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Thanks Toof, Tom, I am living off mine now and I approached it the same way... Inflation plus. I am heavier than I wanted to be on bonds/income and we know how well that pays right now. I am gradually moving that into equities through a combination of stocks and etf's. I've been slow doing it because I feel the overall market is pretty frothy right now. I thought we would see a pullback over the last year which hasn't happened. I'll make some more moves when it does happen. Thanks for the input.
Marv
Hi Tom, Happy Birthday. What kind of long term annual percentage gain do you shoot for with your overall portfolio? I currently have a goal of 6%. I appreciate it is a moving target, but just as a general target. Over the last 3 years I am running about 3, but I have made a couple of oops along the way. I have also been heavy on the income side as well, which I will reshuffle over the next while. Am I shooting too high?
Marv
Hi Allen,
I too thought about this. As you said you would need to jiggle some things, but I think it would work very well. I just wish I could do it. In Canada we can't sell puts in our RRSP accounts. (If someone knows a way around this I would love to hear.) Most of my funds are there. I wasn't thinking so much about using LEAPS. By using shorter term you could do it more often and likely do just as well with more control. Commission would eat a little more. You would have to check the numbers on that.
First Quantum Minerals. In June I set up a small position in FM.TO based on how badly beaten up the copper markets have been. I have since had four or five sales and am almost free rolling on this one.
I appreciate what you are saying Toof. Normally I would agree with you and don't intend to hold it for long. It's not a large position and I have a very strong feeling that things are going to get ugly. I don't normally react to the markets that way and generally am an optimist, but the negatives keep piling up. I really thought your election would be the trigger, but the list of potential triggers is still there. Either way, I don't have that much at risk.
I set up a small UVXY AIM program a few weeks ago, mainly as a hedge. I didn't expect Trump to win, but I do expect a pull back at some point at any rate so took the leap. It has been very active and while the market is still up, I have made some small profits on the volatility. The frequency and amplitude is a little scary, but as Tom said, it is fun. I am also sitting on a fair bit of cash in anticipation of some solid buying opportunities in the next while. I guess Trump's win isn't going to be the trigger everyone thought it would be, but I still believe there is a trigger out there.
Happy Birthday Tom. The more you have the harder it is to have a good one. Lake and track time sounds like an excellent one.
Marv
Hi All, I don't know if it's a "me" thing, but I have found errors in Yahoo quotes. In some cases I have found that Yahoo doesn't provide current quotes. It appears when the markets are closed the quote provided is an older close. It isn't always consistent, but appears to only happen when the markets are closed and it is on a CDN equity. Haven't noticed it on any of my US holdings so most of you probably won't have an issue. You may want to scrutinize this a little though.
Marv
Hi Allen, thanks for the suggestion. Given that these funds are in my RSP and the Canadian tax laws are different, there isn't any benefit for me. When I set up most of my AIM programs I knew I was on the higher end of the market so I went in light. In a number of cases I bought a second batch, but didn't put any additional reserve in. This ended up lowering my ranges. I have since adjusted that some. There are quite a few techniques that most of you have available to you that I need to modify or ignore because they don't work the same in the Great White North. Thanks though.
Hi Allen,
I have always managed the cash portion of my AIM investments together. I hold the majority of my cash in short term bonds and money market funds. Your choice of vehicle is tricky, because a big part of maintaining cash balances is to reduce risk. I am not overly familiar with your US choices, but my guess is some of these funds could carry an increased risk component to pay these types of dividends. REITS in particular bother me for that type of risk management. Most are susceptible to interest rate fluctuations and we all know which way rates are going over time. I appreciate your search for better returns, but be careful. I lean towards short term ladder Bond ETFs because they offer a smaller risk and reduced interest rate pressures. I don't get those returns, but I know my money is there when I want it. Just my take on it.
Please keep in mind my approach to investing is based on what I need as a retired old fart. Capital preservation is high on my list of priorities and I don't need to make big returns to live.
Marv
Hi Allen,
I am fortunate that these are in either TFSA's or RSP's and are non-taxable until withdrawn. (Tax Free Savings Account and Registered Savings Plan). These are the main Canadian tax shelters.
I expected this might happen, but I have a fair bit of time before I need any of this cash. I also don't have any concerns about the quality of these investments. I'll get there, but I will "jiggle" it a little to get it there. Just always looking for ways to minimize any pain. If the exchange rates were better, a move into USD denominated vehicles would be good, but the rates are currently below average so I need to continue to wait it out. The problem of CDN income and USD expenses.
You can't really expect a broker/advisor to do the jiggling though. Not with the relatively small amount I have to work with. I have the time and most of the skills to do this and now I work a lot cheaper than they do. I do appreciate the input.
Marv
Very nice Toofuzzy, That's the good kind of overworked. As usual I bet it was the boss that had to pick it up a notch. ;)
Thanks Tom. I forgot AIMfocuses on LIFO. My accounts are mainly in non-taxable vehicles so I don't need to consider that. One other question if I may. Most of my holdings are in dividend reinvestment plans. Based on your answer to my original question, I assume it is best to take the cash and buy the shares as opposed to adding them at 0 cost.
Suggestions sought. When I took back control of my funds I felt that the markets were overpriced. For that reason, I purposely bought light with the intent of going a little heavier on any buy orders t ultimately made to gradually bring my overall portfolio back into balance. This has worked out fine, but one annoying result is that a number of my sell points ended up being at or below my average cost now. My question is how best to fix this? Is it a simple matter of adjusting my portfolio controls upwards and if so any idea of how big a percentage? I can see this being an ongoing issue when it comes to rebalancing the overall portfolio. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Thanks Jderb for the update. I appreciate your efforts to keep this updated. It is a good indicator of where we should be in the cash/invested side.
Thanks everyone for the warm welcome. Interestingly Tom's suggestion to Allen already partially answered one issue I have had and the discussion on leveraged ETF's is very interesting. I need to get my head wrapped around that. I'm a pretty smart guy... just not very quick. I had a very busy day relieving the world of some of it's Bluefin Tuna stock today so I will go onto more detail later.
Hi All
I have been a lurker here for quite some time and finally decided to join in. I have been using AIM for over two years. I have a couple of questions, but will pose those later. First a little background. I am a retired Canadian businessman that now lives in Panama. Prior to retiring I decided to take back full control of my retirement funds and chose AIM along with a healthy dose of MPT as my core strategy. I liquidated my old mutual funds and set up my own portfolio consisting of mainly ETF's. I found that most of the "Pros" didn't know or want to take time to really understand what I wanted. In many cases I felt I had forgotten more about investing than they knew and grew weary of the fees they charged. 30 years ago I was very active in the market to the extent of focusing on working options spreads for the most part. Time became the enemy. I now have time,but no longer need the risks associated with that form of investing. Hence AIM. I use Mark Hing's software to manage AIM and for the most part am happy with results. I have fed off the knowledge of this site and look forward to perhaps being a little more active participant.
Marv