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September 2024 was an ode back to the bull market that has been alive and well for the past year. After the meaty correction in August 2024 which was one of the best buy the dip opportunities in 2024, September was a continuation of the uptrend that we’ve been enjoying the entire year.
August had dips of 10%+ in many of my beloved sectors which marked an incredible buying opportunity. I bought a lot of the dip in August which paid off nicely in September. I wish I had bought more which again is my fault as it goes against everything related to timing the market.
If you haven’t already read my posts before, I achieved Financial independence back in late 2020 early 2021 with a portfolio of roughly $1.3m invested in mainly ETFs. This ballooned to $1.7m during the peak of the markets in early 2022 before coming back down to Earth later in 2022. The portfolio has since regained new all time highs as markets rally beyond the previous highs.
This post will be part of a monthly series of portfolio updates that summarizes how my portfolio performed, what trades I executed, what my monthly expenses were, and my general outlook on the economy/markets. This is by no means financial advice so do not look look at me for sage advice. I make stupid trades and make even worse losses quite frequently.
This is simply the performance of my portfolio and how it has performed on a month to month basis.
Monthly Highlights – September 2024
Net worth is near $1.98m as of September 2024 Month end+$30k for the monthNo traveling for the month of September.
Market Moves
What is in my portfolio?
My portfolio is quite simple and straight forward. I have my holdings primarily spread out between a few ETFs, fixed income, and various single name stocks.
ETFs
Again, my primary holdings are in a few ETFs. My primary holdings are in VTI, VGT, and VCR. I’ve always been a big proponent of big tech and have been heavily invested in the Nasdaq for over a decade. This has paid off very well for me given the massive bull market of the 2010s and is essentially what allowed me to FIRE so quickly.
I used to hold more dividend generating stocks as I was really into this type of investing at a period of time. I currently do not have many dividend specific ETFs as I prefer growth more than income. This kind of goes against the ethos of financial independence but I have enough money coming in from other sources that I don’t need to focus so much on consistent income from my investments.
I added to my ETF positions in September 2024 as the market rallied to all time highs in the Dow and S&P.
Single name stocks
Some of the single name stocks I own are the following
TSLABRK.BNFLXRITMASMLARES
These single name stocks make up less than 10% of my total portfolio. I tend to not buy much single name stocks anymore as there’s no point to take on unnecessary risks when I’m already so diversified with my ETFs.
Real Estate
I currently own no real estate. I used to own property in the US but have sold it in 2022 before rates started rising. I am not a big fan of real estate. While it definitely can be a good investment, I don’t think it beats investing in the markets. In addition, real estate is highly illiquid with high transaction costs that few people consider.
Finally, as someone that travels around the world and does not like to be tied down to one location, real estate doesn’t make sense as managing it from afar creates a bunch of headaches. I much prefer to have my money liquid and in the stock market.
Fixed Income
I also purchased I-Bonds in 2022 at the height of inflation peak when I-Bonds were paying 9.5%. The rates have come down significantly since then as inflation itself has come down and I no longer bother with I-Bonds.
In the recent high interest rate environment, I had allocated a small portion of my portfolio to fixed income products, specifically purchasing treasury bills with 3-6 month expiry. These were paying out 5.5% which was a great guaranteed income generator. In recent months on the back of anticipated FED rate cuts, this rate was always going to come down which meant stocks should increase.
Well the FED cut rates for the first time since COVID in Sep 2024 which means treasury bill returns will be decreasing for the foreseeable future. My last treasury bill expired in July 2024 and that cash was used to buy the market. I suspect I will not buy any fixed income products for the foreseeable future.
September 2024 was all about the FED. Rate cuts have been talked about for the last year and the FED finally went ahead with their first rate cut of 50 bps. This larger rate cut was the FED’s way of getting ahead of the curve and setting a precedent that while they were behind the curve no inflation in 2021, they did not want to be behind the curve when it came to rate cuts.
