March 2020 Passive Income Report – $1,252.63
March 2020 Passive Income Report – $1,252.63
Another day of lock down, but the money keeps coming!
Wow what a month.. Things have changed quite a bit since the last update that’s for sure. Cases are increasing every day and things are clearly nothing like the sars epidemic was.
Gas is cheap but we are are barely even leaving our house these days. I just drive by and think to myself wow that’s cheap and then look down at my still full tank of gas…… Me and the wife are both done work for the time being, as we are classified non essential.
It’s great having the wife here though, as it’s not that often the 4 of us are together 24 hours a day……. 7 days a week………………. haha. I think she’s getting sick of us, but she has nowhere to go! =)
At the beginning of the month (Pre lockdown) our son went to Disney for 9 days with the g-parents and 2 our cousins. They had a fantastic time, but we are glad he’s back. Things in the house were a lot quieter though without a 7 year old running around. While he was away we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and head to the zoo. Always great times there – Lions, Tigers and bears oh my kinda stuff.
I’m glad we took advantage of those times because basically a week later Disney closed and things went lock down mode. Now I’m basically playing the switch with the kid, rocking the powerwheels, throwing the frisbee, Got the property all cleaned up and edged, and now I’m just finishing redoing our deck. (Well half) After this is done I plan on fertilizing and mulching the place. Once we are allowed to go back to work things will be really busy.
It’s a great time to hang with the family, get stuff done around the place, go for walks in the bush, play poker online with friends and watch a lot of netflix. We finished tiger king and just watched the platform. The platform was pretty unique. I enjoyed it, the wife not so much. Check it out. Greg told me to watch Ford vs Ferrari but I haven’t watched that yet, soon enough. You watching anything good?
Clearly this month hasn’t been ideal for our finances, but that passive income keeps on coming.
Raises or Cuts
In times like these you can only hope you don’t experience a dividend cut, especially in the oil and gas sector. Unfortunately there was 0 raises for our portfolio this month and 1 cut. The one I knew might come after oil got killed…
- Interpipeline slaughtered their dividend by 72% yesterday. Reducing it from 14.25 cents per month down to 4. I will continue to hold them and even debate adding here. They are sooo cheap and can easily maintain that 5% plus dividend now. The heartland complex will still be huge for them next year. But at the same time, this was a eye opener for me. Do I want to keep investing in oil and gas? Should I just stick to blue chip – wide moat stocks only? We own 204 shares so this cut reduces our yearly dividends by $250.88. Yup a huge hit… Man Down.
Total Added Income from Dividend Raises in 2020 – $90.05
Dividend Cuts Reduced Dividends in 2020 by $250.88
Dividend Income
12 Companies paid us this month.
Stocks | March 2019 Income | March 2020 Income |
---|---|---|
IBM | 28.26 usd | 45.36 usd |
Russell Metals | 17.48 | sold |
Altagas | 2.40 | 2.40 |
Sienna Senior | 2.45 | sold |
Highliner Foods | 21.75 | sold |
Johnson & Johnson | 0 | 12.35 usd |
3m | 0 | 17.64 usd |
Canadian National Railway | 33.33 | 35.65 |
Canadian Utility's | 82.00 (2 Drip's) | 87.95 (2 Drips) |
Inter Pipeline | 27.36 (1 Drip) | 29.07 (2 Drip's) |
Brookfield Renewable | 94.27 (2 Drips) | 105.64 (1 Drip) |
Brookfield Property Partners | 88.65 (3 Drips) | 115.20 (9 Drips) |
Dream Global Reit | 20.40 (1 Drip) | Bought Out |
Riocan | 28.56 (1 Drip) | 30.00 (1 Drip) |
Extendicare | 17.24 (2 Drips) | 18.16 (2 Drips) |
Enbridge | 157.93 (2 Drip's) | 180.63 (3 Drips) |
Shaw | 31.30 (1 Drip) | sold |
Totals | 653.38 | 680.05 |
7 stocks Dripped in March.
Haha! A positive quarter ending month. It has been along time coming. We sold a bunch of stocks that pay during this period for our 2 new to us cars in the last 1.5 years. It feels great to surpass last years totals, so we can continue moving forward with positive numbers hopefully. Drips were essentially the same other than Brookfield Property, what a difference a crash can make. The stock is essentially half price from where it was a month ago. 9 shares dripped, oh man I love it! Reits have been absolutely killed these days.
We also got our first JNJ payment, very nice. I’m leaning towards just beefing up this position these days, hope that recent pop fades back down. Also got to love seeing both Brookfield Renewable and BPY passing that 100$ mark, always love seeing those milestones getting passed.
