I’m retiring as Agent Fang

After years of blogging as Agent Fang, I’ve decided to create my own domain.  If you want to see my progress in the stock market, you can find me here.

Wish you all the best for 2014.  May all your financial situation be a success! 

 

Re-Bought MA: 5 shares @ $833.428

My last trade of 2013 is re-buying Mastercard funded solely on margin in my cash account.

MA:  5 shares @ $833.428 = $4167.14 (Commission were only 5 cents from Virtual Brokers)

Mastercard will be splitting their shares 10 for 1 on January 9, 2014 and raising their dividends by 83% from 60 cent to $1.10.

Currently, I have 30 shares of MA in total after my new purchase.  For every share I have, I will get additional 9 shares which will total 270 300 shares.  If the dividend is paid out after the stock split that will mean I will get $297.00 per quarter in dividends.  Am I correct??  I will wait and see!

Looks like dividend will go from $1.10 to 11 cents after the stock split as pointed out by Maureen.  Wishful thinking on my part for receiving so much per quarter.

I am excited to see how my Mastercard will play out in 2014.

Price Matched Xmas Gift

Mid December, I bought a Dewalt 12V Lithion Ion Drill kit from Canadian Tire that was on sale from $179.99 to $99.99.  That’s a great deal!  So I bought the Dewalt Drill as a Christmas gift for my BF.

Come Boxing Day… the day after Christmas, everything is on sale!  My BF looked through the flyers and found the exact same Dewalt Drill is on sale for $88.00 at Lowe’s for Boxing week!  He asked me if I paid more for the drill or not?  I meekly answered yes.  He told me to get a price adjustment and Canadian Tire will beat the competitor’s price by 10% with Canadian Tire money.

I kind of groaned at the idea of getting a price adjustment.  But today I had the day off, so I refunded my original purchase at customer service.  Next, I headed to the cashier to “re-buy” my Dewalt Drill.  I showed the flyer to the cashier and asked her to price match the item.

She confirmed it by adjusting the price for me.

In total, I saved $13.43 and in addition, I received $8.80 in Canadian Tire money.  Most people… might think it’s a hassle, sometimes embarrassing to go back to the store to ask for a price adjustment or save a few bucks.  It’s not worth their time… I kind of agree, but if you’re saving more than a few bucks… then maybe it’s worthwhile.

Always keep your receipts and keep your eyes open to sales.  You never know how much you can save further down the road.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Usually on my days off from work, I like to snooze in bed till later in the morning.  But I didn’t sleep in today as I am hosting my first family dinner!  Best to have everything all prepped ahead of time, so there won’t be any last minute rush!  I cleaned most of the morning away and tidying up.  Now, I have ample time to sit back and relax before starting the side dishes.

What’s on the menu?  Pot roast in the slow cooker for 10 hours, it’s cooking right now… Almost half way through.  Pre-marinated our wings the night before, so all I have to do is pop them in the oven.  For our sides, we have corn, mushrooms, tomato & avacado salad, yams with stuffing and gravy!  Voila, it’s a full on feast!

This past year has been good to me.  I recently got engaged, I went on a Mediterranean cruise and Costa Rica, I received a windfall, and I got a nice bonus from work… Everything seems to be falling into place!   My stocks are at their all time highs!  And I don’t even have to liquidate any of my stocks for the down payment for my upcoming condo!  But I need to find a way to pay my 0% balance transfer from MBNA back $11,500 by September 2014.

For 2014, I’ll be taking on a mortgage.  Monthly payments will be 30% of my take home income.  My amortization is 35 years and I am paying the absolute minimum.  But I plan of making lump sum payments to pay this bad boy off.  I hate throwing money away to fees and interest.  I hope to find a good tenant that will help out with the mortgage.  On top of the mortgage, there will be monthly occurring expenses like strata fee, insurance and property tax.  All that needs to be accounted for.

I would love to max out my TFSA for 2o14, but looks like I’ll just have to play with the money that I have in my TFSA already.  No more new money will be funneling to my stock portfolio.  But I might add some money to my RRSP as I don’t want to pay taxes to the government, dreaded CRA!

My goal for 2014, I want to be more accountable for my trades.  I need to set up a system to track my profits and losses.  I want to trade more on my Virtual Brokers margin account.  Right now, I am using $10k in margin.  I need to be more bold in my trades meaning putting more capital into ONE stock, of course, I’ll be watching it like a hawk!  One wrong move can be quite costly.  That’s the only way for me to leverage myself to more gains!  To be continued.

