My top performers: Pembina Pipeline Income Trust and Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund

I didn’t calculate my overall value for quite a time (like do I really care), but I did it intentionally, knowing I might be close to the same amount of money – still after several weeks of waiting for the TSX to come up again. The market had move a lot like always, but no drastic change still in my portfolio. Pembina and Crestsreet are the exception for the rule and they are both very, extraordinary amazing.

Pembina and Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund are about the only 2 investments who had took some value in my portfolio and I am still impress by the fact that, well, it had taking some value!!!! LOL.

I was very proud of my choices: purchasing 100 units of Pembina Pipeline Income Trust was one of the best ideas I ever had. I purchased 100 units of PIF.UN back on March at 12$. For now, each unit worth 13.42$. Since that time, the highest Pembina reach was something like 14.50$. I was like wow! Like its way too much fun! And for each unit, I earn 1.56$ per year, as the annual dividend is of 1.56$ per unit.

In date of April 3, my 1 000$ initial investment made in Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund now worth 1 042$! I just hope it will continue this way. It’s seem like in my portfolio, Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund had taken the place of Sprott Canadian Equity Fund. But that’s now wanted from me. It’s just how things went by.

For me (a while ago lol), Sprott Canadian Equity Fund was the "investment" or was supposed to be the one. Sprott Canadian Equity Fund was supposed to be my mine of gold. But nothing happen. Instead, I lost half of the money I invest in it and I am just upset about it. Anyhow, there is no – officially – no "money lost" until the investment is being sold, so for now, I stick and hold. But eventually, the goal would be to make a huge amount of cash from Sprott and than sell it to purchase high dividend paying stocks. But the question that remain is if Sprott Canadian Equity Fund still represent a good investment and to this question well, I do not have the answer.

Rock on :)

My first vote as a shareholder of Methanex Corporation

I previously vote as a shareholder of Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS) a while ago. Now it’s the turn of Methanex Corporation (MX). Actually, my vote for Bank of Nova Scotia was my first vote as a shareholder. I wasn’t prepared to vote for another company any time soon and I was quite happy to have the opportunity to vote for another company… that I own lol. Most hilarious part is that I had received the voting package… in English lol. Very funny. But I understand English enough to take "clearly" decisions or what I believe will be a good decision.

I didn’t begin the reading of the document yet. I am way too exhausted on what had happen to me lately. I am going to explain it all. But for now, my portfolio is taking form and it’s beginning very interesting to be… an investor lol!! No matter how bad the economic situation is, companies like Bank of Nova Scotia, Fortis, Pengrowth Energy Trust, Livingston International Income Trust, including Methanex Corporation among other, continue to pay dividend to their shareholders. And this thing is real. I had received a little more than 300$ in dividends money and I cannot wait to earn more.

If small investor were doing the same thing as me, we could boost the Canadian economy. But unfortunately, it’s not something I can do by myself alone, me and my little thousands of dollars here and there. But the whole investment thing begins to be more and more interesting. The portfolio I own at a broker now worth an average of 20 000$ in value right now and I expect to see it’s growing over the next couple of months. If only the TSX could reach 15 000 points again, my overall value could reach 75 000$ and maybe even more. And what I like about the stocks market is that there is no discrimination of what so ever. You invest in a company, it give you automatically the right to vote for it, to earn dividend and so own. And nothing is done to stop the process by anyone among the way.

And there’s no more powerful tool than the stocks market. I saw it from my own eyes. In a day, I could had make close to 500$ or so by selling some of my investments. This is fantastic.

Earning New Dividends

I just received new dividend from Livingston International Income Fund (LIV.UN) and Methanex Corporation (MX). I earn one extra stock of LIV.UN and another one of MX. And I earn an extra 14$ in cash to pay off my credit line. I really can pay off the interest of a 5 000$ credit line following Derek Foster strategy as he explains in his latest book Money for Nothing. Now, knowing that, will I be able to follow his strategy regarding optons?

