2025 April Portfolio Update, Berkshire Meeting

Coming back from my first Berkshire annual meeting, my beliefs in the power of investing has been further deepened. I met two guys who bought BRK-A shares for less than $10,000 and hold on to them till now. They are both multi-millionaires, and they didn’t wear anything fancy, just like any other old man you see on the street. Berkshire was not the only stock in their portfolio, and it is unbelievable how just one extremely successful investment can change people’s lives.

Here are a few key take aways from the meeting:

About tariffs: Balanced trade is good for the world. Each country should be able to do what it does the best and export their products without too much barrier.
Berkshire loves the 5 Japanese trading companies. They would likely continue to increase their holdings and keep the investments for at least 50 years or more.
The recent market downturn in the recent past is really nothing. There has been 3 times Berkshire stock went down 50% in the history in a short period of time when there was nothing wrong with the business. Focus on the business, do not panic.
It is more important to look at company’s balance sheet compared to income statements. Buffett like to read 10 years worth of balance sheet to discover any issue that the company may try to hide.
About the $300 billion cash pile: Buffett said that Berkshire “holds a lot more cash and Treasury bills than I would like.” He is always looking for investments, but “things don’t come along in an orderly fashion.”
End of an era: Warren Buffett announced his retirement at the end of this year and Greg Abel will become the next CEO.

1️⃣ Blossom Portfolio including TFSA, RRSP, Non-registered accounts

See my full portfolio shared for Blossom here

1. No Trades in TFSA

🟢Bought 1 shares of EQB @ $90.09 (re-invest dividends)

TFSA account value stayed flat, changing from $166,962 to $165,546, the principal contribution amount is $81,815. My TFSA portfolio performance is closely tracked here.

2. Trades in RRSP account

🟢Bought 1 shares of BN @ $75.96 (re-invest dividends)

RRSP account value changed from $114,929 to $110,643.

3. Trades in Non-registered accounts

(Multiple buys of the same stock are combined, prices paid are averaged)

🟢Bought 0.371 shares of CSU @ $4441
🟢Bought 20 shares of AMZN @ US$174.77
🟢Bought 7 shares of GOOGL @ US$151.5
🟢Bought 5 shares of UBER @ US$65.15

To take advantage of the recent market opportunities, I accumulated margin loans totaled $7,729.73, accounted for 3% of the total value of the IBKR account, to purchase US stocks at discounted prices. The full amount of the loan has been converted into Canadian dollars, paying an effective after-tax interest rate of 2.44%. This is a small price to pay compared to the potential 15%+ expected annual returns from the investments made. I recognize that excessive use of margin loan will introduce significant risks, and I have no intention to increase the borrowing any further. The plan going forward is to pay down the margin loan consistently every month using excessive cashflow provided by payrolls.

The current margin loan balance is $7,729.73, accounted for 3% of the total value of the IBKR account. Here is an overview of my non-registered accounts value change from the end of March to April:

IBKR (net of margin) account value changed from $242,215 to $239,550
Wealthsimple account value changed from $196,544 to $195,243
——————
Non-registered total changed from $438,759 to $434,793

2️⃣Smith Maneuver Portfolio (not tracked on Blossom)

This is a leveraged portfolio investing borrow fund from my HELOC. Note that this is a strategy with higher risks, not recommended for new investors.

$700 new deposit made using HELOC credit

🟢Bought 31 shares GOOG CDR @ $25.39
🔴Sold 30 shares of CNR @ $136.54
🟢Bought 147 shares META CDR @ $27.74

Here are my current holdings:

CSU        $9,934.84
ATD        $9,413.74
CNR        $4,881.60
IFC        $7,112.75
MEQ        $4,792
GOOG CDR   $8,622.40
AMZN CDR   $8,030.04
VISA CDR   $7,983.68
META CDR   $4,742.22

Total: $65,514.27 (Invested principal is $63,700)
HELOC balance: -$65,208.26
HELOC interest rate paid: prime + 0.25%= 5.2%, after-tax rate: 2.96%

You can checkout my full Smith Maneuver setup in this blog post.

(All $ represents CAD, US$ represents USD)

Comments and Questions

Make sure to leave your comments/questions on my original Blossom post and I will try my best to answer them.

DISCLAIMER: SoloFIRE is not a registered financial advisor. This post contains author's personal opinion only and it should NOT be considered financial advice.