Saying Goodbye to Some Nice Stocks

Today, I decided to get out of some “fixed income.” I sold the last shares of MPAY and the two Brookfield Preferred Shares that I owned.

MPAY has not been profitable for me. Even the interest they pay hasn’t made up for the drop in value of the ETF. MPAY mostly holds mid-term US government treasuries, which have been dropping in net asset value.

The two Brookfield Preferred Shares have been great. I’m up 75% on each, including distributions. This was a stock tip I found on Facebook, of all places. And it has worked out nicely. I debated for a long time whether I should hold onto these nice shares paying out 9% of NAV every year (or 14% of what I paid for them), but in the end, I think fixed income might be risky.

Fixed income is risky.

Ultimately, I can’t predict the future. My crystal ball is broken. But it appears that the US can’t stop spending money – no government can. All around the world, in fact, every government will only increase spending year-over-year and it’s nearly impossible to cut anything.

DOGE has proven that, even a massive political effort with broad public support will cut almost nothing from a budget and will easily get spent by politicians looking to get reelected.

Nobody wants to be the politician that increased the retirement age from 65 to 67, or reduced the monthly check that senior citizens get. Or reduced military spending.

So I’m bearish on US debt, which means I’m bearish on the US dollar. I think I need to diversify away from US dollars, Canadian dollars, and Euros more. What does that mean? Some pounds, some Swiss francs, and Chinese Yuan. Who knows.

I also sold my VT (Vanguard All World Equity) ETF. I actually like “all world” as a product, but there are some possible tax changes in the “big, beautiful bill” that would affect me with that. So I’d prefer a Canadian-listed alternative. Perhaps VXC. Or VE.

I’m sitting on a lot of cash right now. Maybe I’ll wait a few months before doing anything with it.