April 2021 Portfolio Update – Lockdown 2.0

As April kicked off, Ontario was plunged back into a COVID lockdown. At the time of writing in mid-May, the situation persists and is expected to extend even into June.

While lockdowns fall outside of my sphere of influence, what I can control is how much I invest and the investments I choose for that capital.

Dividend Summary

I was paid by eleven Canadian companies and one American company in this period.

CAD Dividends

Company	CAD Payments ($)	Dividend Change (%)
Toronto Dominion Bank (TD)	158.00
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI-UN)	20.88
The Coca-Cola Company (KO)	70.12	2.44
BCE Inc. (BCE)	192.50
Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CM)	17.52
Bank of Nova Scotia (BNS)	90.00
TELUS Corporation (T)	56.02
Rogers Communications Inc. (RCI-B)	27.50
Canadian Pacific Railway Limited (CP)	9.50
Chartwell Retirement Residence (CSH-UN)	5.10
A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund (AW-UN)	5.40

USD Dividends

Company	USD Payments ($)	Div Change (%)
Walmart Inc. (WMT)	7.02	1.85

I brought in C$652.54 and U$7.02, reaching a currency-neutral total of $659.56. This is a slight dip from my April 2020 dividend total of $691.94, but there were a few one-time payments in that month which skew the figures somewhat.

One example of this was some cash paid out because Brookfield Asset Management (BAM-A) split its shares and I had an uneven amount. I included this as cash flow, though it was effectively a passive sale of a share.

All the same, I’m satisfied with the overall dividend totals.

Year To Date Progress

Here are the monthly totals through April:

With a third of the year behind us, my dividend totals are topping out at just over $2,000:

Month	Dividends ($)
January	602.95
February	81.22
March	736.16
April	659.56
Total	2,079.89

This puts me in a decent position as we head down the stretch, given my goal this year is to cross $6,000 in passive income. That would round out to $500 per month.

Market Activity and Cash

One of my great focuses since the beginning of 2020 has been to deepen my investment in the technology sector. There continues to be a rising tide and growing opportunity in fintech and decentralized finance.

A key way to capitalize on the digitization of cash and eCommerce generally is to own the infrastructure that supports it. Although the price has increased since my initial purchase, I decided to double down on Shopify Inc. (SHOP).

This company continues to differentiate itself in the online marketplace, enabling sellers of all sizes to connect with buyers around the globe. In fact, SHOP reported an increase in revenues of 110% with its Q1 numbers at the end of April. That’s the sort of tremendous growth I love participating in.

Cryptocurrency

My investing strategy has long been passive income focused. My favourite flavour has always been dividend growth investing.

While this still remains true—and very much so—I have recently been researching cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology. I am in the early stages of this research, but I have come to increasingly love this space, the more time I spend in it.

Accordingly, I decided that it was time to make some crypto investments.

In April, I opened small positions in Dogecoin (DOGE-CAD), Ethereum (ETH-CAD), and Bitcoin (BTC-CAD). My ultimate goal is to really build a further position in ETH, but I also wanted to have a piece of DOGE and BTC which are two of the other headline-makers.

My general thesis is that there is a rising tide in the market and that blockchain technology is here to stay. ETH has plenty of actual utility to revolutionize our digital reality and stands out for me. Its ability to support a Turing-complete programming language which facilitates the development of smart contacts/code that will reduce friction/intermediaries with online transactions and commerce is an exciting development.

Cryptoexchange

Beyond the cryptocurrencies themselves, I also made two purchases of Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN). COIN is a popular cryptoexchange in the U.S. It makes a large amount of its revenues from transaction fees and is currently one of the leaders in the industry. It went public via a direct listing on the NASDAQ in April.

One of the known risks to COIN’s business model is that increased crypto competition will force it to be more competitive with fees. However, the overall size of the pie should continue to increase in the years to come. Lower transaction fees can be offset by increased overall transactions.

My plan with COIN is to average down and continue building out the position.

Conclusion

April was a solid dividend paying month. Crossing $650 feels great and provides further ammunition to continue compounding returns.

While the foundation of my portfolio remains dividend growth equities, I’m excited this month to delve into cryptocurrencies, as well. It is going to be a bumpy ride, but I believe blockchain technologies are here to stay. Having a piece of that growing segment is worthwhile.

Thanks for stopping by.

– Ryan

Full Disclosure: Long TD, REI-UN, KO BCE, CM, BNS, T, RCI-B, CP, CSH-UN, AW-UN, SAP, PEP, WMT, COIN, SHOP, DOGE-CAD, ETH-CAD, BTC-CAD