Money While You Sleep 2020 March Edition

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Welcome to the March edition of Money While You Sleep. Well March was one of those months that I’m confident we’ll all remember for the rest of our lives. COVID-19 has had an impact on the entire global economy. First my thoughts and prayers go out to those have been affected by COVID-19 as lifes are being lost daily and families are grieving.It’s very sad. On top of that many are wondering how they are going to survive financially, physically and emotionally. All we can do is open up conversations with those we know are having a hard time and be there for them. We need to work together and do our part. As for my feelings on the COVID-19 and what I’m doing you will find that later in the post.

Here are a few highlights from this month even though we have been isolating.

• I’m currently working from home and am actually busier than ever, which I’m thankful for.
• Z is doing her school work from home and reading 30 minutes a day.
• Our family is working together as isolating for this long can be exhausting on one another.

Portfolio details:

Well during the meltdown We made a few strategic moves in order to protect the portfolio from any potential disaster situations. Many years ago when i was less educated on financials I had purchased a few small cap oil and gas stocks. I can tell you that if i used the metrics I use today, i would have never bought those in the first place, so as soon as the news came out on oil and gas wars were going on with specific countries we sold all small oil and gas companies. This ended up being a great move as after we sold some of these stocks have fallen 75-80% and all cut the dividends. We made a few small purchases but once the market started to go into panic mode and we had a better understanding of the impact that COVID-19 will have on the entire global market we decided to start getting cash together and made no additional purchases after the first week of March. Again later in the post I share my opinion on COVID-19 and what were doing moving forward.

Sold

Full position of ARC Resources

My Why: We made the decision to stick to large cap oil and gas companies moving forward. At depressed oil and gas prices for what might be forever these companies are going to be challenged.

Full position of Cardinal Energy

My Why: We made the decision to stick to large cap oil and gas companies moving forward. At depressed oil and gas prices for what might be forever these companies are going to be challenged.

Full position of Torc Oil and Gas

My Why: We made the decision to stick to large cap oil and gas companies moving forward. At depressed oil and gas prices for what might be forever these companies are going to be challenged.

Full position of Gamehost Inc

My Why: Casinos have shutdown, economy will struggle after COVID-19 passes which leads me to believe there money (currency) will go to other things. I also don’t support this habit as it can ruin peoples lives in more than one way. Coming from someone that had a gambling issue in the past I believe this is the right move.

Bought

Added to our position in Chartwell (CSH.UN.TO) by purchasing 80 shares at $13.56

My why: I like the retirement space as I believe with baby boomers continuing to retire over the next 10-15 years this is a good place to be. Do you i wish that i waited two weeks, of course! However long term Chartwell will do just fine.

Added to our position in CIBC (CM.TO) by purchasing 15 shares at $102.30

My why: If you saw my last months post you would have seen that CIBC is on my top 5 watch list and in December I go into detail on why. https://www.labourtoleisure.com/money-while-you-sleep-2019-december-edition/ Since then all banks stocks have come down big time so I got some homework to do as i want to see which ones are the value play at current prices. I love banks and have no intention on selling any of them at this time.

New Position in Exchange Income Corporation by purchasing 36 shares at $41.71

My why: This was a very small purchase as I plan to accumulate this over several purchases. Based on what the markets have down I’m thankful we went with that decision. My why is mentioned on last months post that you can find here https://www.labourtoleisure.com/money-while-you-sleep-2020-february-edition/

Dividend increases and decreases

• No Raises
• No cuts this month as we sold all our small cap oil and gas companies 2 weeks prior to any announcements

2016 – 2017 – 2018 – 2019 – 2020 Dividends received

March was a record setting month for us as we received $386.45 which is an increase year over year fin March of 64%. Very happy with the growth over the past couple of years. The DRIP is turned on so we accumulated quite a few shares this month.

Dividends received in TFSA 1

Stock List	March
RUS.TO	$39.14
BPY.UN	$56.68
MFC.TO	$50.68
POW.TO	$35.64
XTC.TO	$29.45
SU.TO	$30.23
FRU.TO	$5.99
GH.TO	$5.18
SIA.TO	$13.26
CJ.TO	$4.10
EXE.TO	$6.92
TOG.TO	$9.38
CSH.UN	$11.15
ALA.TO	$5.36
CHW.TO	$7.00
PLZ.UN	$9.57
ARX.TO	$9.10
NPI.TO	$14.10
CHR.TO	$15.60
SIS.TO	$5.17
Total	$363.70

Dividends received in TFSA 2

Stock List	March
CTC.A	$22.75
Total	$22.75

My thoughts moving forward

So the market dropped at a record pace this past month due to the impact of COVID-19, then it came back up slightly. As we have started to see the economy pretty much come to a standstill other than non essential businesses, we are in for a couple terrible quarters. The word going around is we could be in our homes for up to 3-6 months which until we see some kind of improvement in the amount of cases we truly don’t know when that will be. What we do know is the government is printing as much money as they have to, to be to help people and businesses get through this unpredictable event. Which will be good short term but will have an impact over the next decade. Opportunity is in our future as the market really can’t go back to all time highs with all the uncertainty going on.

So I don’t believe the market has bottomed. When the 2nd quarter results come out the market is going to plummet, again this is my opinion. Many companies look cheap but most havent hit the same evaluations that we seen in 2008/2009 and the economy slowed during that time it did not stop like what were seeing today. That doesn’t mean there isn’t opportunity right now. Some stocks are down 75-80% from their highs and might be oversold. It is very important when looking at sectors that have been hit (Oil and Gas, Airlines, Restaurants) the most to look at the company’s financials, specifically cash on hand and debt levels to ensure they are going to come out the other side.

Sectors that should be fine during the slowdown would be Utilities, Grocery Stores, Telecom Services and Railroads. Although many have only dropped less than 20% owning solid companies in these sectors give your portfolio support during these difficult times.

So I’m currently stockpiling cash, evaluating companies and making sure that I’m ready to add at any given time. I will be adding to the portfolio by purchasing companies in 1/3 or 1/4 positions at a time. These companies must be solid companies that we all can see will be around in at least 10-20 years. I’m going to leave you with a quote from the one and only Warren Buffett:

“THE STOCK MARKET IS A DEVICE FOR TRANSFERRING MONEY FROM THE IMPATIENT TO THE PATIENT “

Invest in yourself

Brian

Disclosure:  I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. Please ensure you do your own research.