November 2016 Investment Income $646

Welcome to my November 2016 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 November, hitting 912k.  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 450k!  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’ve broken through the 900k mark in net worth I can sees us hitting that coveted $1 million mark sometime next year 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 much at all.  As for my monthly cash flow, I’ll admit that it wasn’t great.  I have 2 vacant units as of December 1st which means that my rental income for December will be negative!

I managed to complete renovations on 1 unit in November so it is rent ready and the other unit needs some work before we can start showing it.  Vacancies can be a real killer in the rental business and it showed with this month’s profit on the rental properties coming in at just $307.  I guess I shouldn’t be too broke up about it, after all I did make a profit of a little over $300.  Now that the repairs and tenant turnover have worked its way through the system, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to both units rented for January 1st at the latest.  That should give these income reports a nice boost.

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 Bank of Montreal (BMO), Emera (EMA), and RioCan (REI).

Since my January dividend income report, I’ve been trying to diversify my stocks away from Canadian banks.  Bank dividends make up the majority of my overall dividend income so I want to build out some positions in other industries to reduce risks.

Finally, with Trump’s presidential election win, I’ve been able to take advantage of the big sell off in interest rate sensitive stocks.  In my TFSA and RRSP, I made a big purchase of 300 BCE shares, bought 125 more shares in Fortis (FTS), and bought 150 shares of Unilever (UL).

I’ve also sent a lot more money to my DRIP accounts to buy more shares in Emera (EMA), Enbridge (ENB), Fortis (FTS), Telus (T) and BCE.

Dividend Raises

Sun Life Financial (SLF) raised its dividend by 4% or 1.5 cents/quarter.  I’ll be expecting more raises from my other companies in December.

Monthly Passive Dividend Income

November was an OK month for dividend income.  This month’s dividend income has grown by 2% from that of November 2015 ($333.17).  A big part in that weak performance was a result of Potash Corp (POT) cutting its dividend (twice) this year!

Here is the breakdown of the numbers for November:

Dividend Stocks

Emera (EMA) – $25.90

Bank of Montreal (BMO) – $68.41

Citigroup (C) – $4.05

Procter and Gamble (PG) – $89.75

Potash Corp of Saskatchewan (POT) – $13.94

RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI) – $4.34

Mutual Funds and ETFs

iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF (CPD) – $52.27

iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF (XRE) – $40.24

Canadian Short-Term Corporate Bond Index ETF (VSC) – $22.21

Canadian Short-Term Bond Index ETF (VSB) – $17.65

Total = $338.80

Rental Income

This month, 3 of 4 units were rented and the properties are still cash flowing.  I’ve been busy fixing up 1 unit to have it rented by December 1st, but sadly it is still sitting vacant.  November’s profit on the rental properties was $307.21.  This was after all expenses and is considerably less than I’m used to but things should get back to normal in the new year.

One reason I decided to invest in rental property is that it offers a decent amount of cash flow relative to the initial investment.  I expect that in the next few months I’ll be able to increase the rental income by about $200/month now that 1 unit in my latest rental purchase is renovated.  I’m hoping to average about $1,100/month from my rental properties.

Total Monthly Rental Income = $307.21

This brings the grand total for our November 2016 Investment income to $646.11

I was hoping to rake in at least $1k this month but unfortunately we fell short.  I’m glad that the rental properties are getting sorted out and I expect they’ll be performing much better in January.

Our new annual passive income goal is $18,000 and we have so far received $14,236.39.  So we are already 79% of the way there.  With just December left to go I think we’re getting close but a lot will depend on getting our rental properties rented out.

Overall, both the dividend portfolio and our rental properties are adding a considerable amount to the monthly investment cash flow.  On an annual basis, we manage to earn a little better than $1,000 / month from both sources.  I’m working very hard these days to increase this amount further.

Thanks for reading my November 2016 Investment Income Report!

Photo by sscreations/FreeDigitalPhotos.net