Let’s take a look at my investment portfolio growth for the month of March 2017. My index funds started the month off with a bang, with the 3 equity funds making a big jump. I also completed moving my day-to-day funds from TD Bank to Tangerine, which allowed me to move the $2,000 that I kept in my chequing account to waive the bank fees into an interest earning account. For a description of my assets, see a detailed explanation of My Portfolio.
Overall Assets
TFSA TD e-Series Index Funds
March saw an increase in all 4 of my TD e-Series Index Funds. I mainly benefited from the jump in fund prices that happened on March 1, and saw some ups and downs after that throughout the rest of the month. I was able to add more than usual to all of my funds this month, as I had to make up for February (where I held back funds to ensure a successful transfer of banks).
The international and Canadian index funds were the stand out this month, and my overall TFSA portfolio saw an increase in value of $152! This excludes the amount I added myself.
RRSP Mutual Fund
March was my first full month holding an extremely aggressive equity portfolio for my relatively small RRSP fund. I discontinued my monthly $25 contribution due to changing banks, but will make more infrequent and larger contributions throughout the year.
High Interest TFSA
In March, I finally made the change for my short-term savings from a TD high-interest savings account (0.5%) to a Tangerine high-interest savings account (0.8%). I was also able to add the $2,000 I usually store in my chequing account the waive fees. I topped up the account with some extra savings this month as well that I wasn’t able to make in February due to being inbetween banks.
The interest I’m making isn’t a lot higher than at TD, but it is still noticeably higher. In future months I may again move to a higher interest account at another bank, but one step at a time.
Chequing account
As I said above, I no longer need to keep money in a chequing account to waive bank fees, and Tangerine has no fees associated with it’s day to day chequing accounts. This money was moved to my short term high-interest savings account.
Home Value
Equity in my home continues to rise a little bit every month. The estimated equity value below makes a few assumptions:
- The value of my property has remained the same (unlikely)
- Does not include fees and costs associated with selling
Car value
My car dropped in value this month based on average selling prices based on Canadian Black Book‘s value estimate. I don’t see my car as an investment, but since it has value as an asset, I include it.
Pension
This month I received my yearly pension update for 2016. It grew by almost $8,700 in 2016, including contributions by me, my employer, and investment gains made by the pension investments themselves. I won’t receive another pension update for a year, so this value will stay the same over the next 12 months even though it will be slowly growing month-by-month.
Jeff says
Assuming you work for the federal government, where do I find my pension information? I am brand new and have no idea to see what I contributed in 2016.
Let's Talk About Money says
I don’t work for the federal government, I work in higher education.
For me, I get a physical pension statement delivered to my office once per year (just received one in March) that provides me an update of what my contributions are, what my employer contributed, as well as the gain my pension has made through investments. I wish this report was available to view monthly online, but unfortunately it isn’t, so I only get a real update once per year.
One way to get a basic understanding of your contributions is to look at your pay stub. It should show exactly how much you contribute for each paycheque, as well as how much your employer has contributed for each paycheque. This won’t give you any updates on how your pension is being invested or the gain/losses it may have made, but it will give you a basic understanding of about how much is being contributed to your pension yearly.