Last Week of Q3, Preparing for 2013

There are only 3 months left in 2012. I'm still patiently waiting for the end of the world. Mayan calendar thing right? Well, if it doesn't happen this year, they will probably just tell us they forgot to carry a 1 somewhere, or got their positive/negative signs mixed up and it was actually 2014 instead. What causes the end of the world anyway? Since you can Google just about anything these days, I figured I'd give it a shot.

Okay.... LOL... WTF???

Anyway, enough end of the world talk.

Majority of average Joes & Janes probably think of the year as spring, summer, fall, winter, or March, July, October, etc. I find that ever since I started investing, I actually start thinking about my year in quarters, and weeks relative to earnings season. Perhaps if I believed the end of the world talk I might think of it as, 12 weeks before end of the world, 10 weeks before end of the world... etc?




For example, this week is last week of Q3. Next week will be the week before start of earnings season, which is also 11 weeks before end of the world, or something like that. Maybe its a sign I am spending too much time on stocks and stock research. I'm not a fan of half-assing these kind of things though, and I want to put in the work required to succeed.

Anyways, 5 days left in this quarter. As I mentioned above, that means we're 2 weeks away from earnings season. Also means we're 5 days away from the last quarter of the year. Only 3 months left in this year. How is your portfolio doing?

I was doing pretty well (relatively speaking) until the last month or so. The stock market has rallied, and with it, my relative out-performance has disappeared. I don't plan to chase for beta though, as I've already long accepted that the way I structure my portfolio and manage my risk means that I tend to outperform during bad times, and underperform during good times. One of the reasons my portfolio performs this way is because of my belief that it is more important to not lose your shirt, and forgo some upside potential.

I'm comfortable with my portfolio going into 2013 (as long as it doesn't look like this)

 and actually focusing on paying down some mortgage principal and building up some cash for the remainder of 2012. So yea if for some miraculous reason (remember to turn on your internet sarcasm detector) the world does NOT end, this will also allow me to prep my 2013 TFSA and RRSP contributions, as I'm capped in 2012 for both. I bought a vehicle this year which was funded partly by savings sitting in my mortgage cash account (MCA) so I've been looking forward to paying some of that back. All things considered this is looking like a terrible purchase as the end of the world events will destroy my car, most likely. I'll talk more about this MCA savings tool in a blog post later this week.

My dividend situation stands will within range for hitting my target of $4400 by end of the year. I'm currently at about $4330 and expect to get raises from a few companies before end of 2012. My actual 2012 received dividends income is also looking good. You'll receive a more detailed update in the first week of October, when I typically update the status of my #DGP. You can follow me on twitter for easy status updates, as I post everything there! :) Look for posts with hash tag DGP

PS. in case your sarcasm detector is broken, I do NOT actually believe the world is coming to an end any time soon!