Net Worth Update

As of January 1st, my net worth was $141 897 (up 2.8% from $137 993). If I exclude house-related assets and liabilities, my net worth was $99 532 (up 3.8% from $95 888). However, the last payment for the windows has not been made yet, so the totals should actually be $2 500 lower. And December was a 3-payweek month, so this also boosted my assets. But the year 2010 has been a very good year. :o)

Assets ($204 124, up 3.5% from $197 251)

• Bank Accounts $8 132 (up 41% from $5 754)
• Emergency Funds $2 783 (up 3.9% from $2 678)
• RRSP Accounts $63 134 (up 4.6% from $60 361)
• Non-Retirement Investments $31 423 (up 3.3% from $30 411)
• Home $98 430 (stable)

Liabilities ($62 226, up 4.1% from $59 779)

• Credit Cards $6 076 (up 75% from $3 482)
• Mortgage $56 065 (down 0.4% from $56 324)
• Line of Credit $0 (stable)

Ratios

• Debt / assets: 0.305 (up from 0.303)
• House value / total assets: 0.482 (down from 0.498)

Just before the Holidays, there were some big unplanned expenses. First, my lady's car had some extensive repairs that needed to be done, which were a safety issue. She didn't have the cash on hand to pay for those, and was looking at a 9% financing to pay for it. So I offered to pay for the repairs and she'll pay me back. Similar story for her computer -- it had been troublesome for some time and key features began to fail, so we replaced to. Together, those two items cost about $3 000, which explains the spiking of the amount on my credit card. I'll pay this fully (out of available cash from my emergency fund) when the CC statement comes in.

If not for this, expenses for the Christmas would have been quite reasonable. Even with those, things are still running smoothly. It's good to have some margin of safety!

Two More Dividend Increases

Two more of the companies I own in my DRiP portfolio raised their dividend this week.

First, Fortis Inc. (Toronto: FTS) increased its dividend 3.5% from $0.28 to $0.29 per quarter. This is a small increase, but the company is in the power generation business, and in a recession less power is consumed as businesses decrease their products output and thus their energy consumption.

Second, Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) just announced this morning that it was raising its dividend 11% from $0.18 to $0.20 per quarter.

These will have only a small impact individually, but they do add up. :o)

2010 Review: Financial Goals

As the end of the year approaches, it is time to review my financial goals for 2010 to see how I did.

Financial Goal 1: Increase my Net Worth -- Success

In fact, I should call this a smashing success. I reached my objective of a $125K net worth mid-year, due to a combination of the market recovery and an increase in the value of our house. If things bear out, I should end 2010 with a net worth of $137K.

For 2011, I will raise that objective to a net worth of $160K.

Financial Goal 2: Increase my Dividend Income -- Success

Last year, I established a steep objective of $1300 in dividend income from my non-registered investments (DRiP portfolio and TFSA account). I made actually it! Thanks to the year-end dividend from CGI, my dividend income for 2010 will be $1306 -- right over my objective.

For 2011, my objective will depend on how I end up paying for my new car. If I purchase it outright with no financing, I will have to gut both my TFSA account and my DRiP portfolio, so I should only expect dividend income of about $750. If, on the other hand, I can get attractive financing and decide to go that way, I'd like my dividend income to climb to $1700.

What are you financial objectives for 2011?

Credit Card Change Follow-Up

Last year, I switched my main credit card to MBNA's SmartCash credit card (see my post). At the time, I estimated that I would get back about $360 in cash for the first year (taking into account the sign-up bonus) and $288 for each year after that.

So I did a quick check-up on how much money I got back since signing up for the new card. By my calculation, I actually got closer to $400 back. Based on that, I can probably expect something like $300 every year, which is 50% more than what I was getting back with my old card.

Not bad at all.

Canadian General's Year-End Dividend

Yesterday I mentioned that I was waiting to see what what the end-of-year special dividend would be for Canadian General Investments (Toronto: CGI).

Well, this morning the fund announced that it will pay a special cash capital gains dividend of $0.76 per common share, payable on December 24, 2010.

This brings up CGI's dividend this year to $1.00 per share, for a 5% yield. Considering that the stock has also moved up 30%, this makes for quite a profitable investment this year.

I've just moved most of my shares of CGI into my TFSA, so my year-end dividend will be sheltered from taxes. I did this because this "special cash capital gains dividend" is treated as regular income, instead of the preferencial tax treatment of a normal Canadian dividend.