March 2016 Update

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March was a busy month for travel – Phoenix, Regina, California

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March Results

Finally, a great month.  All markets were up between 5 1/2 % to 6 1/4% since my last report.  That brings the TSX to a positive 3.72% for the year to date, and the US markets are up 1.5% for the DJIA and almost 0.8% on the S&P on the year.

My portfolio grew by close to 5% in March,  stunted a bit by the stronger Canadian dollar, which gained nearly 4% against the US dollar.  My Canadian holdings grew by over 5 1/2 % in March and my US holdings were up well over 6%.  On  a year-to-date basis my portfolio is up almost 4% (nearly 5% on my Canadian and over 6% on my US, less the drop in the US currency).

This again shows that the market does not move up in a smooth regular fashion, but rather in short spurts.  As these spurts cannot be predicted, the only way to take advantage is to continually be in the market, not try to time the market.

My net worth has not yet returned to its high in February 2015 when markets were near their peak, however I am within a couple of percentage points and I am at about the same net worth level as the day I retired.   I have yet to dip into capital and hope not to have to do so.  I have been supporting my lifestyle by dividends only.

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Interesting Quote

Here is a quote from Rob Carrick’s (Globe and Mail financial reporter) regular update.

A Gen Y personal finance blogger has calculated that you’ll earn roughly $1.8-million in your lifetime if you have a bachelor’s degree. Subtract about $360,000 from that for taxes, and you’re down to something like $1.5-million to pay for everything from houses to kids, cars and food. Good luck with that. Without a plan to control spending and diligently save and invest, you may be doomed to financial futility.

In the introduction to my book “Simple and Successful Investing“, I note that I now have a net worth equal to the sum total of all of my gross earnings since I began working in 1971.  Although the above quote is quite disturbing, with a disciplined approach you can overcome the headwinds.  Following this blog and reading my book will give you the steps I followed to achieve my financial freedom.

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My Portfolio

Below are my holdings and their performance for the first three months of the year.  Keep in mind that several of my Canadian holdings exist as a result of my fired advisor and I am still working on disposing of these securities.  Don’t assume just because I own a security that I recommend buying it.  In addition to the below gains and losses, I also have dividends flowing in at an annual rate of almost 4%.

Canadian Stocks				US Stocks
Name	Symbol	Overall Return		Name	Symbol	Overall Return
Teck Resources Ltd	TCK.B	84.46		Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.	PEG	21.84
TransAlta Corporation	TA	23.01		Verizon Communications Inc.	VZ	17.01
Metaux Russel Inc	RUS	19.21		AT&T Inc.	T	13.83
Pembina Pipeline Corp	PPL	16.45		Emerson Electric Co.	EMR	13.69
Bank of Nova Scotia	BNS	14.29		International Business Machines Corp.	IBM	10.07
Husky Energy Inc.	HSE	13.00		The Coca-Cola Co	KO	7.96
TransCanada Corporation	TRP	12.99		Chevron Corporation	CVX	6.05
Encana Corporation	ECA	12.66		Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR)	RDS.A	5.81
BCE Inc.	BCE	10.72		Kimberly Clark Corp	KMB	5.66
ATCO Ltd.	ACO.X	10.03		Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	5.33
Enbridge Inc	ENB	9.91		Cisco Systems, Inc.	CSCO	4.84
TELUS Corporation	T	9.69		Unilever plc (ADR)	UL	4.78
Fortis Inc	FTS	8.39		Procter & Gamble Co	PG	3.65
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	CM	7.60		PepsiCo, Inc.	PEP	2.56
Shaw Communications Inc	SJR.B	5.42		Lockheed Martin Corporation	LMT	2.00
National Bank of Canada	NA	5.41		Merck & Co., Inc.	MRK	1.39
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P.	BIP.UN	4.41		Total SA (ADR)	TOT	1.05
Great-West Lifeco Inc.	GWO	3.67		Intel Corporation	INTC	-6.10
Power Financial Corp	PWF	3.63		Pfizer Inc.	PFE	-8.18
Toronto-Dominion Bank	TD	3.36
Royal Bank of Canada	RY	2.02		Average		5.96
Suncor Energy Inc.	SU	1.26		Weighted Average		6.05
Bank of Montreal	BMO	1.01
BCE INC. PREFERRED SHARES SERIES AD	BCE-D	1.00
Claymore 1-5 Yr Laddered Corporation Bond Exchange Traded Fund	CBO	-0.16
Sun Life Financial Inc	SLF	-2.90
Cenovus Energy Inc	CVE	-3.43
Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc	POT	-6.71
Agrium Inc.	AGU	-7.28
Enbridge Inc (pref shares)	ENB-B	-11.18
Manulife Financial Corp.	MFC	-11.38
Simple Average		7.76
Weighted Average		4.87