If your interested check out our Previous Dividend Income Reports.
Our Drips (Dividend Reinvestment Program) added $30.70 to our yearly forward dividend’s this month.
Trailing 12 Month Return
Ahhhh no point waiting for RBC to tell me this. The portfolio dropped in value about 45k in the last month. I’m sure it’s not good. Long term it will be back, just like Terminator.
Other Income
Private Investment Payment – $500.00
Nothing new here, just our regular monthly payment. (I don’t even have to edit this part every month) Steady Eddy…….
Solar Income
In February (We always get paid a month later) our solar panel system generated 252 kWh. Since we bring in a fixed rate of 28.8 cents per kilowatt hour, Hydro One deposited $72.58 into our chequing account this month.
Last February the system generated $76.03, so we are slightly under. Pretty close though!
Total Income for 2020 – $149.76
System Installed January 2018
Total System Cost ——–$32,396.46
Total Income Received ——–$5,119.17
_____________________________________________
Amount to Break even —- $-27,277.29
Total March 2020 Passive Income – $ 1,252.63
March 2019 Passive Income – $1395.10
Total Passive Income Increase over last year. – negative
A negative growth rate. Im not too concerned though. Last year we got paid by google adsense and a siteground affiliate. Those 2 bonuses added over 165 bucks, so we are slightly higher overall.
Totals For 2020
Dividends Year To Date Total – $1,569.38
Other Passive Income Year to date – $2,048.68
Total Passive Income for 2020 —– $3,618.06
Year End Goal – $17,200 ——– %21.03
A little behind where we want to be at the moment, but Solar will soon pickup and if this market remains low we should be able to take advantage of it.
March 2020 Purchases / Sales
At the start of the month we decided to take advantage of these cheaper prices and added 10 more shares of Disney and started a position in Smart Centers by buying 45 shares here. In total these buys added $100.86. You can read about these 2 purchases here.
A week later the market really dropped and reits got absolutely hammered! We made 2 separate purchases of smart reit here and now have a full position. We added another 113 shares which brings in another $205.66. Smart reit was 50% cheaper than it was 3 weeks ago…
Sale
I Also sold 1 stock this month….. What? why would you sell? Stick to the plan. Don’t Sell. Honestly I kind of regret it, but at the same time I don’t. The market kept tanking and I started thinking what if this is going to be a lot worse than I expected.. What if me and the wife couldn’t work for a couple months instead of a couple weeks?
I decided to sell our position in Emera. A great stock for sure, but it was one I was still up on and Utility’s are our top sector. It also was worth about 5k which is the number I had in my head to sell. I sold this position with a 14% profit and about 2 years of dividends.
I plan on buying it back eventually, but since we don’t keep an emergency fund. The 5k is a nice emergency fund for the time being or could be used to buy deep value stocks if the market continues to plummet.
Goals Update
Read 3 Books I normally Wouldn’t Consider
- I’m continuing to read – Why we sleep by Matthew Walker. I should be reading more these days, but tend to be doing other things vs sitting in a quite room reading.
Go 3 Times and Pick Up Garbage
- Last year picking up garbage was one of my goals. We did it but didn’t go out of our way to drive somewhere. This year I want to make 3 trips to do just that. The ground is covered in snow, so that ain’t happening at the moment.
Charities
- We continue to make our monthly donation of 75 bucks to The Nature Conservancy of Canada
Increase Dividends by $1,713.42 this year. (bringing our forward income from dividends to $7,500 a year)
- With New Purchases, Drips and Dividend Raises this month we added $337.22 to our dividend Portfolio. But we also got hit with that huge dividend cut, so in total we added $86.34 this month. Total increased so far in 2020 is $482.28. 28.13% of our goal.
Etf Monthly Purchase of $250
- We added 11 more shares of xaw etf this month for roughly 250 bucks in our questrade account. Questrade* is great because it offers free etf trades and cheaper stock trading options than most Canadian brokers. $250.00 a month would kill us if we needed to pay high trading fees.
- * Note the questrade link is a affiliate link and at no additional cost to you, I would get a little payment if you were to sign up. You could get $50 in free trades by using my link though.
180 Pounds
- I have been working out pretty regularly but not seeing a loss on the scale yet. Muscle weighs more than fat, but I’ll be honest staying at home 24/7 makes me snack a whole lot more….
Diet
- As I mentioned above the diet hasn’t been good this month. Dinner’s have been healthier but snacking has not. Definitely room for improvement.
