Couch potato investing for the last 18 years - tracking my progress
Hi RFD,
After reading several articles, forums, blogs and academic studies, I came to the conclusion that the best way to invest my money is in a low cost diversified portfolio.
I have been applying this investment strategy for the last 18 years and would like to share my progress with you. With this post I hope to inspire others who are thinking about following a similar approach.
I graduated from university in 2005 and found a job shortly after graduation. My starting salary was around 60K. A bit more than half of my take home pay was invested each month in a low cost diversified portfolio using TD e-series index funds and ETFs.
My initial portfolio had the following approximate asset allocation:
- Around 20% of my money is invested in GICs/Bonds (Ing Direct)
- Around 10% is invested in Real Estate (XRE)
- Around 17.5% is invested in Canadian equities (XIC, CDZ)
- Around 17.5% is invested in US equities (TD US IND e-series, VTI)
- Around 17.5% is invested in Emerging Market equities (VWO, XEM)
- Around 17.5% is invested in European equities (TD Euro IND e-series, VGK)
In 2014/2015 we bought a SFH. I sold some bonds/stocks for the downpayment and kept only ~50K in bonds/GIC. Instead of investing in bonds/GIC I made extra payments against the mortgage. I still maximized my RRSP and TFSA though. The house was paid off after 4.1 years.
Lots of new ETFS came to the market and instead of investing in multiple ETFs I started to invest my money into one of the all-in-one ETFS (i.e. VGRO) for my TFSA and RRSP. For my non-registered account I started to use HGRO.
My current asset allocation (JUN2023) is approximately:
Canada: 13%
US: 32%
International: 14%
Emerging Market: 9%
Bonds/GIC: 32%
Update #1: Networth 01MAR2023.
After reading several articles, forums, blogs and academic studies, I came to the conclusion that the best way to invest my money is in a low cost diversified portfolio.
I have been applying this investment strategy for the last 18 years and would like to share my progress with you. With this post I hope to inspire others who are thinking about following a similar approach.
I graduated from university in 2005 and found a job shortly after graduation. My starting salary was around 60K. A bit more than half of my take home pay was invested each month in a low cost diversified portfolio using TD e-series index funds and ETFs.
My initial portfolio had the following approximate asset allocation:
- Around 20% of my money is invested in GICs/Bonds (Ing Direct)
- Around 10% is invested in Real Estate (XRE)
- Around 17.5% is invested in Canadian equities (XIC, CDZ)
- Around 17.5% is invested in US equities (TD US IND e-series, VTI)
- Around 17.5% is invested in Emerging Market equities (VWO, XEM)
- Around 17.5% is invested in European equities (TD Euro IND e-series, VGK)
In 2014/2015 we bought a SFH. I sold some bonds/stocks for the downpayment and kept only ~50K in bonds/GIC. Instead of investing in bonds/GIC I made extra payments against the mortgage. I still maximized my RRSP and TFSA though. The house was paid off after 4.1 years.
Lots of new ETFS came to the market and instead of investing in multiple ETFs I started to invest my money into one of the all-in-one ETFS (i.e. VGRO) for my TFSA and RRSP. For my non-registered account I started to use HGRO.
My current asset allocation (JUN2023) is approximately:
Canada: 13%
US: 32%
International: 14%
Emerging Market: 9%
Bonds/GIC: 32%
Update #1: Networth 01MAR2023.
Last edited by Germack on Jul 20th, 2023 9:24 pm, edited 38 times in total.