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Suggested stocks (A++, 2% yield or more, 10 year dividend growth)

Note:  some stocks do not screen in on ValueLine for a variety of reasons.  If a stock you are interested in or own, is not on the list, let me know and I can forward you an evaluation of that company.

US

Company	Ticker	Financial Strength	Dividend Yield	Dividend Growth 10-Year	Current PE Ratio
3M Company	MMM	A++	2.7	7.5	20.53
Abbott Labs.	ABT	A++	2.55	1.5	19.22
AT&T Inc.	T	A++	4.96	3.5	13.94
Automatic Data Proc.	ADP	A++	2.59	13	26.26
Boeing	BA	A++	3.39	12.5	16.6
Bristol-Myers Squibb	BMY	A++	2.43	2.5	32.91
Cardinal Health	CAH	A++	2.15	26	17.91
Chevron Corp.	CVX	A++	4.51	10.5
Coca-Cola	KO	A++	3.07	9.5	23.62
Colgate-Palmolive	CL	A++	2.26	11	46.61
Deere & Co.	DE	A++	2.99	15.5	18.88
Dover Corp.	DOV	A++	2.6	9.5	17.42
Du Pont	DD	A++	2.47	2.5	20.83
Emerson Electric	EMR	A++	3.49	8	17.55
Exxon Mobil Corp.	XOM	A++	3.49	9.5	31.45
Gen’l Dynamics	GD	A++	2.36	13.5	13.9
Grainger (W.W.)	GWW	A++	2.04	17.5	19.44
Home Depot	HD	A++	2.12	19	21.67
Honeywell Int’l	HON	A++	2.14	9.5	17.31
Illinois Tool Works	ITW	A++	2.17	12	19.02
Int’l Business Mach.	IBM	A++	3.65	20	11.89
Intel Corp.	INTC	A++	3.26	23.5	13.01
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	A++	2.95	10.5	18.84
Kimberly-Clark	KMB	A++	2.76	8	29.61
Lilly (Eli)	LLY	A++	2.87	3.5	20.98
Lockheed Martin	LMT	A++	3.1	20.5	18.86
McDonald’s Corp.	MCD	A++	2.92	23	23.13
Medtronic plc	MDT	A++	2.14	15	14.01
Merck & Co.	MRK	A++	3.47	1.5	14.34
Microsoft Corp.	MSFT	A++	2.66	19	19.29
Novartis AG ADR	NVS	A++	3.63	14.5	18.6
PepsiCo, Inc.	PEP	A++	2.85	12.5	20.93
Pfizer, Inc.	PFE	A++	3.99	4.5	19.92
Procter & Gamble	PG	A++	3.2	10	20.62
Public Serv. Enterprise	PEG	A++	3.56	3	16.04
Qualcomm Inc.	QCOM	A++	3.78	22.5	12.56
Raytheon Co.	RTN	A++	2.38	11.5	17.44
Schlumberger Ltd.	SLB	A++	2.76	13.5
Smucker (J.M.)	SJM	A++	2.13	9.5	21.67
Texas Instruments	TXN	A++	2.68	29.5	19.22
Total ADR	TOT	A++	6.1	8	29.4
Travelers Cos.	TRV	A++	2.12	6	11.48
Unilever PLC ADR	UL	A++	3.09	6.5	22.54
Union Pacific	UNP	A++	2.72	21	15.53
United Technologies	UTX	A++	2.58	14	15.6
Verizon Communic.	VZ	A++	4.22	3	13.42
Wal-Mart Stores	WMT	A++	2.94	16.5	16.35

