February 2023 Portfolio Update – Colder Weather

Tuscan skyline in Florence
Florence, Italy

This Winter brought with it the most snow I’ve seen in many years. Driving conditions were often challenging, but that’s what it’s all about in Canada. We’re blessed to get four full seasons.

Amid the snowfall, dividends also rained down.

Dividend Summary

I generated passive income from six companies, split evenly between Canada and the US.

CAD Dividends

CompanyCAD Payments ($)
RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust (REI.UN)22.19
Chartwell Retirement Residence (CSH.UN)5.10
A&W Revenue Royalties Income Fund (AW.UN)6.40

USD Dividends

CompanyUSD Payments ($)Div Change (%)
AbbVie Inc. (ABBV)66.604.96
Mastercard Incorporated (MA)3.4016.33
Apple Inc. (AAPL)3.45

I brought in dividend tallies of C$33.69 and U$73.45, combining for a currency-neutral $107.14. I’m satisfied with this as February is historically one of my lowest dividend reporting periods.

Compared with my dividend totals from February 2022, my income has increased 5.19% YOY.

Both January and February are records for those monthly periods:

February 2023 dividend growth chart

Year To Date Progress

Two months in the bank and I’m scraping at $800 in combined dividends:

MonthDividends ($)
January680.90
February107.14
Total788.04

It’s a good start to the year, setting the stage for a solid 2023.

Market Activity and Cash

With interest rates rising, there is a much greater incentive to keep cash on the sidelines. Whether in a high-interest savings account, Treasuries, or some other short-term and liquid instrument, you can at least get a return on your dollars.

All the same, I did decide to make one stock purchase in February.

I added 25 shares of Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. (BIP-UN) for a total cash outlay of just over C$1,100. It currently pays U$0.3825 per share quarterly. With a conservative foreign exchange boost of 25% from USD to CAD, I am expecting this to bring in C$12.95 quarterly or C$47.81 annually.

I plan to continue increasing my stake of BIP over time. As economies swell and the world’s energy and data needs become more complex, BIP is well situated to meet the demand. It’s one of the key providers of critical global infrastructure that I anticipate will continue growing over the course of my lifetime.

With their aim to continue increasing the distribution by 5–9% annually, the investment should exceed the rate of inflation over time.

Conclusion

The path forward is simple: continue investing in cash flowing investments and reinvest those payments. I was happy in this month to bolster my BIP investment.

Hitting a new February-record in dividend income is solid. Even if the totals are relatively low at this stage, the compounding forward is what makes the difference over the course of decades.

Set a plan and stay the course.

Thank you for reading.

Full Disclosure: Long REI-UN, CSH-UN, AW-UN, ABBV, MA, AAPL, BIP-UN

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Get Rich Brothers

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