A good day for iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index (XRE)

...for the simple and good reason that on today, for the first time ever, I had purchase my first iShares units! I decide to invest in the iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index (XRE) for several reasons. Previously, I wrote that I wanted to BOOST my profit with this new investment but it’s not exactly the reason why I decide to invest in the iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index (XRE).

One of the reason will be in reason of the little sum of money that I had available to invest at this time. I decide to invest not more than 750$. I have my rent and other expenses to pay that are coming soon (already December 1th tomorrow!!), but I really wanted to invest one last time for November 2010. I probably won’t have any money to invest for December, but that doesn’t really matter because I have a major project on the way for December! (We’ll talk about it a bit later).

With 750$, I wasn’t seeing myself investing in stocks. I like to invest by tranche of 100. And to tell the true, at this time, it’s seemed to me like I have enough of stocks. I wanted to invest in a financial product that would already be diversified in itself – but not a mutual fund. And an ETF appears to be a perfect fit for my investment needs of the time. On top of that, it will bring a little – but how much appreciate – dividend in the house (39.0096$ per year or, if you prefer 3.2508$ per month..)

When it come to investment, a part of me want the quick gains, but another part and that will be the most major one, is looking for gains, but also security. I guess a mix of holding between stocks, ETFs and mutual funds can bring some kind of a security. At this point, my investment portfolio could be seen as being very disorganized, a messy mess of holdings but at this point of the journey, the only thing that help me going and make me feel in peace and secure with my investment is having everything very very diversify. Maybe I am getting an overdose of diversification but as a small investor, I feel important to keep the way I always handle things. And I was quite happy to be able to add some iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index (XRE) units in my portfolio. The most important I think is to do the way you feel it. When investing, you shouldn’t be looking exclusively to invest in top dividend payers, top mutual funds, and top performers only. You can if you want, but play on the secure side, mix, diversify and you won’t experiment major loses, but a slow and steady shade of grow. Derek Foster had been very great at showing me that.

Rain... but it should be snow

It’s raining this evening in Montreal and I forget my umbrella at home. I am carrying my mini laptop in my shoulder bag. I just did 7 hours today at work. I had done so many things today that those 7 working hours appear to be much more than just 7 hours. And if I would have been working my regular shift, I would only have work 5 hours because my regular shifts are only 6 hours, and a have a 30 minutes lunch pause... And you can trust me, I wouldn’t like to be schedule more hours because this part-time schedule provides me complete freedom. Anyhow, enough talking for nothing... let’s talk about my favourite topic: dividend!

Dividend dividend dividend!


Today, I had received 2 dividend payments:
David + Henderson Income Fund (DHF.UN): 30.66$
The Consumers’ Waterheater Income Fund (CWI.UN): 22.62$

I almost reach the 400$ in dividend earning for the month of November. Of course, when it comes to dividend, the more you earn, the better it is. First, from the DRIP. Make your dividend roll over and provide you extra stocks and units so when it comes to finally “stop working”, you will more than the minimum you need to live on.

So far, without including in the count the dividend earns inside the RRSP, I currently reach the equivalent of 4 918.63$ in yearly dividend earning (or the equivalent of 409$ per month if you prefer). For 2011, I would like to reach the 500$ per month in dividend income and ultimately, if I can move forward and search for a third job... hit the 600$ per month in dividend. Of course, in my case, the ultimate goal is to STOP WORKING to eventually blog ALL DAY LONG and do NOTHING AT ALL. Sound nice isn’t?

My 2010 RRSP contribution? DONE

Yep! Done and completed! I had been lucky, the transfer of my Sprott Canadian Equity Fund from the TFSA to the Canadian non registered had been done within a day thanks to my online broker TD Waterhouse. Today, I just have to call TD Waterhouse again and request the transfer from non registered to RRSP... I was very glade because I had a contribution of over 7 000$ to do for my RRSP. I took care of this before the end of 2010 and I am glad I did because I have other things to take care of... And here’s coming the most exciting part:

Upcoming project for December

I talk previously about this one many many times before, but I promise, it’s now coming: MARGIN! I plan to open a margin account despite warnings and concerns I received regarding margin. I hold more than 20 000$ of my debt with TD Canada Trust. The plan is the following: open a margin account with TD Waterhouse and use partly the margin money to pay off if not all, part of the debt I hold with TD Canada Trust... I won’t use the margin to invest, just to pay off debt that are currently at a high interest rate. An example? My 5 000$ TD credit line at an interest rate of 8.75% which is, currently, almost FULL. In other words, TD Canada Trust is not giving me other choice than to open a margin account with their associates, TD Waterhouse. I will give it a try and we’ll see what happen. That Dividend Lover is a genius (he’s the one who provide me the advice).