Goodbye 2014 and hello 2015! Here is my December 2014 dividend income. December was the busiest month of 2014 for us. We are settling into our new home and have encountered a number of unexpected expenses that will be the subject of a future post. That said, the expenses are relatively small (ie. under $8k) so it’s not like the finances are completely derailed. Christmas and New Year’s came and went and during that time I had the chance to reflect on our 2014 financial goals and develop some new ones for 2015. In case you missed it you can read about it here.
What a roller coaster ride the TSX has been on. Up and down…all over the place. Oil has taken a huge hit which in turn has brought down the shares of a lot of great companies. To me this would suggest a buying opportunity for those who can weather the ups and downs. Never mind all of the noise just keep investing in quality companies regularly and you’ll be just fine.
Things started to look a lot better on the markets by mid-December when the US Fed indicated they would take a cautious approach to raising interest rates. That helped to calm markets and allow the TSX to recover some of its lost ground and propelled US markets to all-time highs.
I was happy to see that Fortis (FTS) raised its dividend this month by 6.25%. The Bank of Montreal (BMO) and CIBC (CM) also raised their dividends by 2.5% and 3% respectively. I was most pleased with the dividend increase from Enbridge (ENB)…a whopping 33% increase!
I made a few purchases in my Waterhouse account. I bought 133 shares of the Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) and 100 shares of iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE). I also continued with my plan to make automatic monthly and quarterly share purchases in my dividend reinvestment accounts (DRIPs). I bought more shares in Fortis (FTS), Suncor (SU), Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) and Bank of Montreal (BMO). In these accounts there is no point in trying to time the market – I contribute small amounts on a regular basis, regardless of what is happening in the market and I let compounding and dollar-cost averaging do their work. I also continued with my TD e-Series Funds automatic investment plan.
December has been the best month yet with regard to dividend income and it has everything to do with year-end mutual fund distributions. Nonetheless, I’m quite pleased with the results. Here are the numbers:
Stocks:
Bank of America (BAC) – $1.43
Canadian National Railway (CNR) – $25.00
Enbridge (ENB) – $3.57
Fortis (FTS) – $16.81
Manulife Financial (MFC) – $26.72
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI) – $3.91
Suncor Energy (SU) – $65.51
Sun Life Financial (SLF) – $13.59
Mutual Funds and ETFs:
iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $44.81
iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $26.46
Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) – $15.35
Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $11.37
TD Canadian Bond Index – e (TDB909) – $6.40
TD International Index Fund – e (TDB911) – $278.45
TD European Index Fund – e (TDB906) – $40.65
TD US Index Fund -e (TDB902) – $407.04
TD Canadian Index Fund – e (TDB900) – $613.21
TOTAL = $1,600.28