Well done… another positive month for you. February was a negative month due to an investment gone wrong in HND/HNU. Our NW was down 1.19% primarily due to that.

Might I suggest 50% in XIU and keep the rest ($2500) in cash for now?
Equities should climb in 2010 and XIU has a moderate yield. I know you won’t put your money in anything you’re not comfortable about (which is always good!)

http://www.tma-invest.com/files/portfolio_contruction/CDN_Large_Cap_60_fund_factsheet.pdf

http://cxa.marketwatch.com/tsx/en/market/quote.aspx?symbol=XIU

REI.UN or HR.UN aren’t bad choices for the long run, although they’ve been up and down lately and I’m personally down a little bit since my HR.UN TFSA purchase a month+ back. I still believe HR.UN is a great long-term hold because of the company’s stability and its distributions. Once that get that Bow building in Calgary occupied with Encana, distributions should increase…

Development Highlights…H&R REIT is currently building The Bow, a two million square foot office building in Calgary’s downtown financial district. EnCana Corporation has head-leased the entire office tower and all underground parking spaces on a triple-net basis for an initial term of 25 years.

Cheers!

National Bank bought out all of Canadian Tire’s mortgages earlier this year (I had one). I even got a $450 gift card to Canadian Tire (not sure the rationale behind that one). CT still offers GICs, credit cards and that type of thing though….

My monthly Net worth increase for Feb. is +5.10%. It’s obvious I won’t be able to keep these high % Networth increases every month, seeing as my goal is to double my Net by next summer. But I try to save 10% more each month, sure keeps me busy.

Seems XRE has a moderately high MER, compared to other ETFs (0.55%) and given the fact you could own almost 50% of the traded fund by directly buying and holding REI.UN and HR.UN.

I think either REIT would be a good hold in your TFSA.

Any ideas on what you’re going to put into your TFSAs?
Which REIT? REI.UN or HR.UN perhpas?

What about an XBB or XSB ETF? Yields are about 4% on those right now.

Cheers!

The Plus is that it is a Canadian Corporation unlike ING, and PC Financial is just a dressed up CIBC

Now that we are fortunate enough to have all our debt paid off, I notice two things: 1) having no debt has made us lazier in terms of saving and more liberal in spending and, 2) item #1 has made NW increases way more dependant on financial market upturns.

I guess we only have ourself to blame, but we used to get a lot of motivation from our debt!
Cheers

The idea of a “million dollar journey” is cool – and with some luck I will reach that goal in two years… I will be 40. But my focus is mostly on early retirement at 45… and a million dollars in NW isn’t going to be enough for me to feel secure to pull the pin at that early age.

For those of you talking about variable rates you should be getting P-.3 for 5 years or P-.4 for 3 years without any negotiation.

I’m curious on your thoughts of REIT’s. I’ve been thinking about buying XRE for higher yields but I also feel like right now REIT’s could tank at any moment.

What interests/concerns do you have about REIT’s?

Steve, we’re mostly on the same page, I believe that there be a huge psychological lift in paying off the mortgage (non-ded).

Ramona, thanks for the tip, I’ll fix it now!

1) Interest rates are going to start increasing rapidly likely in july. If you have a variable mortgage, the amount of your interest will double by end of year, and will quadruple by end of next year. Even if you can afford it, I don’t like seeing $200 of interest (wasted money) become $800.

2) The emotional gain of paying off the mortgage might be much higher than watching savings at 1% interest.

Many people I know are saying to focus on investing right now, rather than pay down the mortgage since the rates are so low. Even if you are far away from paying it off, even more reason to pay down the principle as much as possible now before rates go back up, which will save a lot of money in a longer amortization.

As always, you are likely to get a better return in the equity market, but killing your mortgage is more than just numbers, it’s about victory in world that does everything it can financial to bring you down (CC, re-fiancing deals, 2nd mortgages, etc.)