Markets fell something like 2% today, while our portfolios of dangerously overpriced stocks fell by about 1%… but that’s not what this post is about.
While headlines and click-bait articles were on fire today, I couldnt’t have been focused less on the market.
We recently found out our amazingly loving Pitbull Molly had cancer. We had a tumor removed a few days ago and today when I brought her back to the vet for a check up, they said her incision is healing beautifully. She’s even acting like her old happy self.
We also got the Biopsy results back and they said it was very early stage. The best news we could have hoped for. I’m sure I’ll mess the terminology up but basically there’s less than 4% chance the cancer has spread to her lymph nodes and less than 10% chance the tumor will grow back.
So for now…we have a healthy pup again.
December has been an expensive month for us. Between Vet bills, my wife’s dental work, and holiday spending we’ve at least doubled our normal monthly spending.
And we didn’t even think twice about whether we could afford it. This isn’t because we’re rich. We certainly aren’t and even “rich people” often live pay check to pay check because their lifestyle expenses creep up with their income growth.
It’s because we live with an investing mindset.
We live below our means
We don’t invest any money we might need in the next 3-5 years
We invest the rest in stocks. That’s a combination of a S&P500 index in our work 401Ks and a concentrated portfolio of 10-12 of the stocks we talk about on these boards in our Roth IRAs and our non-tax-advantaged brokerage account.
So to sum it all up, that’s what TMF, this board, and investing have given my family.
Peace of mind, the ability to spend our time and money on the things we love, and confidence we will have the money we need to live comfortably in the future.
Recent portfolio moves:
After my November update, you all helped me think hard about the risk with my owned calls so I sold almost all of them which gave me cash to take another 3% chunk out of my portfolio to have available for our home purchase and expenses that are sure to follow. Also, for the first time in a long time, I now have a 10% cash position in my portfolio.
There’s a couple losing positions that I plan to sell in a few days when I’ve owned them for 31 days so I can knock down my capital gains taxes a bit.
That will put me at about 15% cash which I don’t imagine keeping for long. If we get another crazy sell-off (looks like we migh) I’ll pile it into some of my favorite companies.
Portfolio currently up 76% YTD not bad considering our stocks should get crushed in a down market…