March 2017 Investment Income $617

Welcome to my March 2017 investment income report.  This report helps me track all of my investment income from rental properties, dividend stocks, index funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

I was pleased to see that our net worth continued to rise in March, going beyond 960k.  The increase in net worth had to do with the strong performance of global stock markets.  This brought the value of our financial assets to an all time high at just over 490k!  This is why I think that it really pays to stay invested and not try to time the market.  It was only a short while ago that the markets were in dire straits and we could buy Canadian banks at bargain basement prices.  Now take a look at them, they’re trading at all-time highs!

Well now that we’re well beyond 900k mark in net worth I can sees us hitting that coveted $1 million mark real soon if all goes well.  Like I said before, net worth is great and all, but unless it’s backed up with some serious cash flow, it doesn’t really mean all that much.

As for my monthly cash flow, it was one of the better months this year and it had everything to do with my financial assets.

Good-Bye Rental Properties

For the past 6 months at least, I’ve been struggling to get these properties back on their feet.  I’ve tried many things, from switching property managers to renovating the properties to boost their appeal.  Things still haven’t worked out so I’ve decided to quit while I’m ahead and sell them.  In fact both sold quickly and close at the end of the month.  Normally I don’t like to sell my assets but when something just isn’t working out for me I prefer to cut my losses and move on rather than stick with a shitty investment.  As it turns out, I’ve come close to doubling my initial capital investment, so it’s not all that bad.  I’ll be writing about my foray into the rental property market in an upcoming post and I’ll be sure to share all of my lessons learned with you guys.

Monthly Investing Activity

As usual, I’m sticking to the same old boring investment plan.  I continue to buy up blue-chip Canadian dividend stocks and keep making extra cash purchases in my DRiP account to buy more shares of great dividend-paying companies.  I like to save and invest automatically because it’s a proven strategy for building long term wealth.  In addition to the stock purchases, I’m also investing in low-cost index funds in our retirement accounts.

One of the great things about being a dividend investor is that all of my dividend income is automatically re-invested.  Every month this income buys more shares in my favourite companies that will, in turn, produce even more monthly income for me.  This is how compounding works and is why it’s such a powerful force…what Einstein called the “Eighth Wonder of the World”!

This month, reinvested dividend income bought more shares in Fortis (FTS), Canadian Utilities (CU), RioCan (REI), Enbridge (ENB), Manulife (MFC), Suncor (SU), and SunLife Financial (SLF).

This month, I had a lot of money on the sidelines so I used some of it to do a dividend capture.  I bought more BCE shares so my April dividend income will be really good.

I’ve also sent a lot more money to my DRIP accounts to buy more shares in Enbridge (ENB), Fortis (FTS), Telus (T), Sun Life Financial (SLF) and Bell Canada (BCE).

Dividend Raises

None this month.

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

March was a pretty strong month for dividend income coming in at a solid $616.96!    This month’s dividend income has grown by 38% from that of March 2016 ($446.76).

Here is the breakdown of the numbers for March:

Dividend Stocks

Bank of America (BAC) – $2.47

Canadian National Railway (CNR) – $41.25

Canadian Utilities (CU) – $71.14

Enbridge (ENB) – $8.62

Fortis (FTS) – $92.97

Manulife Financial (MFC) – $36.62

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI) – $4.41

Suncor Energy (SU) – $18.90

Sun Life Financial (SLF) – $20.60

Unilever PLC (UL) – $65

Mutual Funds and ETFs:

iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $52.04

iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $38.74

Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) – $12.47

Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $10.23

TD International Index Fund – e (TDB911) – $141.50

Total = $616.96

Rental Income

This month, 2 of 4 units were rented and the properties we were in a negative cash flow position on the rentals.  Both units are fixed up and rent ready.  March’s profit on the rental properties was -$482.06.  This was after all expenses and is considerably less than I’m used which is why I think it was time to get out of the rental business for now.

I’ll have to adjust my annual goals to account for the sale of the rentals.  I’ll wait until the dust settles before trying to figure out where I stand and trust me, there will be a post on some important lessons learned from my experience as a landlord.

Thanks for reading my March 2017 Investment Income Report!

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