Goodbye, Old Friends

Using new software to analyze my portfolio across 5 different accounts (across different countries) has opened my eyes to some weeds hanging out among the flowers.

Goodbye, Pizza Pizza (PZA)

I decided to sell Pizza Pizza (PZA.TO), one of my first purchases during the pandemic. I thought people would flock to “take out pizza” as restaurants shut down, and I was right.

But there are better places for that money. Pizza Pizza is not growing, just paying a reliable dividend. The 7% dividend is just not strong enough to get me to stay, and the stock is down 12% year-over-year. One of my worst performing stocks.

Goodbye, Loose Ends (VGRO and UMAX)

Sometimes, I have stocks in my portfolio that I tried to sell entirely previously. But due to the broker’s automatic dividend reinvestment, they reappear! So today, I sold a couple of stragglers for small amounts of money. I did this mainly because my list of holdings is very long—30 stocks! I should get rid of a few to simplify my life.

With these and the next three gone, I’ll have 5 fewer tickers to track.

Goodbye, Yieldmax Funds (TSLY, FBY, and GOOY)

I’m breakeven/profitable on TSLY, FBY, and GOOY. However, that was a pretty bad capital loss in exchange for dividend income. All three are on my list of the bottom five stock performers.

So, it’s time to cut some of the Yieldmax funds. I still have Amazon and Microsoft.

This will also save me some taxes as I’m getting all this dividend income every month (and paying taxes on it) while waiting until I sell to recognize the corresponding loss. So those three are gone.

Hello, Vanguard US Total Market (VUN.TO)

Vanguard US Total Stock Market Index (VUN) only holds the famous VTI, the US Total Market Index that trades on the American market.

Yes, I know I said I wanted to consolidate. But I thought I’d play it safe by owning the whole market.

I got rid of six stocks and bought one – that’s a pretty good consolidation.