Conclusion
A weird month overall. A growth in the passive income department and even after a huge dividend cut the income grew a bit. Life is different. Clearly once this virus passes, people will be dying to go out and do stuff again. Lock down is hard.. haha. At the same time it does make me question my stance on retirement. I have always said I wouldn’t want to retire early. Now that the family is all here together and I’m doing projects outside, maybe it wouldn’t be sooo bad especially if we could actually go out!
Eventually this will pass and in the future we will look back at this time. Did we make the right moves? What could we have done better? This has been my first real crash we have experienced and I think I’m learning a couple things about it, to improve things going forward.
Wish you all Nothing but the best
Cheers to Heath and Wealth!
How are things for you? Are you working still? Worried? Sticking to the plan? Buying any stocks?
I Always Appreciate Your Comments.
“Sometimes you have to experience what you don’t want in life to come to a full understanding of what you do” – Mandy Hale

Hey I’m Rob, creator of Passive Canadian Income.
In 2011 me and my wife had almost $60,000 in debt and a negative $7,000 Net Worth. Through hard work and financial education we paid all that off. Now we are focusing on increasing our Passive Income Streams to make the money work for us. Feel Free to Follow along the Journey by clicking the Social Media links below or subscribing to get notified of new posts on the sidebar.
Hi Rob, times are different now for sure, all family at home all the time, financial turmoil, and I agree with “Eventually this will pass …” and therefore I am gradually buying knocked down dividend kings.
Emera is one of our best performers, I am looking to buy more Emera shares.
Thanks for sharing and stay safe and healthy!
hey Income
Yeah different times for sure. I just wonder if there’s light at the end of the tunnel or will things actually get worse?
Emera is solid for sure. It was just a easy target. With utilitys so high in our portfolio this is one I always questioned. It pays in my worst month (so i love that) but Id love to get even more renewable exposure or get fortis or bip in the portfolio. Bip was at 39 bucks a share like 2 weeks ago, hope it drops like that again.
Time will tell if it was a good move but having that backup cash if needed isn’t a bad idea. I dont see Emera’s stock price skyrocketing at these levels anyways.
cheers!
Your poor wife! lol I’m going a little crazy off work, myself! Bought FTS and CNR but have my eye on a few others.
hey Jim
Shes stuck with me now! 2 great companies, id love to add more jnj, 3m or pepsi or telus/bce here in canada.
Things change to fast these days
cheers Jim
Sure has been a weird month. We actually had a close passive income number this month, lol. Stay on course and it will all be fine. 🙂
for sure.
Nice dynasty, look forward to reading your update.
cheers
I hear you with the IPL! Man did that stock tank. It had been lower for a bit, but the monthly dividend income made it ok. Now that that they’ve slashed that I’m really reconsidering keeping it! I won’t sell it now, but maybe once the market recovers a little, I might sell it to invest it in something else.
hey Connie
Yeah for sure, glad I didn’t buy more when it was hovering around 20. May consider a tranche here to lower that cost basis. They still own the same assets and I think Heartland will be great for them.
With the market changing so fast, time will tell.
All the best Connie
cheers
Hi Rob, nice website and good job to you and your family in collecting all this passive income. Regarding your DRIPS though, I noticed you mentioned that you have it set up for Enbridge; as far as I know they suspended their DRIP in the fall of 2018. Is there another way that you have this set up to convert the normal quarterly cash payout? Thanks.
hey Paul
Thanks and welcome to the site!
Most of our stock positions are with rbc so they buy certain stocks in lots and disperse them out for dividends if Im not mistaken. I dunno if they pass that drip discount that certain stocks offer, on though.
Check with your broker, There are certain stocks rbc doesn’t drip for some reason.
All the best
cheers Paul
You did quite well this month. Only 1 dividend cut or suspension is quite impressive. I am jealous of you only having one, where I have 5 last month.
Emera has a bit of renewable stuff like Muskrat Falls and some hydro plants.
hey Ip
Arrrr yeah 5 cuts in a month is brutal. Hopefully the worst is behind you. Yeah Emera got some renewable. Would focus more on pure plays or fortis for their div growth history and bip for growth in general.
all the best pursuit!