Canada (includes A++, A+, A, B++, B+)

Company	Ticker	Domicile Code	Financial Strength	Dividend Yield	Dividend Growth 10-Year	Current PE Ratio
Agrium, Inc.	AGU	CA	A	4.02	39	11.41
Bank of Montreal	BMO.TO	CA	B++	4.41	7	11.23
Bank of Nova Scotia	BNS.TO	CA	A	4.68	9	10.58
BCE Inc.	BCE	CA	B++	4.4	9.5	21.14
CAE Inc.	CAE.TO	CA	B+	2.01	6.5	16.25
Cameco Corp.	CCO.TO	CA	B+	2.38	15.5	12.03
Can. Imperial Bank	CM.TO	CA	A+	4.93	6.5	10.09
Can. Natural Res.	CNQ.TO	CA	B++	2.67	23.5
Enbridge Inc.	ENB.TO	CA	B++	4.28	11.5	20.65
Fortis Inc.	FTS.TO	CA	B+	3.76	9	19
Jean Coutu Group	PJC/A.TO	CA	B++	2.09	10.5	16.85
Magna Int’l ‘A’	MGA	CA	A	2.42	7.5	8.42
Manitoba Telecom Svcs.	MBT.TO	CA	B+	4.05	3.5	26.77
Manulife Fin’l	MFC	CA	B++	3.81	5.5	10.55
Methanex Corp.	MEOH	CA	B+	3.41	23	78.59
Nat’l Bank of Canada	NA.TO	CA	B++	5.39	10.5	9.04
Pembina Pipeline Corp.	PPL.TO	CA	B++	5.52	4.5	27.63
Potash Corp.	POT	CA	B++	5.86	34.5	15.96
Power Financial	PWF.TO	CA	B+	4.66	8.5	9.99
Rogers Communications	RCIB.TO	CA	B+	3.73	51.5	18.59
Royal Bank of Canada	RY.TO	CA	A	4.52	10.5	10.78
Russel Metals	RUS.TO	CA	B++	7.89	16	20.06
Shaw Commun. ‘B’	SJRB.TO	CA	B+	4.81	28.5	13.86
SNC-Lavalin Group	SNC.TO	CA	B++	2.26	20	18.52
Suncor Energy	SU.TO	CA	A	3.24	24
TELUS Corporation	T.TO	CA	B++	4.42	15.5	17.07
Thomson Reuters	TRI.TO	CA	B++	2.61	6	22.67
Toronto-Dominion	TD.TO	CA	B++	3.98	10.5	12.32
TransCanada Corp.	TRP	CA	B++	5.98	5.5

Europe (includes A++, A+, A, B++, B+)

Company	Ticker	Domicile Code	Financial Strength	Dividend Yield	Dividend Growth 10-Year	Current PE Ratio
Novartis AG ADR	NVS	CH	A++	3.63	14.5	18.6
Daimler AG	DDAIF	DE	B++	6.09	6	8.42
Siemens AG (ADS)	SIEGY	DE	A	3.84	13.5	11.09
Total ADR	TOT	FR	A++	6.1	8	29.4
AstraZeneca PLC (ADS)	AZN	GB	B++	5	13.5	20.14
Brit. Amer Tobac. ADR	BTI	GB	B++	4.01	14.5	16.55
BT Group ADR	BT	GB	B++	3.53	2.5	12.18
GlaxoSmithKline ADR	GSK	GB	A+	5.87	7	20.93
Rio Tinto plc	RIO	GB	A	3.97	10.5	9.06
Vodafone Group ADR	VOD	GB	B++	5.59	14	35.98
WPP PLC ADR	WPPGY	GB	A	3.12	17.5	15.85
Tenaris S.A. ADS	TS	LU	B+	3.75	16.5	53.29
Philips Electronics NV	PHG	NL	B+	3.45	10	25.27
Unilever PLC ADR	UL	NL	A++	3.09	6.5	22.54

 

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