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April, 2021: 2 25
Disclaimer - IMPORTANT - Read this first!
| Investor's Journal is a diary focused strictly on investments and personal finance issues, primarily from a contrarian and retiree point of view. Follow along with an average guy's failures and successes as he learns, by trial and error, the fine art of value investing. |
4/2/21-Since the prior entry (3/13/21), there have been no sales or purchases among our basic 25 holdings which therefore remain as follows: AWF; BHK; CRWD; DDOG; DIA; EDV; FAGIX; FLGT; NARI; NAVI; NET; RIO; SCU; SLYV; SPKE; VB; VBR; VGK; VIOO; VOO; VTV; VV; XBI; XLG; and ZS.
We continue to be easily on track toward total portfolio dividends of $54,000 or more this year.
Since 3/13, liquid assets are up just $1253 or 0.06% and now total $2,014,735.
Net assets of all types (including real estate and all other holdings) are up 7.17% or $155,990 from their end of 2020 nest egg total and now stand at $2,331,415.
New record highs in the major market are still regularly being attained, and yet there are as well good assets to be acquired. Our portfolio has two major segments, assets that are to be simply held indefinitely (with a total of roughly $560,000 in current market value and including BRK/B, T, and others) and those which may be traded (totaling roughly $1,455,000). The latter are now about equally divided among: 1. Reserves or bond assets; 2. Dividend value assets; 3. Growth assets, such as the Saul top holdings mentioned in the most recent prior entry; and 4. All-Season funds which, as a group, have historically outperformed the S&P 500 Index alone.
The plan is to rebalance these four categories quarterly, bringing them at that point back into alignment with the targeted 25% percentage each of liquid assets, once the strictly-no-sell-'ems are excluded. In general, assets will be added to recently less profitable categories as they are at least 10% below their 52-week highs. For example, last year VIOO, in the All-Season funds, was purchased when selling for significantly less than .9 times the VIOO high for the previous year. Since then, gains in this asset have spurred total returns for the All-Season funds portion of the portfolio that are outpacing average increases in the balance of the nest egg. Chances are, at the next scheduled rebalancing, some shares of VIOO will be sold, the redemption funds then going into categories with either more modest gains or with losses.
4/25/21-Since the prior entry (4/2/21), the following assets were sold from our basic 25 holdings: DIA; FLGT; NAVI; VGK; VV; and XBI. Shares of these were bought to replace them: CTO; DX; FNLC; QQQ; SAFT; and ZI. The complete updated list of our basic 25 securities thus includes: AWF; BHK; CRWD; CTO; DDOG; DX; EDV; FAGIX; FNLC; NARI; NET; QQQ; RIO; SAFT; SCU; SLYV; SPKE; VB; VBR; VIOO; VOO; VTV; XLG; ZI; and ZS.
Total annual dividends from our current portfolio already exceed this year's target of $54,000.
Since 4/2, liquid assets are up $61,557 or 3.06% and now total $2,076,292.
Net assets of all types (including real estate and all other holdings) are up 10.01% or $217,757 since 12/31/20. The nest egg total is $2,393,182.
Market timing is not one of my strengths. I would have guessed, for instance, that after the election of Donald Trump as the U.S. President in 2016 the stock market here would have plummeted. Instead, it did the opposite. After the sharp sell-off that began in March of 2020, I assumed the market would continue on down much farther. Again, it did the opposite, so that 2020 wound up being an above average year for the S&P 500 Index. At present, with markets achieving new records on a frequent basis and already quite overvalued, my expectation would be that we are due for a major downturn. Yet, if recent history is a guide, perhaps once more the stock market will do the opposite and surge to yet more stratospheric heights in the balance of 2021.
The message for me is that I had better not try to configure our portfolio according to what I assume will be the market's direction but rather use methods that simply take advantage of a seemingly whimsical market's ups and downs.
With that in mind, finding myself after several trades with now 49.04% of our liquid assets (other than the strictly-no-sell-'ems equity shares) in low-yielding bond funds or in reserves, I shall continue to invest on a dollar-cost-average basis out of these holdings and into each of three major equity categories: dividend-paying value stocks or ETFs; growth assets; and all-season funds that, as a group, tend to beat the S&P 500 over the long-term, then rebalancing between them so that these investment genres are periodically returned to roughly equal market values.
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Neither I nor Investor's Journal will be responsible for losses by anyone who obtained ideas from this site.
This diary is intended for personal interest and general information only. You are advised to do your own research (as well as to consult highly compensated professionals) before spending money on anything.
I know of no reason anyone should take my financial musings seriously. At best I am a dedicated amateur providing a bit of investment-related insight and entertainment, at worst an amusing diversion.
My wife, Fran, and I may at times own shares of some of the assets mentioned here. But neither of us receive any benefit from reference to them, unless you count the mutual misery when we get it wrong, or the opportunity to gloat when we get it right.