Deploying Some Funds, Step One
Last night, my cash on hand was roughly 87.9% of my overall investment portfolio. That is, I had only 12.1% of my investable assets invested.
I woke up today determined to get at least “step one” underway. To lower that cash a little bit.
As I write this, my cash balance has fallen to 78.3%, or roughly 9% lower than it was.
That’s a bigger first step than I was expecting. But I decided that there were a lot of good values out in the market, and I would take the advantage to pick some of them up. I’m still way too heavily in cash.
Like a “shopping haul” TikTok’er, let’s see what I bought!
Enbridge (ENB)
I’ve liked Enbridge for a while, and I had to get out of it last year. So today, I got back into it. There’s a nice 6.1% dividend, which some consider too high to be safe. But Enbridge operates in the energy sector, and no doubt energy will always be needed. I see it as a safe pick. I’ll be happy holding on to that one for years. The Ex-Dividend date happens to be tomorrow, so I picked it up just in time to catch the quarterly dividend.
Average cost = C$54.82 per share
Pembina Pipeline (PPL)
Also, in the energy sector, I had to pick up some Pembina. I primarily like the monthly dividends. 5.1% is not as high as Enbridge, but it’s a well-run company.
Average cost = C$48.48 per share
Manulife Financial (MFC)
I already owned some of this, so I bought more. 5.4% dividend. Insurance is one of those industries that seems safe long-term. The stock price is a good value at this level compared to its earnings.
Average cost = C$24.47 per share (including what I owned before)
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)
I’ve never bought BNS before. Never wanted to. Never banked there. Don’t know anyone who uses them. But they seem like the best value of all the major Canadian banks. Their stock is always trading a little bit below the other bigger names. Reliable 4.9% dividend.
Average cost = C$80.73 per share
BlackRock (BLK)
This company owns everything. Everyone is afraid of them. “Blackrock will buy all the single-family homes in Canada and the US!” Well, they do seem like a well-run company. 3.9% dividend. Good company earnings growth. I think they are well-positioned to enter this recession.
Average cost = C$810.72 per share (trades in the US, but I paid in Canadian dollars)
Vanguard Total Index ETF (VTI)
This is everything. Every stock that trades in the US stock market. This is my favorite index fund. Low fees. And owns everything, not just a single index.
Average cost = C$175.66 per share (trades in the US, but I paid in Canadian dollars)
So that’s my shopping haul! I picked up some solid companies. All are earning a good profit, and none will be easily toppled in a slowdown.
I feel like I will have to do this again next week. Next week, another 5%-10% to deploy. And the week after that. And the week after that.
My goal is to have only 10% cash by August. I have some time to wait, but I need to make some moves. Next week’s moves might just be buying more of these same names.
