Net Worth Update

As of August 1st, my net worth is $74 315 (up 3.1% from $72 069). If I exclude house-related assets and liabilities, my net worth is $50 791 (up 4.3% from $48 713). This is another good month, although to be honest a good part of the increase was due to the fact that this was a month with three pay-days. The car repairs are still to come, as are the home renovations. Those expenses will probably show up only in September's update.

Assets ($145 874, up 1.6% from $143 608)

• Bank Accounts $5 114 (up 2.5% from $4 989)
• Emergency Funds $2 810 (up 8% from $2 600)
• RRSP Accounts $36 140 (down slightly from $36 149)
• Non-Registered Investments $9 825 (up 15% from $8 553)
• Home $86 100 (stable)
• Arbitrage $5 000 (stable)

Liabilities ($71 539, stable)

• Credit Cards $3 974 (up 14% from $3 474)
• Student Loan $635 (down 29% from $894)
• Mortgage $55 824 (down 0.2% from $55 941)
• Heat Pump Loan $6 751 (down 0.7% from $6 803)
• Arbitrage $4 131 (down 2.1% from $4 219)

Increase in credit card debt completely balanced other debt payments this month, which resulted in stable liabilities. However, since I don't carry any interest-bearing balance, this will go down next month. My cash reserve was again higher, in advance of the expenses for the car repairs and home renovations. On the other hand, my RRSPs were stable despite adding money to them, but my non-registered investments performed well, so that's a wash!

Net Worth Update

As of July 1st, my net worth is $72 069 (up 3.9% from $69 366). If I exclude house-related assets and liabilities, my net worth is $48 713 (up 5.5% from $46 155). Another good month in the Frog's pond! But there are some clouds coming, for more car repairs are on the way, as well as some house renovations. Princess and I set up a line of credit to do this, so I am adding a line in the liabilities section, even though we haven't tapped it yet.

Assets ($143 608, up 1% from $142 117)

• Bank Accounts $4989 (up 80% from $2 762)
• Emergency Funds $2 600 (down 3.7% from $2 700)
• RRSP Accounts $36 149 (down 0.2% from $36 214)
• Non-Registered Investments $8 553 (up 2.9% from $8 309)
• Home $86 100 (stable)
• Arbitrage $5 000 (stable)

Liabilities ($71 539, down 1.7% from $72 751)

• Credit Cards $3 474 (down 17.4% from $4 204)
• Student Loan $894 (down 22% from $1 152)
• Mortgage $55 941 (down 0.2% from $56 036)
• Heat Pump Loan $6 803( down 0.7% from $6 853)
• Arbitrage $4 219 (down 2.1% from $4 310)

My cash reserve were much higher this month, as I prepare for the coming expenses for the summer (car repairs and house renovations). The emergency fund was slightly lower because of the turnover in one of my GICs. Credit card debt (mostly 0% financing) keeps going down fast, but I expect them to go up before the end of summer.

My RRSP accounts went down in value, even though I kept adding more money in. As I have said before, this is not a problem as I am in for the long term. The recent changes that I made (the purchases of shares in Pepsi and General Electric) were partially responsible for this, due to the comissions paid for the purchases, and the fact that the shares of those companies went lower after my purchases. Am I worried by this? Of course not! I knew I wouldn't be able to pick the bottom, and in 10 years the difference will be meaningless. I even received the first dividend payment from my Pepsi shares (not included in the above numbers). If the shares keep going lower, I will buy more of those (or other similar companies) as more money gets added to my RRSP accounts.

RRSP Purchase - General Electric

I just made a purchase of some shares of General Electric (GE) in my RRSP. Here are some of my reasons for buying GE.

The shares are currently selling at a multi-year low -- that last time its shares were that cheap was 5 years ago! As a results, it sports a dividend yield of 4%, it's highest in recent history. Better yet, the company is bringing in plenty of cash to pay for those dividends, and will keep increasing that dividend in the future (although the next increase may be modest).

This spring's surprise miss send the price of its shares into a tailspin. Many consider GE to be a proxy for the US stock market. People are talking of recession, which scares investors. That is usually the time to go looking for bargains. As Warren Buffet says, "Be greedy when others are fearful."

The company has a good position in green products. They are very much present in the alternative energy businesses, such as wind and nuclear power. Electronics, financial services, infrastructure. You name it, they are everywhere.

Many analysts complain that this company is too complex and too big to be easily analyzed. Me, I simply look at the results -- they make money for their (share)owners, and they keep increasing how much money they make. Maybe the company will restructure, sell parts of the business, or spin off some of it. As a shareowner, any of these will probably be positive. If nothing happens, I will keep collecting that 4% dividend. And the market will recover.

The position I initiated is modest -- I don't know if the price is the lowest it will go. If it goes down some more, I may decide to increase my stake in the company.

Net Worth Update

As of June 1st, my net worth is $69 366 (up 8.5% from $63 938). If I exclude house-related assets and liabilities, my net worth is $46 155 (up 4.5% from $44 187). Our insurer revised the value of our house this month, which caused a big jump in our global net worth. On the other hand, we also had a municipal tax payment to do, so our liquidities went down.

Assets ($142 117, up 3.1% from $137 779)

• Bank Accounts $2 762 (down 23% from $3 614)
• Emergency Funds $2 700 (stable)
• RRSP Accounts $36 214 (up 4% from $34 815)
• Non-Registered Investments $8 309 (up 7.3% from $7 742)
• Home $86 100 (up 4% from $82 800)
• Arbitrage $5 000 (stable)

Liabilities ($72 751, down 1.5% from $73 840)

• Credit Cards $4 204 (down 12.4% from $4 799)
• Student Loan $1 152 (down 18% from $1 408)
• Mortgage $56 036 (down 0.2% from $56 145)
• Heat Pump Loan $6 853 (down 0.7% from $6 904)
• Arbitrage $4 310 (down 2.1% from $4 402)

Both my registered and unregistered investments performed well this month, which explains the increase in net worth even when excluding the house. Credit card debt alsodecreased significantly, as the car repairs from last month were paid off. Overall, a very good month!

Readjusting my RRSP

This week, I made some changes to the content of my self-directed RRSP. I had given this some thought for the last couple of months, and I finally took the first step towards this.

You see, until now the stocks that I held there were mostly of Canadian companies. But in the last two years I have been expanding my DRiP portfolio considerably, most of which is also in Canadian companies. So I was quite overweight in Canada. And with the favourable treatment of Canadian dividends, versus the unfavourable treatment of foreign dividends, made it more efficient to hold foreign companies in my RRSP.

So I sold three relatively small positions. Two of those were in companies that I have been holding for some time, but that have not performed as expected, Killam Properties (Toronto: KMP) and Northgate Minerals (Toronto: NGX). The third position was a short-term trade done on Gildan Activewear (Toronto: GIL) when their stock nosedived a few weeks ago on disappointing results. It had recovered enough to show a small profit for me.

The proceeds of those sales were invested in a fairly large position in Pepsi Co (NYSE: PEP). I have been watching Pepsi for over a year now, and was interested in starting a DRiP with the company. However, the funds I have available for dripping are limited, and I already have many other companies that are currently attractive.

Since Pepsi has moved down quite a bit from its high in January, this looked like a good time to buy into it. My plan is to hold these shares for a long time -- this is a retirement account, after all.