We might be on lock down and work may have dried up but ass you said the dividends keep coming in. No doubt we’ll all get some cuts as 2020 rolls on but being diversified should mitigate any of the lost income. Keep up the good work.
hey Hut
2020 will be a interesting year for sure. As the stock prices drop the drips grow.
ying and the yang
all the best hut
cheers
Another solid month as far as income goes ….too bad the world is ending and our income will mean nothing…haha
What did you think of Tiger King? Pretty crazy huh? I binged it in like 2 days….I recently finished the new season of Curb your Enthusiasm, and am watching Westworld.
hey Jordan
Gotta convert these dividends to toilet paper asap! Man tk was a interesting show, every episode got just a little bit better. That one guys the man though, 3 wives! wow, plus not much drama in his life. haha
Curbs a great show, I keep hearing about the ozark. That may be the next one we start, just got word that both of us will be off another 2 weeks atleast now… fun fun!
cheers man, stay healthy
PCI –
It is a very weird month. I cannot even begin to describe, as I know we are all going through it. Just very testing times we have.
Keep your head level, continue to save and invest when you can PCI.
The diversification in the private placement and solar income will do well.
-Lanny
hey Lanny
In times like this the diversity of income streams is really important. Im glad to have a couple different ones. Hopefully works resumes soon enough and we can get back to deploying capital.
All the best lanny
Hey Rob,
Yeah, a weird month indeed. Glad to see you’re on board with JNJ, though. I look at that as a staple stock; been with it since 2010 and enjoying the ride.
One thing that’s worth keeping in mind as the COVID-19 cases explode (just saying this since you mentioned the increase in cases) is that testing has increased which will naturally lead to more confirmed cases. For example, at the hospital I work at (I work in Clinical Informatics maintaining the electronic health record), we just opened our COVID-19 Assessment Centre on Thursday. As a result, we’re performing many swabs and it’s inevitable that many of them will come back Positive. So, the increase we hear in terms of cases doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a huge increase in actual cases; I suspect this thing has really been here a good while and we’re only recognizing that now with the results coming in.
All that to say to just remain positive. By the end of April, I expect we (“we” as in “all of humanity”) will have better treatments (all of the pharmaceuticals are focused on this) for COVID-19, PPE will be getting mass produced by the huge industrial firms which are retooling their factories (which means we won’t be worrying about shortages), and the social distancing will have done its work in terms of slowing the spread.
Anyhow, stay safe and stick to the plan, brother. You had a great month of passive income.
Take care,
Ryan
hey Ryan
Great to hear your knowledge on the subject. For sure as things get amped up and more testing is done numbers will change and start declining. I just wonder how long this will go on. Here in Ontario we just lowered the jobs that can actually work and me and the wife are off for another 2 weeks. Im starting to think the implications after this will be the worst part. We deal with covid now and then the financial impacts hit after. As always we will get past this, but I don’t this will be a quick recovery.
All the best Ryan
cheers
Nice month, except for IPL cut. Many companies have to be careful with their payouts. Cash is king so we may see more cuts in the future. This pandemic will pass. I think we’re half way to stabilization. Once consumer spending picks up, everything will get back to normal. Good move on selling Sienna senior, or was it bought out? Senior housing will be down for a while. Who will want to go to senior homes after so many outbreaks and casualties….
hey German
haha yeah sold seinna for the car last year, still hold extendicare. Some of their homes have covid in them now. I plan on upping that jnj position and eventually cutting exe as I haven’t gotten a raise yet.
While Im normally a positive guy on things, I think this will be a slow recovery and 2020 as a whole will be a interesting year. The next couple quarters arent going to be good for alot of companies. But the ones that do well, will show their strength moving forward and will get more of my investment dollars.
All the best German, hope you and your family stay healthy.
cheers
Man down is right, Rob. Hopefully, that will be the only dividend cut you’ll see anytime soon. Glad to see that the forward dividend income still ended up being positive for the month though.
Things have definitely changed, especially with sheltering in place, but it sounds like you’ve accomplished a lot at the house, so that’s good.
I happened to catch The Platform a week or so ago. It’s definitely different, but I could stop watching. I didn’t know anything about it going in, only that it was trending on Netflix.
hey Paul
You could stop or couldn’t? haha Yeah I’m the same just saw it trending. Started to watch the ozark pretty good so far. The lockdown here keeps getting extended, I wonder how long it will go for? Seems like the curve in New York is starting to trend down at least.
All the best Paul
cheers
Oops… couldn’t stop.
Nice month, Rob! That’s still a nice haul even though you didn’t beat last year. I expect some decreases later this year because of Covid. I’m also holding ENB and Riocan. Riocan has been crushed eh? But I guess it makes sense with the uncertainty of commercial real estate. Thanks for sharing!
hey Graham
Yeah riocan is one I’m debating adding to at the moment, but their dividend growth hasn’t been impressive at all. Maybe 2% every other year?
I added to smart centers between 22 and 15 so I’m happy with those purchases. Im not too worried about retail but at the same time, focusing on buying companies that remained open and essential should be great investments moving forward.
All the best Graham