12:35 pm
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House Poor In More Ways Than One...
Last May I mentioned how much money I had already lost by selling stocks early to purchase my new house.
I thought I'd take another look at the damage because, well, I'm a bit of a masochist that way.
Here are the three stocks I covered back in May:
MMM (Three M) for $72.87
CL (Colgate-Palmolive) for $55.50
ADS (Consumer Loyalty Programs (eg. Air Miles) for $45.99
Back in May they were already worth:
MMM $87.01 (up $14.14)
CL $60.35 (up $4.85)
ADS $53.75 (up $7.76)
And now in January (yesterday's closing price), we see:
MMM $74.70 (+$ 366 USD on 200 shares)
CL $67.42 (+$ 2,384 USD on 200 shares)
ADS $67.00 (+$10,505 USD on 500 shares) Sigh. And of course, the US dollar has finally started going up against the Canadian, so I would have profited on that side as well.
On the plus side, I was totally incorrect about Workbrain, a stock I sold for $13.40 that now struggles at $10.81 - I'm $2,590 CAD richer for fleeing the stock. Had you followed the "invest in whatever Matt sells" advice, you'd have suffered a 15% loss. I can't even be right about being wrong!
Perhaps I did better with the stocks I sold closer to my June closing date? Not a chance. I was particularly stung by a recent comment in a local business magazine empathizing with those poor souls who liquidated in June only to miss out on the boom in stock prices in the latter half the year. Here are my other holdings that are now gone:
400 shares of MacDonald Dettweiler and Assoc. (MDA): Sold $45.83 Current $49.00 (+$1,268)
300 shares of Manitoba Telecom (MBA): Sold $45.84 Current $47.00 (+$ 348)
400 shares of Royal Bank (RY): Sold $45.00 Current $54.46 (+$3,784)
300 shares of Budweisser (BUD): Sold $45.09 Current $51.00 (+$1,773 USD)
200 shares of Microsoft (MSFT): Sold $22.02 Current $30.48 (+$1,692 USD)
500 shares of Paladin Labe (PLB): Sold $ 7.80 Current $11.20 (+$1,700)
300 shares of Triant Technologies (TNT): Sold $ 0.57 Current $ 2.33 (+$ 528)
And one lucky one:
500 shares of Epcor Power LP investment trust (EP): Sold $33.45 Current $26.62 (-$3,415) Net: Roughly $8,200 less than if I had kept everything. And I actually sold Epcor Power after I bought the house (it was in my retirement account and couldn't be accessed) because recent performance was due to the high price in Natural Gas (which had collapsed) and a lot of revenue was dependent on the US Dollar (which I still don't trust). A rational call that was actually correct! Thus I'm actually out $11,500.
I should note, I still sold all but two of these at a profit, it just wasn't as much profit as I would have liked. The Royal Bank in particular is painful as it had just dipped from $50+ when I sold and Canadian bank stocks rarely stay down for long.
Now, one could argue that the return on my $650K house in the past six months may greatly exceed $11,500, or roughly 3.5% annualized. I have to admit, that's not entirely unreasonable, and I wouldn't accept an offer of $661,500 for the house if it was given to me. And I did keep hold of H&R Real Estate Investment Trust which has not only increased greatly to $25 from the $14 I purchased 1500 shares at many years ago, but has also been offering 5-8% returns in distributions for the past five years. Hopefully in six months you won't be reading about the collapse of the Canadian real estate market!
Wait a sec...I forgot to include those first three stocks at the top! Using the same 1.15 exchange rate, suddenly we're out an additional $15,000! That's not good as now my house had better have returned $53,000 or 8%. That's a bit trickier. And don't get me started on the $9,000 in interest I've already paid - luckily I get rent from my tenant to help cover that...oh wait, it appears that I don't.
What to conclude? Not much. I'm probably slightly worse off for purchasing a house, but I really have enjoyed living here (vists from the police notwithstanding). But now I've got some free cash again (retirement fund) and I need to invest! Do I dare? Or should I grab the first money market fund I can find and hide?
Current Mood: uncertain
Current Music: The Rolling Stone - "Paint it Black"
Tags: investments, stocks
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