May 2023

April showers bring forth May flowers… at least we hope so. It’s been a rainy, wet, and chilly week here in Southern Ontario.

We returned home mid-April to cold and blustery weather after spending 5 weeks in Europe, 4 of which were spent in Spain and Portugal. The weather there was glorious, so it wasn’t much fun to arrive back home to this typical Ontario spring.

You can read about our travel costs soon. I am putting together a post outlining where we went, what we did, and how much this grand tour cost.

Market and Investing Thoughts

I read a blog recently where an investor talked about looking at their returns with a critical eye and how consolidating their portfolio made sense to them. Rather than having, say, 20 stocks, they reduced it to 10.

They approached this consolidation with a goal of maximizing their capital gains.

For instance, if they were to earn a gain of 100% on a stock, it might as well be a stock they have a large amount of money invested in. By consolidating to only 10 companies, their portfolio will grow faster thanks to those larger gains.

I don’t necessarily see my portfolio the same way. To me, a gain is a gain, regardless of how much I invested.

It’s nice to imagine a large investment doubling, but I’m willing to double my money at any time, even if it’s a small amount. Any money I make builds my portfolio and those small steps can add up over time.

How does this relate to dividends? Well, you can look at dividend yields the same way. If I could earn a 5% dividend on a share price of $10 or on another worth $60, does it really matter which one I choose when looking at the dividend yield? Obviously due diligence and research come into play, as not all companies are created equal, but the premise remains the same. My yield on cost will be 5% regardless of which company I choose.

Just like a gain of 100% is still a gain of 100% regardless of the initial investment. I’m doubling my money either way. Sure, we all want to make a lot of money and build our portfolio exponentially, but let’s not discount the fact that sometimes it’s the little holdings that get us to where we want to be.

March “REVISED” Dividend Income

As you may remember, I posted my March dividend income update while I was away and I had hoped that my update was accurate. Once we got back and I went through my statements, I realized we actually earned a little bit more.

Rather than earning $4,107.88 as previously reported, we actually earned $4,143.33. Not a huge difference, but nevertheless, I wanted to make that correction known.

March income by account type: