# This year is over, Good,percent year to year was up for me over all investments



## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

Does not include real estate

I am up 16.3% so well lets hope 2015 will be a better year

Would you like to share your %


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

Up 25% since last New Year's Eve, since joining here I'm up 100% in 3 years


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## 0xCC (Jan 5, 2012)

Are you talking "Internal Rate of Return" or just base portfolio value (i.e. market gains plus any contributed funds)? I haven't done my year end numbers yet but both 16% and 25% seem like they will be much more than my return (both IRR and portfolio value increase), good job in 2014 for you two...


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## gladaki (Feb 23, 2014)

how about you two give me some glance into your portfolio really wan to learn some lessons...


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## gladaki (Feb 23, 2014)

indexxx said:


> Up 25% since last New Year's Eve, since joining here I'm up 100% in 3 years


Also, is it all indexing


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

0xCC said:


> Are you talking "Internal Rate of Return" or just base portfolio value (i.e. market gains plus any contributed funds)? I haven't done my year end numbers yet but both 16% and 25% seem like they will be much more than my return (both IRR and portfolio value increase), good job in 2014 for you two...


Sorry- I should have been clear that it does include additional contributions; my base portfolio is what I look at, as I think of the total end result being what's important to me. Without contributions it's about 19% return on the year. For Gladaki- it's mostly due to Apple but I did get some great returns from other holdings as well.

EDIT- No, not all indexing. A decent percentage of my portfolio is in index funds (less than half), but I hold a lot of individual stocks as well. I keep meaning to go with more in indexes, but can't keep away from swing trading stocks. Of course I lose sometimes, but minimize with stop losses; also if a stock goes up more than 12% after I buy, I usually sell and lock in the gains. I do have a few stock holdings that are long-term (usually good dividend stocks), that I move the stop-loss upwards as the stock goes up just in case something happens and I'm unable to get online in time to protect myself.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

My return is more modest about 13% (still didn't get some december devidends), overall considering that my portfolio is rather conservative , I'm happy with the return...


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## gladaki (Feb 23, 2014)

gibor said:


> My return is more modest about 13% (still didn't get some december devidends), overall considering that my portfolio is rather conservative , I'm happy with the return...


13% is still good in a year 
Curious about conservative portfolio :?


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## gladaki (Feb 23, 2014)

indexxx said:


> Sorry- I should have been clear that it does include additional contributions; my base portfolio is what I look at, as I think of the total end result being what's important to me. Without contributions it's about 19% return on the year. For Gladaki- it's mostly due to Apple but I did get some great returns from other holdings as well.
> 
> EDIT- No, not all indexing. A decent percentage of my portfolio is in index funds (less than half), but I hold a lot of individual stocks as well. I keep meaning to go with more in indexes, but can't keep away from swing trading stocks. Of course I lose sometimes, but minimize with stop losses; also if a stock goes up more than 12% after I buy, I usually sell and lock in the gains. I do have a few stock holdings that are long-term (usually good dividend stocks), that I move the stop-loss upwards as the stock goes up just in case something happens and I'm unable to get online in time to protect myself.


Thank you for sharing information.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

gladaki said:


> 13% is still good in a year
> Curious about conservative portfolio :?


Some cash that I didn't deployed yet, short term bond ETFs (CBO and VSC), all 6 big Canadian banks, BCE, RCI.B, FTS, EMA, SU, CNQ, some smaller oil stock (that actually more damaged my return ), 4 biggest Canadian REITs, US dividends champions (like T, ABT, ABBV, MCD, PG, JNJ, PEP, KO, CVX etc) and contenders (LMT, SO, TRI, UL, COP/PSX), AAPL, several UNs (CHE, BPF, SRV), KEG, LIQ, GH, BBD.B...
Actually, I'm 1.3% down from my 2014 portfolio all times highs that was on my Bday Nov 21 
In total my best account return is 67% in 3 years, and average of all 6 registered account is 38% in 3 years


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## 0xCC (Jan 5, 2012)

Hey gibor, we share a birthday. :biggrin:

Doing a quick survey of our accounts it looks like the accounts ranged from a 0.15% gain to a 20% gain. I would expect that the combined return will come out in the 11%-14% range (IRR, not change in portfolio value, that would be slightly higher but not too much, maybe 3% higher).

EDIT: I did a rough calculation on our accounts and total change in portfolio value was 32.4%, a little over 16% of that was new contributions.

A simple portfolio growth calculation gives 13.08%. That simple calculation is (start of year - end of year - contributions)/(start of year + contributions).

I think our IRR would be lower than that because a bunch of the contributions in the last 3 months or so were to cover energy stock purchases and those are lower now and those losses would be amplified if extrapolated to an annual value which is sort of what an IRR calculation does.

I was surprised by those numbers when I actually did the calculation. I thought it would have been lower than that, our contributions were a lot higher than I thought they were.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

That's solid work Gibor!:biggrin:


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## lonewolf (Jun 12, 2012)

When everyone is having a blast swimming in the river it is hard for those standing on the banks not to jump in.


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## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

Slow and steady wins the race

10 to 20% up year over year is a great return

Sorry was talking about % of gains,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, not more cash added to accounts

10% of 100k is 10k....20% of 100k 20k

As you get net worth of investments up over 100k a couple of % does make a large difference in net return,so if you can do 10-20% Y/Y that is a very nice problem


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## Fraser19 (Aug 23, 2013)

12.6% in my RRSP for 2014
-20.8% in my TFSA, which I started 4 months ago and bought into oil.


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## newfoundlander61 (Feb 6, 2011)

Mawer Balanced Fund in my TFSA managed 12.11% before deducting the MER of 0.96%. Reinvested all distrubutions, overall a pretty good year. TSX index gained approx 7% I believe. Not sure what this year will bring but no one really knows so for now I am staying the course with this fund.


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## birdman (Feb 12, 2013)

Up 16.5% including divies. All dividend paying stocks with emphasis on F/I's and the closest things I have in regards to oil are GEI, IPL.un, and TRP.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Based on iShares info.:

YTD return for XIC (TSX Index) = 10.42%
YTD return for XIU (TSX 60 Index) = 12.04%

Non-reg. I think I was up around 15% this year although I'd have to run the numbers. O&G stocks certainly held returns back. 

Based on Vanguard info.:
YTD return for VTI:US (US Total Market) = 12.57% USD $$

Registered is becoming more indexed now so I get what the market gives me.


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## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

Fraser19 said:


> 12.6% in my RRSP for 2014
> -20.8% in my TFSA, which I started 4 months ago and bought into oil.


Can always pick some winners for the upcoming year in oil,no rush because the bottom is not here yet

Do not catch a falling knife 

Large caps will always have growth for the future,no get rich quick but steady


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Agreed, re: large caps. You see this in the returns of XIU year-after-year-after-year.

If the big 60 in Canada aren't making any money; banks, energy, pipelines, telcos, etc. then few companies are.


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## Spidey (May 11, 2009)

IRR of combined portfolios composed of 63% equity and 37% FI: 10.83% 

Equity divided almost equally between Canadian (dividend stocks and Index ETFs), US (Index ETFs), International (Index ETFs and Mawer) and REITS.

FI - various PHN bond funds, bond ETFs, ING


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## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

My Own Advisor said:


> Agreed, re: large caps. You see this in the returns of XIU year-after-year-after-year.
> 
> If the big 60 in Canada aren't making any money; banks, energy, pipelines, telcos, etc. then few companies are.


My largest fund is tdb902 @ 2667 shares

I always like investing into large caps ,slow and steady growth


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Fraser19 said:


> 12.6% in my RRSP for 2014
> -20.8% in my TFSA, which I started 4 months ago and bought into oil.


Our TFSAs also were the worst performers in 2014, one is just +3% and another B/E... majority of holdings there oil and REIT


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Based on iShares info.:
> 
> YTD return for XIC (TSX Index) = 10.42%
> YTD return for XIU (TSX 60 Index) = 12.04%


Based on google finance XIU return 9% and XIC 8.3%


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

gibor said:


> Based on google finance XIU return 9% and XIC 8.3%


Google Finance numbers do not include dividends. A guy obsessed about dividends should know that.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Why wouldn't Google Finance report that GoldStone? Any ideas?


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## GoldStone (Mar 6, 2011)

Google Finance does not report ETF returns. It offers charts. Their charts are price only. Yahoo is the same. You can find the price return between two arbitrary dates but not the total return.


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

GoldStone said:


> Google Finance numbers do not include dividends. A guy obsessed about dividends should know that.


I know it


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## CPA Candidate (Dec 15, 2013)

In 2013 I had a XIRR return of 16.8%.

In 2014, -5.0% return. :frown:

Up to the end of August my return for the year was > 10%. The destruction of the O&G sector and related service companies disemboweled my portfolio in the final quarter of the year. Lost about 8k on stocks in that broad area in a couple months.


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## scorpion_ca (Nov 3, 2014)

RSP (TDB900, TDB902 & TDB911) = 11.7% in 2014
TFSA (ZAG & ZRE) = 8.45% in 2014


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## scorpion_ca (Nov 3, 2014)

Could you please share why you don't buy ETF such as VUN instead of TDB902? I have some TDB902 and planning to sell and buy VUN to reduce MER.



1980z28 said:


> My largest fund is tdb902 @ 2667 shares
> 
> I always like investing into large caps ,slow and steady growth


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## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

Stocks up 14.78%, (XIRR) outperformed market by 0.5%
Networth up 19% 
Spending up 42%...
Real estate up 9% 
RESP up 9%, not included

Wild ride this year, faced two dividend cuts in one portfolio, then TFSA was underperforming TSX, managed to come back for year end. I hung on and did not buy or sell, during the dip.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

GoldStone said:


> Google Finance does not report ETF returns. It offers charts. Their charts are price only. Yahoo is the same. You can find the price return between two arbitrary dates but not the total return.


Gotcha. Thanks for the update, I don't go there very often, good to know.


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Jungle said:


> Wild ride this year, faced two dividend cuts in one portfolio, then TFSA was underperforming TSX, managed to come back for year end. *I hung on and did not buy or sell*, during the dip.


Nothing wrong with keeping the course Jungle. I only added to some positions in the fall when O&G stocks were crashing. I didn't have very much money to invest unfortunately. Christmas spending and other commitments...

I hope to buy more this winter now the TFSA 2015 contribution is open for business


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

Hi:

Well after two stellar years, I am down 3 or 4 percent this year. The majority reason is that my 2012 and 2013 stars NBD and MX respectively did some reversion to the mean. I still very much like both companies, so never sold down any after the run ups. The minority reason would be my energy holdings: ECA ans HSE are nicely down, SU about even on the year.

After a number of years of relative inactivity due to nothing being either clearly under nor over valued, I did made some moves this year. 14 transactions in fact, the most since the 08/09 time frame.

One area of activity was to add a miner as I had none since Inco was taken out some years ago. Five tranches of TCK.B between about $24 and about $13 were acquired leaving me with 4.3% of my portfolio and an ACB of about $18. The position is currently down about 10% including dividends.

The other major move was adding barrels of oil in the ground both by adding new cash; and selling some SU and converting some of my petrodollars into purer oil plays: new positions in COS and BTE were started. The results thus far rounds to about break even.

A few minor things were a slight reduction in financials by selling RY and buying a new position in MFC, and adding to existing holdings of NBD and BBD.B. All buys here are up and the RY sell is a slight down.

Of 14 transactions made this past year, 7 are up, 6 were down and one is break even. In the aggregate, slightly positive. Best gain is TCK.B at +20%, worst is also TCK.B at -33%.

The year started with an aggregate indicated annual dividend of $60K and finished with an IAD of just under $75K. Net of leverage interest costs the numbers are about $50K and $63K respectively. About half or 60% of the dividend change is TCK.B and the oil trades. As my big fat NBD dividend is almost certainly to be reduced in 2015, I will be doing well if year end 2105 is slightly better than the 2013 figure.

If one looks at one holdings as an amalgamation of other types of assets, that is not Canadian dollars, I am almost certainly up: oil and minerals in the ground, buildings, equipment, patents, etc., it just does not show up yet when converted to dollars. This is just a round about way of talking "value" investing. Long term there is likely much value in my oil and mineral plays this year. Even my addition to BBD.B might turn out spectacularly in the years ahead if the new planes ever get off the ground.

If you read into all this that I don't pay much concern to a one year result, you would be correct. I pay attention to the long term average return. My investing goal is to get the long term equity return of 8%. My actual performance is about 10% over the most recent ~13 years for which I have detailed records. So I do better than the average fund manager in the average year, but then I have certain advantages: I don't have to fire myself after a result like this year, I can think long term and not quarterly, I don't pay a 2% MER, and I can use some modest leverage.

I focus on what is "interesting" in the short term. This year mostly oil and minerals were interesting, with a few opportunities to add to existing positions in other sectors at lowish prices. For a number of years nothing was interesting and very few transactions were undertaken. In 08/09 everything was interesting, though some things were more interesting than others (with apologies to Orwell). When nothing is interesting, I mostly default to paying down leverage.

That is my investing report. With a one year return likely close to the bottom of the field here, I consider it another successful year. I am very confident that long term the moves this year will be accreditive to the 8% PA average annual return goal.

Cheers

hboy43


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## protomok (Jul 9, 2012)

The Protomok fund returned *6.41%* for the year 2014, our allocation is approximately 60% equities / 40% FI. I use the XIRR function in Google Docs to (semi) automatically track investment return factoring in all accounts for myself and the wify.

After a couple years using the dividend investing strategy I decided last year to switch to index investing / couch potato, hopefully I can resist the urge to buy individual stocks in 2015 and stick to the index!

For reference here are the 2014 total returns for the TSX and S&P 500 indexes:
TSX
Dec. 31/2013 close: 40,334.38
Dec. 31/2014 close: 44,591.13
*2014 Return: 10.55%*

S&P500
Dec. 31/2013 close: 3,315.59
Dec. 31/2014 close: 3,769.44
2014 Return ($USD): 13.7%
*2014 Return ($CAD): 22.3%*

CAD
Dec. 31/2013 close: 0.94157531
Dec. 31/2014 close: 0.86047586
2014 % change: 8.6

Sources:
TSX -> http://web.tmxmoney.com/pricehistory.php?qm_page=76179&qm_symbol=^TSX
S&P 500 -> http://www.dailyfinance.com/quote/snpindex/sp-500-total-return-index/^sp5tri/historical-prices
Currencies -> Google Docs using these functions:
=GoogleFinance("CURRENCY:CADUSD","close","31-Dec-2013","1")
=GoogleFinance("CURRENCY:CADUSD","close","31-Dec-2014","1")


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## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

scorpion_ca said:


> Could you please share why you don't buy ETF such as VUN instead of TDB902? I have some TDB902 and planning to sell and buy VUN to reduce MER.


For me I just purchased it a long time ago,and add to it every 3 months,did not pay much attention to it,it just keep going king of like my FTS,slow and steady,drips once a year

Dont really chase anything,just kind of buy and keep adding,works for me

IMHO if you sell than buy the same thing it is your personal choice, both are very good and I think you will see another 20 to 30% again for 2015


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## Canadian (Sep 19, 2013)

In 2013 my overall return was ~ -5%, in 2014 it is ~ +4%. Between Noranda and my energy stocks most of my gains were wiped out towards the end of the year. 2013 was a big learning year for me and 2014 was the year I put a lot of that learning into practice, leading to further learning (the cycle continues). My portfolio is far from complete and currently heavily weighted with energy stocks. In 2015 I hope to add money to other sectors to bring better balance to the portfolio.

Proudest investing moments during 2014 for me were all the times I reasoned with my panic or excitement, took some time to think, and made a rational decision. It has paid off nicely thus far and I hope to continue working on investing with reason, rather than emotion.


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## 1980z28 (Mar 4, 2010)

Canadian said:


> In 2013 my overall return was ~ -5%, in 2014 it is ~ +4%. Between Noranda and my energy stocks most of my gains were wiped out towards the end of the year. 2013 was a big learning year for me and 2014 was the year I put a lot of that learning into practice, leading to further learning (the cycle continues). My portfolio is far from complete and currently heavily weighted with energy stocks. In 2015 I hope to add money to other sectors to bring better balance to the portfolio.
> 
> Proudest investing moments during 2014 for me were all the times I reasoned with my panic or excitement, took some time to think, and made a rational decision. It has paid off nicely thus far and I hope to continue working on investing with reason, rather than emotion.


Not easy to do

Good luck


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## Ben1491 (Jan 13, 2012)

Well, my crazy :stupid: 100% one stock TFSA up 14.62% (24.36% last year). My RRIF with 60% the same stock, up 10.44% (14.19% last year). That is according to my BMO summery of 'annual compound rate of return'.


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## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

2014 XIRR 10.12%
with a dynamic allocation to cash using a simple algo that has me at 31% cash right now.

2013 XIRR 20.40
2012 XIRR 11.62

2 YR XIRR 15.15
3 YR XIRR 13.97


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

That's pretty steady.


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## Canuck (Mar 13, 2012)

Up 16% including dividends for 2014. 

I did have 26 dividend increases this year bringing me to $71,500 in dividend income going into 2015. Quit my job in June so I that's all I have to live off now, hope it all works out 

I really did not see this oil debacle coming....


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

Canuck said:


> Up 16% including dividends for 2014.
> 
> I did have 26 dividend increases this year bringing me to $71,500 in dividend income going into 2015. Quit my job in June so I that's all I have to live off now, hope it all works out
> 
> I really did not see this oil debacle coming....


Very nice dividend income! Do you care to share how many stocks in total do you have and what are your major holdings?


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## BoringInvestor (Sep 12, 2013)

XIRR of 10.65% based on a low-cost ETF couch potato portfolio.

You can see the full details in my signature link below.


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## Canuck (Mar 13, 2012)

gibor said:


> Very nice dividend income! Do you care to share how many stocks in total do you have and what are your major holdings?


about 50 stocks in total. Biggest holdings as of today are BCE, ENF, PPL and IPL with FTS & EMA a close second. I've held them for years, and have trimmed a bit over time. I was surprised to see ENF do as well as it has this year.

Almost all my reinvested dividends in the last year have gone into Insurance stocks & reits.

I won't have as much dividend money to reinvest this year as I'm going to have to live off some of it, but I think I'm going to start putting whatever I do have left into HBB


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

Canuck said:


> Up 16% including dividends for 2014.
> 
> I did have 26 dividend increases this year bringing me to $71,500 in dividend income going into 2015. Quit my job in June so I that's all I have to live off now, hope it all works out
> 
> I really did not see this oil debacle coming....


I suspect the $70K + in dividend income should work out nicely 

Very well done. I hope I get there someday!


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## Canuck (Mar 13, 2012)

My Own Advisor said:


> I suspect the $70K + in dividend income should work out nicely
> 
> Very well done. I hope I get there someday!


thank you.

Yes taxes on that amount are only around $3000, and if my budgeting has been accurate over the last 2 years, I can live off approx $45,000 a year.

My only concern is my oil sector stocks cutting their dividends, but I feel pretty confident that most won't. CPG just eased me mind for the time being


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## gibor365 (Apr 1, 2011)

> Biggest holdings as of today are BCE, ENF, PPL and IPL with FTS & EMA a close second.


 I was expecting to see in this list at least one canadian bank 



> My only concern is my oil sector stocks cutting their dividends


 yeap, dividend cuts is the biggest concern for dividend investors


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## Canuck (Mar 13, 2012)

gibor said:


> I was expecting to see in this list at least one canadian bank
> 
> yeap, dividend cuts is the biggest concern for dividend investors


no, i hold TD and BNS but they're not my biggest holdings


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## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

mrPPincer said:


> 2014 XIRR 10.12%
> with a dynamic allocation to cash using a simple algo that has me at 31% cash right now.
> 
> 2013 XIRR 20.40
> ...


Correction.. I just found out my portfoilio tracker was glitched one day in December last year.
(Took me hours to locate the error, the amount transacted was correct, but the tracking tool somehow lost it again in the next transaction).

I was moving all my cash to Tangerine for the promo when I noticed I had an extra x thousand dollars after I had it all together in one place. Nice surprise! 
___

Updated.. highly doubtful anybody but me cares at this point, but for the record..

2014 XIRR 11.17

2 YR XIRR 15.95
3 YR XIRR 14.33

Using of friday's close (July 31), this year's XIRR would only be 6.56% by year's end.


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## BoringInvestor (Sep 12, 2013)

mrPPincer said:


> Correction.. I just found out my portfoilio tracker was glitched one day in December last year.
> (Took me hours to locate the error, the amount transacted was correct, but the tracking tool somehow lost it again in the next transaction).
> 
> I was moving all my cash to Tangerine for the promo when I noticed I had an extra x thousand dollars after I had it all together in one place. Nice surprise!
> ...


Always nice to know you made more than you thought you did!


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## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

BoringInvestor said:


> Always nice to know you made more than you thought you did!


Yep, kinda like finding money in the pocket of an old pair of jeans you forgot about


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## hboy43 (May 10, 2009)

mrPPincer said:


> Yep, kinda like finding money in the pocket of an old pair of jeans you forgot about


My wife regularly tells small children that they should check the couches that I am known to frequent. Apparently riches abound.

hboy43


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## Belguy (May 24, 2010)

Often those who gain the most over relatively short periods of time end up not looking so great over the longer term for any number of reasons such as overconfidence and bravado and too much trading etc. etc.

In the long run, a carefully thought out asset allocation, along with periodic rebalancing and low management fees means more than your individual investments in your portfolio.

The next stock market crash is coming. That's just part of what the stock market does. When it comes, make sure that you can sleep at night.


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## mrPPincer (Nov 21, 2011)

^ Good solid advice Belguy.

My asset allocation is currently at 67.5% equity 32.5% fixed-income (cash chasing HISA promotional rates actually but still FI).
Seems like I'm on track for an overall return of 10% if the market cooperates, which I'd be happy with.

I both dread and look forward with anticipation to the next market crash / correction.

I hope it happens early in 2016 so I can load up my TFSA; lots of people seem to think we're due for one, and I don't disagree, but who knows, it could be tomorrow, or it could be delayed even by as much as a couple years or more, even a decade would not surprise me, but that could begin to test my patience in sitting in such a high percentage of cash.


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