Sleepy Mini Portfolio Q1-2012 Update

Since my previous update, the Sleepy Mini Portfolio has gained 5.4 percent. About half of the gains can be attributed to the S&P 500, which is up 9 percent in Canadian dollar terms in the past quarter alone. Long time readers will recall that the Sleepy Mini Portfolio started out with an initial investment of $1,000 in August 2007 and $1,000 was added to the portfolio every quarter ever since. A total of $18,000 has been invested in the portfolio so far and as of March 13, 2012, here’s how it looks:

TDB909 – Canadian Bonds – $3,880 (19.3%)
TDB900 – Canadian Equities – $3,950 (19.6%)
TDB902 – US Equities – $6,238 (31.0%)
TDB911 – International Equities – $6,049 (30.1%)
Total – $20,117
Total Invested – $18,000

We’ll now add another $1,000 to the portfolio and rebalance it according to our original asset allocation — 20% bonds, 20% Canadian stocks, 30% US stocks and 30% international stocks — using this rebalancing spreadsheet. Here are the results:

Transactions

TDB909 – TD Canadian Bond Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $343.49.
TDB900 – TD Canadian Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $272.97.
TDB902 – TD US Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $100.00.
TDB911 – TD International Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $283.54.

The TD e-Series Funds have a minimum purchase of $100 and the amount allocated to TD US Index Fund (TDB902) was slightly less than the minimum. Therefore, $100 was allocated to the TD US Index Fund and the amount allocated to the TD International Index (TDB911) reduced by the same amount.

It is interesting to see how the increase in the value of stocks has affected the portfolio’s annualized rate of return. In my previous update, I noted how the portfolio has returned an anemic 2.8% since inception. A mere quarter later, the annualized rate of return of the portfolio is a much healthier 5.3 percent. It goes to show how important it is to be patient when it comes to investing.