland. Like the work up on famland real estate via your investing page. my ex BIL rents out his land and they farm hay. makes up some of his costs for having acreage and a nice place. Hmmm…. definitely something to consider doing in the future (when the debts are pd off).

S Arun
06/08/2014 9:18 am

Hey Liquid,

You are very close to reach million dollar assert value (0.8 million, don’t worry about debts now). I know you took pretty high risk in the farmland investing and it is paying off well now. Keep up your great job and good luck with your new investment in MIC.

Cheers,