The only reason I am so aggressive with my money is that I do not make a whole lot of money at work.  By saving and investing, making smart decisions, I can increase my net worth at a more rapid pace than just sitting idly by watching the rat race.

I do not hold any bonds, EFTs, Index or Mutual Funds.  I am purely a stock girl!  Stocks all the the way for me and a little investment property.

 

 

 

Virtual Brokers in Review

May 2013, I switched over my margin account from Questrade to Virtual Brokers for cheaper commissions, lower margin rates and depth II quotes.  I am very happy with this move!  If I was stuck at Questrade, I wouldn’t have traded or gained this much!  Too bad, Virtual Brokers charges a fee for USD stocks held in TFSA and RRSP accounts… or else, I would have moved everything over from Questrade.

Summary Breakdown

* Market Value as of Dec 24, 2013:  $68,349.93
* Current margin amount:  ($9,902.22 )
* Net Equity:  $58,447.71
* Paper profit:  $16,347.71
* Currently holding 12 stocks
* Collected in distributions and dividends:  $780.49 
* Margin interest charges: ($181.24)
* Commission charges for 32 trades:  ($40.86)  

Note:  If I traded 32 times in Questrade at their minimum cost of $4.95, the total commission charges would have been $158.40!   

 

I don’t drink alcohol…

But I musta been drunk, when I bought LIQ.TO (Liquor Stores N.A Ltd) a few months ago!

Currently, my biggest loser in my portfolio sitting at 20% loss (-$350).  Good thing, I only bought 100 shares, right?  It pays out $9 monthly in dividends, so far, I’ve collect $45.  I will continue to hold unless it goes down even further then I’ll consider cutting my losses.

Unless this is the bottom, and a good opportunity to jump in at low prices?  Tough call….

 

KMI- bought 100 @ $35.60 today

Added KMI (Kinder Morgan) to my Margin position this morning.

You know how I sold out KO (Coca Cola) earlier this month, I should have just replaced them with KMI right away.  I could have been sitting on a $255.00 profit at the moment.  But the moment has passed, now I am starting at a higher end of KMI.  Hopefully this bullish trend continues for KMI, so I can still get some profit out of this.  With the nice dividend yield, I should be able to make some money out of this.

Free Kashi cereal box

If you like Kashi on Facebook, you can get a free Kashi cereal box from Websavers.  Just follow the link and steps.

https://www.facebook.com/CanadaKashi/app_432406613554690

Over $5000 distributions and dividends!

Yes, I’ve finally succeeded in collecting over $5000 in distribution/dividends for 2013!  But I sold out my Chemtrade which was a heavy producer in my dividend portfolio.  I should have just kept Chemtrade as they went up and beyond what I sold them at.  I always sell at the wrong time.  SIGH.

For 2014, I do not expect to collect as much dividends/drips as most of my investments are in Google, Mastercard, Visa which doesn’t pay or pays little out for dividends.  Just as long they move up steadily in the market place then I’m happy.

 

Opps.. spent too much this weekend!!

Friday, I got some me time.  That’s right, I headed straight to the mall to eat at the food court.  Super hungry as I had only a dollar samosa for lunch. I ordered rice noodles with battered chicken for $5.76.  Cheap considering everything else at the food court.  I had it in a take out box just in case I couldn’t finish it, but the portion they gave me was minuscule compared to the dine in plate so I just finished the whole thing anyways.

My shopping list isn’t big.  I looked around the mall and bought some gifts.  I crossed off a few from my list.  Later, I filled my prescription and paid up front. But I’ll get reimbursed for it from my health spending account.

Come Saturday, I went in to get my oil changed. They recommended that I get my tires rotated and my brakes checked for extra $60.  Turns out that I have to get my brakes changed and that gonna cost me $500+. Looks like I ran them down pretty good.  I am still putting that on back burner till I hear the squealing brakes lol!

Then I got some place mats for my dining table and Kleenex tissues that were on sale.

This year I got a Xmas bonus gift from my company so I bought a dining set.  For the past couple years, we have been eating on our coffee table in front of the TV.  Last week, I picked the set up from sears. The last leg to the table did not fit the intended screws and two of the wooden chairs were chipped or scuffed up.  So I am still waiting for the replacement leg and chairs.  How disappointing to have new dining set that is of poor quality.

Anyways, I was swipe happy this weekend to the tune of $375 but that’s with oil change/rotate tires, gas fill up, groceries and reimbursable prescription in addition to gifts and household items.  That’s okay right.  Quite conservative??

Oh but I got a $100 bonus from my part time job so that would lessen the blow 🙂