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This is an older screen grab of my ZPAY DEMO Portfolio. It was taken Tues. afternoon, June 29th. This is an amazing total value for a demo portfolio opened at the end of Nov. 2020 with an initial value of $1,000,000. For updated values, scroll down to bottom of post.
My Million Dollar Retirement Portfolio DEMO has performed very well since Fisher Investments Canada inspired me back in November to "put my money where my mouth is." Fisher claimed withdrawing a full four percent annually from one's retirement portfolio would likely result in total portfolio depletion at some point. I agreed but many retired seniors, like me, have no choice. We must withdraw at least four percent annually to make ends meet in retirement.
Fisher used million dollar portfolios in their examples. Following their approach, I started a million dollar demo portfolio in Nov. of 2020. Each month I have withdrawn $3,330 to emulate the withdrawals made during retirement.
This is where it gets interesting. The value of my stock holding gained so much in this bull market that my yield expressed as a percentage dropped dramatically. My creative solution? Liquidate the Million Dollar Retirement Portfolio and put all the funds, the original million plus all the gains, into the BMO exchange traded fund ZPAY. My ZPAY Million Dollar Portfolio had a rough first day but it is recovering quite nicely. As you can see, on Tuesday, June 29, 2021 it had a balance of $1,230,293 at market close.
What do I hope to gain from the switch to ZPAY? In a word: yield. With my original portfolio, I'd have felt I was doing well if I removed four percent of the original investment annually ($40,000 on a $1,000,000 investment) and added an annual increase based on inflation. This would not have been good enough for Fisher Investments Canada, I'm sure. Following their withdrawal approach, I'd run out of funds at some point.
With ZPAY I can be more generous. If the portfolio gains value during the year, I will remove a full four percent on the new increased balance on top of my original withdrawal. I will attempt to never remove less than the four percent calculated on the original million or $40,000.
So far, I believe I am on track. Time will tell.
Date Original Portfolio ZPAY Portfolio Total Withdrawals
- June 30/2021 $1,229,607.45 $1,232,308.60 $23,310
- July 3/2021 $1,234,006.25 $1,228,277.65 $26,640 *
- July 6/2021 $1,236,530.39 $1,242,387.15 $26,640
- July 8/2021 $1,234,255.95 $1,248,837.39 $26,640
- July 16/2021 $1,242,484.29 $1,260,125.31 $26,640
- July 19/2021 $1,227,570.05 $1,266,172.41 $26,640
- July 20/2021 $1,235,784.70 $1,265,769.27 $26,640
- July 24/2021 $1,238,918.44 $1,258,109.61 $26,640
- July 31/2021 $1,237,770.71 $1,252,360.77 $29,970 *
It's too early to say a lot about these figures but note how well ZPAY performed on bad market days.
A screen grab from the close Thursday, July 8, 2021.