I previously wrote that I began to understand the "options strategy", but really, I find it still difficult. I once call the Options department of TD Waterhouse. I spoke to an Indian I believe. Cute accent, good explanations. But in date of today, I find it still difficult. Would I be able to live from my dividend one day? And no siminar are being offer regarding options in the Montreal area. So what do I do now? :)

Good news

I just got very good news. It was yesterday actually. But yesterday morning, I was so tired; I did not even take time to check who was calling. It was for a job offer – not permanent but occasionally part-time. I got refer by the person in charge of the human resources at was used to be my morning job. I was quite happy. I was finally able to reach the person who had call me just a few hours ago and we will meet tomorrow at 10AM, which is not too early lol. I don’t exactly know what’s the job about, but I will learn more tomorrow. As long as I am getting paid… This is better than today because I am still very exhausted. And the more I sleep, the more I am exhausted lol.

That’s terrific news as the job is located on the same building and I know the place pretty well. I just hope it will turn out ok. Which mean that for now, my weekend job will remain my weekend job. Like for now, it’s very funny because it’s all about jobs, money and socks. And I am running everywhere. I still have my taxes do to. I was thinking do to it by myself with a software, and I had my taxes paper of last year which can help me but I think the best will be just to see someone to do my taxes paper for me and I might go at the same place I went last year. I wouldn’t like to do any mistakes. But I am still thinking on what do to.

And yesterday, I was quite surprised to see Methanex Corporation (MX) to rise at more than 10$ per sock. The situation is not totally desperate :) And Sprott (SII) gone up a bit at 4.60$. If everything can remain relatively the same, it will be nice knowing how much I am working hard to gain money, which mean more money more stocks, if everything can just remain the same, I might be able to purchase more stocks. I was thinking of purchasing more PIF.UN and FTS. I plan to earn +/- 860$ in new dividends by the end of this summer. It’s going to be hot :)

This morning was my last morning

…at my 3rd job.

I did from 9AM to 3PM and when I was done, I said goodbye to ones who where still there and I left. And it actually did something to me when I left even knowing how exhausting the job was mentally and physically – mentally because for the past couple of months I basically never knew if, for the day after, there was going to have work for me – that was pretty exhausting. And physically well, physically burn out because I had to wake up early, latest 7h30 AM after arriving at around 1 AM from my evening job.

But I won’t complaint too much about it, I was able to make it anyway, it wasn’t that exhausting. And for a while – almost a year – in April it would had make one year I had been working there. The workplace was always super clean, in a beautiful building near a metro and really, it was quite nice but the pay was low. I wouldn’t have take it as a full-time job but it was almost a perfect part-time job, only part that was rough it not knowing how many hours I was going to work each week. If I would have working only there, I would have probably freaked out. It’s terribly difficult to work in those conditions. It does remain me back of the times I was in Ottawa working for staffing agencies. Just the worst part of my life I want to forget.

Now, I am almost in a vacation until April 6th. Until that date, I won’t be working during the mornings which mean I will have... free time! I also having this Saturday off and it’s going to be real nice to have all this free time for myself as I enjoy surfing the Web so much.

I wish to make 36 hours at my weekend job and work full-time and – I wish some overtime will soon be available at my evening job. As for the rest, nothing changes; expect I had given up on Gomez PEER. I had waited and wait and wait and the status of the registration was still pending. So what I did is that I remove the program from my laptop. I guess I will just have to find new ways to make money online lol.

Having fun with my multiple Tax-free savings accounts and why TD Waterhouse is not that bad after all

Because they are getting pretty good at dealing with people like me! And I will go through it all in this post.

I got sooo confused on the Tax-free savings account. I taught I had understand it all – but just one little thing that I didn’t understand correctly – I taught that withdraws made during the year could be reinvested during the same year in the Tax-free savings account. But unfortunately for me, withdraws can only be reinvest during the next year following the withdraw – and never on the same year the withdraw were made. Here was my mistake.

