The Journey Begins...

2009-07-05T20:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone to a little slice of my mind. This is my attempt at a financial blog although there will be a healthy dose of non-financial matters as well. The title of the blog says it all. Ideally, I hope to have enough saved by the time I hit 55 so between 55 and 60 I hope to manage to retire.

A little about myself would be in order. I am 36 years old, single, and a database administrator. Currently almost completely out of debt and am starting to save for a home. I'm finally in a place in my life where saving can be consistent with me, and above all else, that's the key.

As I realize I have some catching up to do, I do see myself investing in more aggressive stocks and sectors as a whole. But I also realize the benefits of passive investing as well (peace of mind, sleeping well at night). As such, I plan to adopt the Core - Satellite approach of portfolio creation. My Core investments will be ETF's and low cost index funds, the kind championed by Canadian Capitalist in his Sleepy Portfolio. That portfolio is one of the better ones out there, seeming to make more sense, for me at least, than the Couch Potato Portfolios. The Core component will have a flexible overall portion of my savings, as long as it is at least 50% of my allocation. The remaining 50% (or less) will be purchasing individual stocks across broad sectors, some perhaps not covered by my Core allocations.

The Core portion will have an equal amount of three broad indices: Canadian Index, U.S. Index, and Emerging Markets. Starting off, these would be 25% each in the portfolio, to a total of 75%. As long as I automatically invest in these passive vehicles each month, I feel I would be in good shape. (Edit, July 13-2009: Simplified this portion, and will focus on sectors in individual stocks)

The Satellite portion, 20%, will be individual stocks, no more than six or seven, and they may or may not be components of the ETF's/funds of my Core portion. The 5% remaining will be cash. I plan to focus on value investing for this, or maybe the occassion growth stock, but will try to spread out the stocks across various indices, picking industry/sector leaders to get as non-correlated a spread as possible. It is completely possible that I may not find a stock I am comfortable with, which is okay, in which case I can either bank more cash or put back into the passive portion, or even buy some corporate bonds.

In short, my portfolio, starting out at least, will be:

Canadian Index TD Index e-fund (TDB900) + Group RRSP Contrib: 25%
U.S. Index TD Index e-fund (TDB904): 25%
International TD Index e-fund (TDB905): 25%
Individual Stocks (25%)
- Small/Midcap value
- Commodities
- Specific emerging markets stocks
- Large cap value
- REITs

Anyways, thanks to everyone who viewed my blog and hopefully I can keep it interesting for awhile.

Retire Before Sixty

The Journey Begins...