I don’t know how to put the links here (perhaps FT can help out), but I have a few articles in the archives that discuss most of what I did and how I did it. As well as a few of my blunders.

Deb nu

At the time of the post, the market had rebounded a little. Now it’s back down again and I am on holidays so I haven’t taken a good long look at my net worth statement (as I am trying to relax :-)

Having a look at my portfolio, I am going to guess I am back down over $400K since my all time peak of $1.8 Million (this past August). I will crunch some numbers when I am back and get a better picutre and hopefully FT will let me blog and update.

Q

PS I made some movers just before I left to take advantage of some high yields on MBT, TD, GWO and IGM as well as picking up some YLO.UN and XTR

Agreed.

FT – re Ed’s comment

I haven’t even really explored the impact that the TFSAs will have on our life style, but given that between my wife and I, we will be able to put $270,000 in today’s dollars, we should be able to live pretty well on that when the time comes.

Q

I am keeping my eye on the changes. As it stands now, I beleive EIT has indicated they will remain in a trust structure, but the trusts they hold will change (EIT is like a trust of trusts).

Others, like consumers waterheater, don’t necesarily require the increased capital that a corporate structure would allow, so I don’t believe (though I stand to be corrected) that they will be changing.

I will continue to monitor these as they go forward.

Q

The diversification question does nag at me, but I try to consider my entire portfolio holistically and as such I am heavily weighted in Real Estate (both through my holdings and REITs). My stocks are heavy on Financials and Energy (which is what Canadians are good at, so we tend to weight heavy).

I am looking at more consumer discretionary and transport, but I am not sure I am ready to pull the trigger yet.

Again, I recogonize I am heavily invested in Canada, but it’s what I know.

As for the problem when I turn 65, I have another 27 years (as of December) to worry about that, and I expect there will be other issues to deal with then.

I don’t panic about clawbacks to OAS and GIS as I don’t expect to qualify for them.

Q

I am going to defer a comment on taxes until next year. I made some significant changes to the overall portfolio this year and I think I need a year to settle down.

But if I can’t think of anything to post, I’ll pull out my 2007 returns and figure it all out.

Q

I really like the fact that you have decided to invest your money at HOME, where you understand the politics, economics and culture. Sometimes keeping the money at home, helps local industry, which is an added bonus. Besides, you’re more likely to understand those companies better, since you may see them or deal with them.

I’d rather keep the money at home than ship it off to Wall Street or Asia… At least I own a piece of companies in a democratic country that I’m a resident of, a country I understand better than any other, and a country I’m comfortable with. Besides, I’m hugely bullish on Canada. We are destined to be one of the richest countries on the planet with our vast resources AND democratic processes with a stable government AND a highly trained population. I’m bullish on Canada… Why wouldn’t I keep the bulk of my money at here?

I admire the structure and of what you have acomplished I am sure you will recover your losses and more. I already like others think we have passed the bottom, in todays market things happen at light speed all the cash that was taken off the table will be quickly move back into the market three or four years of 20% gains will once again be the norm of course in fits and starts as the market always does. Personally I sensed a downturn two years ago and moved into GICS your wife was partialy right but staying is gics is futile for growth. I personally like individual stocks small cap with good dividends MTK-T and growth MTK-T

About trust companies I used to own some gci.un It did great loved the distributions and great gain in the share price I like many others are staying miles away from them now do you know of any that will continue to be trust companies and pay distributions after the change.

Thank you Stuart

Do you think that you are adequately diversified? What portion of your overall portfolios is in only resources/energy and financials (”rocks, trees and banks”)? And what portion is just in Canada?

What do you plan to do when you turn 65 and dividends become much more highly taxed (because the clawbacks on many tax credits are grossed-up by 45%)?

Ed

I don’t do options. My goal is to be as passive as possible, and monitoring options would involve a greater deal of involvement than I already do :-)

Q

With so many dividend stock shares, are you also supplementing your income by selling options ?

Mai

The after tax income last year for my wife and I was 78,000 or 4.5% of the total, but keep in mind, the 1.7 includes my home and my RRSPs (which I didn’t include in my returns).

On investment portfolio of just under 800,000 and two rental properties with an ACB of approx 400,000 our ROI was about 6.5%.

On that after tax income of $78,000, we only paid about 5,000 in tax due to the structure of the investments (dividends, rental income with capital allowance, carrying costs, etc.)

Q

I invested in Energy trusts that a) remain cash flow positive and b) had a distribution rate similar to when oil was at $50 per barrel. If you keep in mind that while oil has spiked, a year ago it was $60. Most of these trusts jumped up in value on the assumption that distributions would double/triple/etc, but the ones I have invested in maintained a pretty even distribution rate.

I will monitor the trusts on an ongoing basis (as I do with all my holdings).

Q

I’m wondering how much income does your 1.7M portfolio produce annually after taxes?

Thank you for this post. I guess the important thing to watch is this “energy trust” business. I wonder if they will be able to maintain a high yield after January 1st, after establishing a new monthly payout target for 2009. If yes, it’s time to buy more…

I am not very diversified internationally either, holding a small portion in international dividend stocks, mainly UK and Canada. ( i do hold international mutual funds in my 401k which only lets me buy index funds).
However most of my dividend payers are global players in their fields, generating large percentage of their revenues from outside the US…

I just want everyone to be clear that I don’t think I have all the answers, and I take your suggestions to heart.

My guess is that at my next update, you’ll see some global exposure :-)

Q