Back in January of this year, I open a Tax-free savings account at RBC. And in it, I transfer some of my non-RRSP investment. They were mutual fund investments and in total, the money I transfer in the account was very close to 5 000$ - which is the limit authorize for 2009. I was very happy with the transaction. Everything went well and smoothly, without any problems... until… I got this bright idea.

A couple of weeks pass – it was time to invest in my RRSP and I suddenly realize I didn’t have planned anything for my 2008 RRSP. What I did was the following: I took some of my investments I had in my brand new Tax-free savings account at RBC and transfer them into RRSP. Everything went fine, well not perfectly fine, but I post previously about this, let say “learning experience” with bad agents of RBC trying to make money out of me.

Anyhow, a couple of weeks after, I decided to open another Tax-free savings account, but this time with TD Waterhouse. I complete the form and a few days after, the Tax-free savings account was from my TD Waterhouse. Once I call to see if the account had been created (I barely connect to the Internet on weekdays as I am running from 9 to midnight at my jobs) – the agent at TD told me that the Tax-free savings account was now from my TD Waterhouse account. All happy that I was, I ask him to immediately transfer my Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund in it. But I didn’t talk to him about what I had done previously at RBC. The agent proceeds. I really taught I was doing right, until I contact RBC later on – asking what was left from my Tax-free savings account and than – but only at that time – I begin to ask question and I find out that well, I have to say it, I had done a mistake lol.

After what, I call TD Waterhouse, telling them all about what I done. And I suggest if it will be better just to get the Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund out of the Tax-free savings account and the agent told me no. That was during a weekday’s afternoon.

Later on during the evening, I call back RBC to confirm the information of what I had been told during the afternoon and after – once again I call TD Waterhouse and the answer was still the same – I didn’t have to take off the Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund from my Tax-free savings account. How confusing! And than, I ask the courageous agent if I could had move my Sprott Canadian Equity Fund into the Tax-free savings account at TD (like I never get enough or something lol) but he told me… NO… lol

I still do not understand in date of today – why it’s ok for me to leave Crestsreet Alternative Energy Fund into my Tax-free savings account at TD. I just hope things will turn all right. I am kind of having confident in them now.

But what I dislike about TD Waterhouse and main reason I keep “bitching” after them most of the time is that even if I ask for general info, the agents – but not all of them – keep asking for my name, my account number… And one time, I get very mad and I told the agent that I didn’t want to provide the info since I was just asking for general info. But it never works… I had to identify myself.

And by the way, their TalkBroker do not work in French but exists in French… Like anything cannot be perfect.

(and especially not at TD Waterhouse lol!!!!!!!!!!)

On what's going on with Blue Note Mining

I didn’t have too much time to do my search, but I read that Blue Note Mining had declared bankruptcy. Not that I was very surprised about the news as I knew things were not doing to well at Caribou (New Brunswick). But when I learned about them having discovered some gold near Caribou, I taught things were going to get a bit better… but it didn’t happen…

Its heartbreaking news and I was very sad to learn that Blue Note Mining had been delist from the TSX. BN had been moves into the TSX Venture, which I have no clue what it is about. The delist will be complete on April 1st. Now, I wonder if I should sale the investment or if I can still hold and if I hold – will the money remain? Just sooooo confusing. I didn’t receive any information on this what sort ever – a letter or anything. So I guess the only solution to know exactly what’s going on is… to contact TD Waterhouse! (lol!!!!!)

But what happen in my broker account is…extraordinary…

Blue Note Mining still appears in my account, no problem. But the amount is different. Back a couple of months ago, I had purchased 12 000 stocks of Blue Note Mining – main reason behind the purchase was because the company had a mine in New Brunswick. Which I find cool since I am from New Brunswick myself. It would have been too great if I could only had make some money of the investment. Anyway, in the late days, the current value of my investment had been less than 200$. But now, the amount that show up as current value is 600$ - which is almost the value of the initial investment I made back than; exactly of 689$. Let’s say that with Blue Note Mining, I would only had lost 89$ at the really end.