Rate cuts were priced in by the market for weeks leading up to the meeting and markets rejoiced. S&P broke out to new all time highs with the Nasdaq inching towards its own all time highs. I suspect the FED also wanted to do whatever they could to support the economy right before the elections. JPow probably doesn’t want to see another Trump presidency as that didn’t work out so well for him the first time around.
Markets slow crawled upwards to new all time highs on the Dow and S&P 500. Even though September is historically one of the worst performing months, this year was not to be. October is also a time of weakness historically but I suspect markets will not be so volatile until the election happens in early November.
Market Value of Portfolio
Here is a history of my portfolio value. As you can see, it’s moved in line with the markets as should be the case since most of my holdings are in ETFs that track the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.
In total, my portfolio is sitting somewhere around $1.95m which also includes cash and fixed income positions.
Trades executed for the month of September 2024
September was an not active month for trading for me. I bought a lot of things on the dip in August but did not deploy as much capital in September.
Time to sell Tesla?
In my previous month’s analysis, I talked about why I plan on selling Tesla. I’ve held Tesla since the early days of the Pandemic and acquired my 200 shares of Tesla at a post split price of about $100. I was all about Tesla and still think they have potential but I think the hype has died down.
I sold covered calls on Tesla for the past few months and each time, it has expired out of the money. I’ve collected juicy premiums which I track on my options trading spreadsheet to the tune of almost $40 per contract in the past few months ($8,000 in cash). I sold another call in September at a strike of $265 expiring Oct 11 for $9 a piece ($1,800 for two contracts).
As of writing this post, Tesla is currently trading at $260 after a big run up in its share price and is trading at resistance previously hit in July 2024 and Dec 2023. It is very plausible that I will be called out of my position and will sell my Tesla shares at $265. I will be happy if this is the case and won’t FOMO into any new Tesla shares.
Summary of stock and ETF purchases
Dividend Income
For September, I collected a total of around $3500 in dividends. Most of my dividends pay out in March, June, September, and December. I typically reinvest my dividends which has served me well during the market downturn of the last year or two. I’ve thought about stopping the reinvestment of dividends due to high prices so I can save a large cash reserve for the next crash but I haven’t gotten around to it.
Portfolio withdrawals and expenses
Withdrawals from my portfolio is an important part of the financial independence ethos. The 4% withdrawal rate rule is one of the main concepts of the FIRE movement which I try to adhere to. Generally, I prefer to sell from my portfolio when markets are near or at all time highs to capture, and only when I actually need the cash.
For the month of September 2024, I was all over Bali again just living the Bali lifestyle. Life in Canggu is probably one of my favorites around the world and I’ve lived in many different places. The cost of living in Bali is quite cheap so there definitely doesn’t need to be much in the way of portfolio withdrawals which is nice.
I made no withdrawals from the portfolio as I had enough cash coming in from my blog as well as leftover cash from other sources. My blog generates money every month to the tune of $6-8k and I cover exactly how I earn money from blogging in other posts.
My August 2024 Blog Earnings
I always give a run down on my monthly blogging income on these monthly portfolio reports because this is about my blog after all. My blog generates quite a lot of money from many years of hard work that it is a huge supplement to my FIRE portfolio.
In May, I switched over to Mediavine from Ezoic for my ad monetization. Mediavine has literally been a revelation for my blogging experience and it’s a complete game changer. My earnings have gone up almost 50% as soon as switching to Ezoic which has really turbocharged my blog earnings.
In addition to Mediavine advertisements, I also earn money from Affiliate programs, sponsorships, and travel planning. More details on these things in my how to make money blogging posts. Here is a breakdown of my monthly earnings.
As you see, I earned almost $9,000 this month in blogging which is probably my all time high. At this rate, I can feasibly earn something like $70-80k a year from blogging which would be an incredible achievement. This money is all cash net income and is more than enough to support even a family in most parts of the world
Hopefully Google doesn’t completely ruin this with algorithm updates!
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