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.