Updated Investment Goals at Q213

In one of my first posts in January, I outlined my three investment goals for 2013. Since it's officially the end of the second quarter, it's time to provide another update of how I'm progressing toward my goals.

1. Get Rid of Non-Dividend Growers
Since getting rid of Power Financial Corp in Q1, I'm still at 50% of this goal, as I continue to hold on to Transalta.  I briefly considered selling Transalta before their ex-dividend date earlier this month, but held on and watch it drop a bit further. It's still a stock I'm looking to sell, I'm just waiting for a better price to pull the trigger. Despite the 8% dividend yield, Transalta hasn't grown their dividend in years, and likely won't given industry conditions.

2.  Increase my Dividend Income and Total Portfolio Value by 25%
Due to some contributions to my TFSA, RRSP, and my unregistered portfolio, along with some strong returns from my US dividend growers, my portfolio value is up by 20.4% from its value at December 31, 2012. There's also some US dollar currency gains that have inflated my return number. With respect to dividend income, I'm closing in on my goal, with dividend income up 23% from YE12. By shifting some US capital around in H213, and through regular dividend increases, I expect to overshoot this goal by year end.

3. Increase my Non-Canadian Investment Holdings from 20% to 25%
Due to a recent drop in telecomm share prices in Canada, US dollar appreciation compared to the Canadian dollar, and strong performances by a couple of my US holdings (i.e. Western Union and Microsoft),  I've already increased the percentage of my portfolio invested in US stocks from 20% to 26.98%. I'll have to keep an eye on how this turns out at YE13, as the US/CDN exchange rate makes it difficult to predict.

The last goal I set forth in my January post was to blog at least once a week. I've had a difficult time thinking of topics to write about each week. I've missed a couple weeks at this point, but still average a post a week. Although I'm happy to see the great majority of my stocks have gained ground in the first half of 2013, I'm having an increasingly difficult time find good companies to buy at reasonable valuations, particularly US based companies. I'm hoping the Canadian market stays depressed over the summer, so I can add to some holdings I'm particularly excited about.