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My Financial Independence Journey » Investment portfolio » Portfolio Status: May 2013

Portfolio Status: May 2013

272481_diagramContinuing with my goal of financial transparency, I’m posting my portfolio as it is at the beginning of May of 2013.

Under the portfolio tab above is where I am keeping a more or less current list of my positions.  The below is where my portfolio stands as of May 1, 2013.  Also, check out the options page where I am tracking my options activity.

 

2013 Portfolio Value as of:

  • January 1st: $91,567.06
  • February 1st: $95,514.53
  • March 1st: $99,743.57
  • April 1st: $102,160.83
  • May 1st: $111,056.49

 

Between the market run up, my fresh infusions of capital, my dividends, and my options premiums (okay, mostly the market run up) my portfolio value has grown by about $20,000 in four months.  Holy crap, that is amazing. I was pretty busy this month with transactions as I bought stocks, sold options, and then bought more stocks.

I’m sure that a market correction will take place sometime this year since almost everything is ridiculously overvalued.  Then my portfolio will deflate a little bit.  But that’s okay because more great companies will be worth buying.

In terms of dividends, I pulled in $301.76 in April of 2013.

 

2013 Monthly Dividends:

  • January: $164.00
  • February: $265.11
  • March: $317.44
  • April: $301.76

 

One of my major goals for this year and next year is to substantially increase my emergency fund so that it can cover one full year’s worth of my expenses ($35K).  So let’s track that too:

 

2013 Emergency Fund Value as of:

  • January 1st: $4,753.16
  • February 1st: $7,353.16
  • March 1st: $8,965.33
  • April 1st: $10,560.33
  • May 1st: $12,168.49

 

Portfolio as of May 1st, 2013:

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13 Responses to "Portfolio Status: May 2013"

  1. Looks like your portfolio is on the right track and has been enjoying the increases in the stock market. I really like that you’re building up a large emergency fund too because that will help you feel more secure and continue on with the dividend investing. Congrats on a good month for your portfolio!

  2. G.B. says:

    Wow, congratulations on an incredible portfolio! I happened across your site via Dividend Mantra. How long have you been building this portfolio and which industries would you recommend a beginner to get her feet wet in?

    1. MFIJ says:

      I’ve been building this portfolio for almost 3 years now. As for current industries, I would go for oil and gas at the moment. I’m trying to expand my position in CVX at the moment. But keep in mind that the market is really overvalued right now, so there’s not a lot of great picks. These are lean times if you’re a value investor.

  3. Congrats on another great month! I’ve also seen a huge increase in my portfolio this year and while the gains are nice, I’d take a dip in the value to bring about more purchases for my portfolio. Investing, especially DGI, is a marathon not a sprint.

    I originally was planning on getting up to a full years worth of savings for my emergency fund, but now I’m leaning away from it. If the markets continue to rise, then I might start funneling a bit of extra savings that way. Hopefully that won’t be the case though.

    Keep up the good work!

    PS: Your dividends for April were badass, almost doubling January. I’ll be glad when some of my ESPP shares are called away and I have a bunch more capital to invest. Their yield is dragging down the dividends and portfolio yield.

  4. MFIJ,

    Great job!

    Fantastic month of dividends for April! That’s great. You’re killing it.

    I’m with you in hoping for a correction (5-10%) so that we can get some cheaper shares with our capital. I wouldn’t mind a dip in the portfolio value at all as long as it meant that high quality companies are then cheaper. My portfolio value means very little really, as it’s the dividend income that will dictate when I’m financially independent.

    Keep up the great work!

    Best wishes.

    1. MFIJ says:

      A correction would be great, but I’ll just deal with whatever the market gives me. https://myfijourney.com/wp-admin/edit-comments.php?paged=2#comments-form

  5. Justin says:

    That’s a pretty nice portfolio. I’m really shocked that you have found time to manage so many stocks and continue blogging.
    I’m kind of hoping for a nice correction to occur around the time we pay off our debt, that’s when I plan on throwing that money into a Roth.

    1. MFIJ says:

      It helps that I blog about personal finance and investing. The blog makes a great excuse to go research stocks and other finance related issues. If I was blogging about horse racing or Apple products it would be a lot harder.

  6. Pauline says:

    impressive only one stock is negative at the moment. Your gain/loss is from the day you bought or the value on a certain date? 90% return on GPC is for how long of holding the stock? Also, why do you need a 35K emergency fund for? From your returns you would be missing out on at least $100/month by keeping that much cash.

    1. MFIJ says:

      The gain/loss is calculated from the cost-basis at the time of purchase.

      A 35K emergency fund would cover my expenses for a year if I lost my job. Given the economy and the general state of my industry, I don’t anticipate easily landing another job if I’m laid off.

  7. Anton Ivanov says:

    Just curious – do you maintain your historical portfolio returns? I would be interested in your annualized return since inception (or at least on a yearly basis) to be able to compare it to a benchmark.

    The bulk of my portfolio is in index funds, but I maintain about 30% for individual stock and target fund investments (my opportunity investments). I have outperformed US stocks by about 5% annually since 2008 and world stocks by about 8%.

    1. MFIJ says:

      The best that I’ve done so far is reflected in this post. I hope to update it again at the end of the year. It only reflects capital appreciation of my dividend growth portfolio. My options and dividends aren’t included.

      1. Anton Ivanov says:

        Thanks! I posted under that article.

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