Now, what I think happen is maybe Blue Note Mining had given some money back to their shareholders. But I wonder where they took the money, since they had declared bankruptcy. I do not plan to sale Blue Note Mining anyway unless I have too. I wouldn’t like to loose that 600$ of mine.

This is a valuable example on why its always better to purchase, stick and hold until the end, just like Derek Foster learn me to do. Because of this I save 29$ (the cost of the transaction that it will cost me to sale the investment) and more than 400$ value on the initial investment. Like WOW. I am just lucky like that sometimes.

I do not wish this of course, but wouldn’t be nice if the same thing could happen with Timminco? The initial value of my purchase use to be of 4 065$ and now, it’s worth 554$! This is worst investment I ever made of my young life as an investor. But I do not wish a bankruptcy for Timminco (TIM), no company deserved to live a bankruptcy. It’s awful for investor, CEO and employees. Because I guess the employees of Blue Note Mining may had been lay-off. And I should be careful on what I write – or say – remember what happen with my morning job? Just too hot.

And, if I continue to look into my portfolio, I just can only laugh at myself about Bank of Nova Scotia. I taught it was a so smart move of mine to purchase BNS at 44.94$... but now each stock only worth 31.60$. Just so hilarious. It’s just show how markets are difficult to follow… even for an expert like myself lol.

TSX forever.

About Derek Foster selling his investments or what love is all about

Wild, unconscious and with a lot of sex appeal. That’s the DF I known from Stop Working. But it’s seemed like the Derek Foster of the old days is gone with the wind. Or something had happen to him. But what? I am late in the news. Derek Foster had soled out of all his assets a couple of weeks ago, middle of March from what I understand.

I do not judge him on what he did, but I do have an opinion on it. I read an article online of the Toronto Star. DF was explaining that he had soled it all because of some search he did. I do not know what he had found, but gees, he is totally out of track lol. Like if I know what I am talking about or something lol. I do not know what he had learned about, but no matter what he did, its clear for me that I will never sale my precious little assets. Those are going to stay with me until the end. And I still plan to invest more in stocks in the next upcoming months – unless I got lay off from the 2 jobs I had left lol.

I guess I have to respect his position. And its true is position is not the same, knowing he had a family to support. I guess he did what he believe was in the best interest for him and his family.

In that article, at the question if he would continue to sale his books, DF answers yes. And this disturbs me. He continues to sale his books on his Web site (http://www.stopworking.ca/), free of any kind of advertisements by the way lol. Like man, you are selling a strategy you do not even believe in yourself! Come on!!! That’s disturbing. But who am I to judge. It’s not now or ever that I am going to say bad stuff on the man who makes me discovers the fabulous and painful (lol) world of stocks. And make me discovers TD Waterhouse bad services.

DF is out of the stock market, but I am still in. And I plan to invest at least 30 000$ per year for the next 4 years or so in order to achieve financial freedom. I might continue to work just to have more cash to invest and become, basically, a multimillionaire lol.

It’s true I own DF a lot like: awful services from TD Waterhouse and lol, loosing more than 10 000$ of my very own money in the stock market. But more seriously, what DF did – trying to explain the stock market to small people well, its extraordinary, its give strength to proceed and just « go for it » lol. If it wouldn’t be of his books, I would probably still and only investing in mutual funds. My Td Waterhouse portfolio had an initial value of about 30 000$ and now, the 30 000 worth 20 000. Which I consider still good knowing the stock market conditions. It’s not like my initial 30 000$ worth now 5 000$ or so. The stocks market worth it a try.

I do not have the best portfolio ever – but it’s not the worst one either. For me, my portfolio is – well, let’s say... show up some great potential to grow overtime – lets say it that way lol. And I am never going to sale any part of it.

