Portfolio Update December 2024
A review of the stock market and my portfolio moves - Month 4
Hello all! I have decided to rename the “Stocks I Bought Series” to a simple “Portfolio Update”. Main reason is I think that better encapsulates the content. Without further ado let’s take a look at the final month of 2024.
Major Indices VS My RRSP
Well what can I say about this month unfortunately ( or fortunately depending on how you look at it ) the Santa Claus rally did not come through this year, however, the previous couple of months have been insane.
In my RRSP, XAW was the clear winner, or more accurately the smallest loser. With all 4 of my holdings negative over the period my 3 month positive streak has been broken! 😢
| Ticker | Index | 2024-12-01 | 2024-12-31 | Percentage Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| .INX | S&P 500 | 6047.15 | 5881.63 | -2.74% |
| .IXIC | Nasdaq 100 | 19403.95 | 19310.79 | -0.48% |
| .DJI | Dow Jones | 44782.00 | 42544.22 | -5.00% |
| TX60 | TSX 60 | 1537.09 | 1482.30 | -3.56% |
| Ticker | My RRSP ETFs | 2024-12-01 | 2024-12-31 | Percentage Gain |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VDY | FTSE Index CAD | 50.66 | 49.33 | -2.63% |
| XAW | Many Indexes | 45.47 | 44.77 | -1.54% |
| SCHD | Subset of Dow | 29.34 | 27.32 | -6.88% |
| VTI | Total US Market | 300.43 | 289.81 | -3.53% |
My Moves
Another standard month for me with a few buys in my TFSA in the middle of the month and a singular purchase in the RRSP at the end of the month. There were zero sells this month.
TFSA Buys & Sells
- Manually dripped SPLT as a part of us investing a portion of our joint account.
- Bought HXQ
- Still looking at increasing my exposure to the NASDAQ
- Bought QQCL
- Same as HXQ still thinking 2:1 ratio of HXQ to QQCL
- Bought VDY
- Nice little dip couldn’t resist adding to the position, I believe the Bank of Canada continuing to lower interest rates is bullish here.
TFSA Breakdown
- percentages are calculated based on current market value
- the entirety of BANK was purchased with a line of credit offer. It has worked out well for me but I would not recommend. I will re-evaluate in Feb 2025 when offer expires
- SPLT is my wife and I’s joint emergency fund.
Positions I am thinking about consolidating are:
- AQN still bag holding here, may soon be time to cut my losses
- ETHY it’s been on a great run once it gets above $5 if it has a couple down days I may sell out
- T Thinking of selling out of this one and opening a position in UTES and adding more to BANK
- TD debating trimming this for more BANK if not selling out entirely
Dividend Snowball
One thing I have not discussed in the updates is how my dividend snowball is looking. This is calculated simply by taking:
1
(total dividends / (net deposits + total dividends)) * 100%
In previous posts we have talked about the ultimate goal where your investments add more to your gain each year than your contributions do. Part of this is distributions and the other part is stock price appreciation. Let’s look at the dividend side of things.
| Account | First Deposit Date | SnowBall Percentage | My Dividend Percentage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary TFSA | 2019-12-05 | 15.61% | 6.28% |
| Secondary TFSA | 2023-03-03 | 5.10% | 7.12% |
Interesting to see that my newer account has a significantly lower snowball yet higher dividend percentage but that can be easily explained by the large percentage of BANK bringing up the average.
My dividend percentage is an approximation by taking an average of the last 3 distributions annualized and divided by my invested amount. The idea of the Secondary Account is a set an forget account where DRIP is turned on my primary account I take a more active approach and manually buy each month.
Breaking out each Account
RRSP Buys
I debated between VTI and SCHD quite extensively this month, but, I ultimately ended up going with VTI as I feel like there is still possibility for the market to continue running. I will likely buy a large chunk of SCHD in Feburary / March 2025 with Tax Return and normal monthly contributions but we will have to wait and see!
RRSP Breakdown
- percentages are calculated based on current market value, USD is converted to CAD based on google finance rate
Dividend Increases and Decreases
Plenty of action here at year end:
- Our friends over at Canoe decided to keep EIT.UN’s dividend consistent but instead did their standard end of year special non cash distribution.
- XEI appears to be doing a special year end dividend for December of $0.24014 up from the previous standard of $0.109
| Ticker | Old Dividend | New Dividend | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|
| ATD | $0.175 | $0.195 | 11.42% |
| T | $0.389 | $0.402 | 3.34% |
| TD | $ 1.02 | $1.05 | 2.94% |
Love to see all of these dividend increases and special distributions. If there is one thing for me to complain about its that VTI’s December 2024 distribution was lower than Dec. 2023 whereas all other quarters 2024 blew 2023 out of the water. Either way I’m happy to see the stock market doing well.
Fear and Greed Index
Wrap Up
That’s all for this months review thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed my expansions on the Dividend snowball and splitting up my two TFSA accounts. I hope you can check in next week for building a financial plan from scratch in 2025!
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- Simply continuing to read my weekly posts here.
Cheers ☕