The turbulence in the market continues and there is nothing predictable considering the world events and the recent interest rate increase. However, my dividends are predictable.
Make sure your portfolio has solid foundational stocks to weather all types of markets.
Stock Trades
I did one big trade where I sold all of my VFV ETF in my RRSP account and bought AbbVie Inc, BlackRock and Master Card.
I also bought Activision as an opportunistic trade. Activision was bought by Microsoft for $95 per share and the stock still trades at $80 per share. When the deal closes you automatically get a 18.75% return.
Why is Activision not trading at $95 yet? It’s partly due to needing approval by the governing bodies. While both boards of directors have approved it and are moving forward, until it gets clearance, there is a chance it could not go through.
I believe it will go through and therefore I took a position. The concerns are around anti-trusts and I don’t see that being an issue. Others feel otherwise and that’s why the price is where it’s at.
The deal should close within a year and then I pocket an easy 18.75% return on my money.
Recently I have been building a position in TD Bank in my non-registered account and I added more in February from dividends.
No new money was added to any accounts yet this year.
Portfolio Management
I have just over 70% of my portfolio in 11 stocks. My TD Bank holding also just reached $100K in value in my portfolio. I have 33% in 4 stocks only.
It represents how much conviction I have in my holdings and faith in them pulling back up when the markets turn sour.
I used to trim my winners when it was over 5% and that was a big investment mistake. Yes, a big mistake. Trimming winners is not the same as rebalancing indexes between fixed income and equity, it’s very different.
The index rebalancing is based on the 2 asset classes pulling in different directions but for a stock portfolio, trimming your winners doesn’t lead to the same results.
Locking profits from your winners is a market timing strategy and it’s insanely hard to do. If you trim a winner, where do you add it to? Another winner? Chances are, you are adding the money to a less proven stock and you end up with a lower return.
You can see below that the Canadian banks in my portfolio continue to rock it. They truly are the foundation of my portfolio.
Dividend Income
My February 2022 dividend income is $3,753.
I am making my non-registered account a retirement income account now while keeping the other accounts as dividend growth until I get closer to retirement.
I am already forecasting $28,763 for 2022 which is 11.97% higher than 2021 and 1.86% higher than 2020. Thanks to all the dividend increases, I got a raise of at least 10%
The dividend drop in 2021 is due to a focus on high dividend growth stocks in my RRSP and the non-registered accounts. As you can see, it only took a year to recover that short-term loss. Dividend growth does matter and in fact, the combination of yield and dividend growth is a magic formula. It’s called the Chowder Score.