Progressive Waste Solutions Dividend Increase

Yesterday Progressive Waste Solutions announced a 12% increase in dividends distribution. They also posted a solid quarter with a 8.1% increase in revenue (acquisitions contributed 5.6%).  The company also seems like it has a long-term plan and is executing it nicely. Progressive Waste Solutions still has an active acquisition program and intend to be "disciplined" buyers after recently acquiring Waste Service Inc. which has operations in Canada and the Florida. They also plan to invest in internal infrastructure, and continue with the dividends and share buybacks which is great news for me because I essentially got a raise for doing nothing.

The company also redid their goodwill impairment test for their U.S. northeast reporting unit and concluded that due to a weak economic outlook, the carrying amount was overvalued. This resulted in a goodwill impairment of $360 600. This shows that the company is willing to fairly value their assets and not mislead investors. I just did a quick glance over the report and I may be missing something because as of right now, the stock is taking a beating. When I have time I'll comb through it and see what's up, but for now I'm not too worried; I may even take this opportunity to buy more shares if I feel that there isn't a major problem...

-the Paperboy

March Budget 2012

Alright let's try the same numbers for the month of March. I think February is going to end up being a rough month because reading week alone destroyed my budget for food. Come to think about it, the most difficult part of the budget is the food and entertainment part. I can restrain myself from buying things, but grabbing a bite to eat with friends is so enticing. It's not that I constantly eat out (which I did last year, and that didn't do so well for my wallet), but going out even three times a month is too much. Paying for two people doesn't help, but paying for my girlfriend is one of those things that I'm not willing to give up (I have to be at least a half-decent boyfriend right?). I haven't decided what to do yet, on one hand going over the budget every month is discouraging, while on the other hand, I already reduced my spending significantly and I would still like some sort of a social life. We'll see how March goes, but my birthday falls in March so some crazy stuff might go down...

-the Paperboy

TFSA Position Transfer

Since the new year started, I haven't made any moves in terms of investing. However, I transferred my positions in CLF and SLF into my TFSA. My SLF is currently on a DRIP so I'll be receiving shares every quarter instead of cash. This is great because since it's in my TFSA, it would take too long to amass enough funds to purchase more shares on my own because there is a limit to the amount of cash I can add to the portfolio. I plan to eventually get CLF to DRIP as well, continuing with the line of thinking that I have with SLF. Right now the interest (interest because CLF is a government bond ETF, not the stock of a public company) received from CLF will just sit there and collect dust (not what I want to be collecting) instead of helping me with the power of compounding. This is the opportunity cost that I have to pay (at least until I can get more funds into the account and have more money to work with).

Transferring my position resulted in a negligible amount of capital gains in CLF but a substantial amount of capital loss in SLF which I can't use to deduct capital gains taxes. I could have simply sold my shares and moved the funds over to the TFSA to repurchase, resulting in the the capital loss becoming deductible, but then I would have to wait 30 days before repurchasing the shares or it would be considered a superficial loss and would not be eligible. Who knows where the stock could be in a month? Besides, I'm already sitting on the sidelines with some funds; I don't need more money collecting a pittance in a savings account.

-the Paperboy

Janurary Budget 2012 Review

Better late than never am I right? I went over budge because I had to buy some mandatory stuff for school. If that wasn't taken into account I would have made it so I don't feel so bad. I didn't spend anything on transportation because I decided to do February with bus tokens. Overall not a bad month in terms of spending, hopefully I can keep it going.

-the Paperboy

Dividend Progress Report: January 2012 Edition

This is the first update of the year for the new series where I keep you guys posted on my dividend income. Maybe I've been busy with life or I feel that I can't find good deals, but for the first month of 2012, I didn't make any purchases. This is very unlike me, especially since I'm sitting on a little bit of cash. I usually just throw whatever I can into my portfolio (I heard compounding is suppose to be pretty good) but I feel that the more important factor is that I shouldn't overpay for anything. Anyway, because of the fact that I didn't change anything in my portfolio, all the numbers are the same.