Simplifying My Life

As of this morning, I hold 32 different stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds across my various accounts. These are split between accounts in Canada, Great Britain, and Europe.

It’s impossible to imagine reducing that number from 32 to 1. The same products are not available in each account. And besides, who wants to put all their eggs in one basket? I want to hold different types of investment products for the benefit of diversification.

However, today I did a deeper dive look at the return on investment of the various funds I hold. I want to make sure that my money is working as hard as it can, and not wasting away earning 1% per year somewhere.

In one of my accounts, my rate of return over the past 12 months has been 23%. In another, it was 17%. And a third also returned 17%. All good!

This includes distributions, capital gains, and the effects of currency conversion. I’m happy with those numbers and don’t expect them every year. One of my goals is to have a long-term average of about 8%.

One of my accounts has not been keeping up. It’s an account where I’ve been all over the place over the years – trading YieldMax ETFs, stock options, and various commodity plays. I’ve not been taking that account seriously enough.

So today, I sold almost everything in that account and invested it in one of my highest-confidence long-term bets. Preferred shares.

These are investments that usually keep their value over time. They don’t go up or down much. They just return a consistent (high) return to their owners. In some ways, they are like bonds.

These preferred shares are designed to return 9.5% per year. I feel like the underlying return is relatively stable since the non-preferred shares have their distributions cut when times are bad.

I think I can live with a 9.5% annual return and not be tempted to touch it. And that’s my final answer.

I sold five stocks from that account and bought two. And one I already owned in another account.