But what’s nice about DF is that he decided to go public with it. He could have sale and not telling no one – it will only had been between him and… those guys at TD Waterhouse… lol. His public move is very courageous. I wonder what his projects are now. He might be trying to do some money online lol!! Just hilarious knowing that’s what I had been trying to do those last days.

It’s hard to believe he had decided to grudge into his 400 000$+ for his living. If DF had decided to move out of the stock market, it might be because things might be pretty rough out there. But of cause, I know almost anything about it.

Why investment is also about love and on why I love the stocks market

I believe in Barack Obama more than anything. That’s basically why I am still in « it », because I believe in him and in his administration. More than anything else. And knowing how much we, as Canadians, depend on the US, just knowing that its BO who’s taking care of business, I sleep well at night and I never intent to sale any of my investments – ever since I saw Barack Obama the first time on television lol. For me, I believe Derek Foster lost that confidence and that’s what make him sale all of his investments. Maybe because he is a man and didn’t fall in love with BO like I did. It’s pure love. BO is a black angel and he’s going to fix EVERYTHING. This is how a strong believer I am.

And a true believer like myself do no fear the market in bad times. But this is the perfect timing for me. This is what I had been waiting for! A bad stocks market, low prices and a lot of time ahead. And right now, the combination of those 3 elements are united for my own benefit.

I had been following the stocks market since something like 2005. Back than, I had purchased Fidelity Frotiere Nord with Desjardins. It was a 1 000$ initial investment. Its not now that I am going to sale anything for sure.

About me loosing one of my jobs on March 31

And it’s going to be alright. I am really not into the job searching kind of mood at this time and I will soon be running out of some good cash to invest more. But I had a pretty easy solution that came directly from my brain (lol!!!): doing more hours of what I had been so far my weekend job lol. And I am lucky (I really I am!) – some work will be available during weekdays on the second week of April.

I plan to do 36 hours there starting in April and I will also be doing 37.5 hours at my current full-time evening job. Which is for me a nice solution since my weekend job is close to where I live and I really didn’t want to be job searching. Really not. And the workflow should continue until August. For the period April-August, it will be more than 8 000$ I will be able to save and invest in a place where maybe I shouldn’t invest: the stock market. I just pray nothing will happen to my evening job.

Everything will just turn out perfectly well if things can just continue this way.

It's over

I just had a rough conversation with my mom. She knows I am working during day time and she calls me at 1pm this afternoon, which really annoyed me. I told her that she knew I was at work. Why to call in the afternoon while I am working? It’s like she’s not giving me any respect.

And than she asked me – again – if I ever take a day off, and I get made at her, saying that I was working. What drive me crazy is like she’s always like: are you tired? Something might be wrong with you, you never call. You should come back to New Brunswick. You are working too hard and stuff like that. All the time! Instead, she should be proud, but for her, life is just about free-time and not working too hard. And I am so the opposite and I dislike her so much for saying those words to me: you are working too hard, it might be tough on you. But what’s tough on me is not the work: it’s her! And it’s been going on like this since I finish my studies. It’s kind of unfortunate I cannot find a better job, but I do not mind, knowing that I am in Quebec and hey, in Quebec, foreign doctors are stuck in taxi driver jobs… So should I be very surprised of my own situation?

And tonight, the nightmare went over, I told her not to call me, just for emergencies only and I continue saying that if I wanted to have a friendly chat with her, I will call her. And than she said, but you never call… You bet I never call; I am getting annoying of her comments and her pushing me down – without giving me any encouragement. But now, it's over. I am done with her.

Than she continue asking me what I was doing. I didn’t answer to her question. The reason is quite simple: my own mom is ashamed of me being stuck in simple jobs. Like once I went down to New Brunswick, when people asking what I was doing, I told them exactly what I was doing and than my mom, ashamed of me, told me: don’t say that, say that your working in translation. Like me working in translation like before? Like I barely speak, write and understand English lol. Anyway, she asked me to lie to save her proud and from there, things for me toward her never been the same. I discover her true nature: superficial, selfish and arrogant. The same arrogance as Brian Mulroney.