My Financial Independence Journey » Investment portfolio » Portfolio Status: March 2013
Portfolio Status: March 2013
Continuing with my goal of financial transparency, I’m posting my portfolio as it is at the beginning of March 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 March 1, 2013.
2013 Portfolio Value as of:
- January 1st: $91,567.06
- February 1st: $95,514.53
- March 1st: $99,743.57
I purchased one new stock this month, 28 shares of LMT. That, combined with the recent bull market means that my portfolio has increased in value by over $4,000.
In terms of dividends, I pulled in $265.11 in February of 2013.
2013 Monthly Dividends:
- January: $164.00
- February: $265.11
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: $8965.33
Portfolio as of March 1st, 2013:
Written by MFIJ
Filed under: Investment portfolio · Tags: Portfolio
16 Responses to "Portfolio Status: March 2013"
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Seems like you and Dividend Mantra will hit the $100k mark at almost the same time! You might already be there with the market up since March 1. You could probably reduce your emergency fund by the amount of dividends you expect to receive during the year…might not be a bad idea.
I think myself and Dividend Mantra started investing around the same time. I did pass $100K finally when the market nudged itself up. Now I guess it’s on to $200K.
I’ve been considering reducing the emergency fund by dividends received – maybe down to the point where I only have enough to buy a replacement car. I may also use it as part of a down payment on a house if I ever decide to buy one here.
Wow dude. How good is it going to feel to hit that $100k mark??
I actually wound up hitting $100K a few days after March 1st when the market finally lurched upwards. It felt pretty good.
Great job! Very motivational! =)
I’d love to hear more about the puts on your spreadsheet. Am I reading them correctly that you bought the puts, so now you have the right to sell INTC at $20 at any point before Jan 2014? Or did you sell the put and you’re holding the cash on the books?
If it’s the former, what’s your reasoning on booking the value at what you spent buying the puts if they are out of the money? Is it easy for you to sell these puts again at the price you paid for them?
Totally curious – we’ve never done options trading, but I find it very interesting.
Mrs. Pop,
I sold puts and must hold the cash on the books. The way cash-secured put options work is that by selling the option, I am giving someone else the right (but not the obligation) to force me to buy the stock at the agreed upon price (known as the strike price). I have to hold the cash in reserve in case the option is exercised, the put expires, or I buy it back.*
Actually you want to buy the put back at LESS than you paid for it, that way you can pocket the difference.
I’m going to do an entire series of posts on options trading in April, so keep an eye out for it.
(*) I don’t yet have privileges to sell naked puts through my broker. Once I can do that, this condition is waived.
I love reading this stuff: very educational for me. Great job by the way, in all of your financial goals!
Thanks. I’m glad you enjoy reading my blog. I’m planning a slew of how-to, introduction-to, and other tutorial style posts for the coming months. I hope you enjoy them.
Nicely done! We own many of the same stocks although I’m surprised you don’t own any PG or EMR? Those are dividend studs.
Keep up the good work,
Mark
Thanks. I’ve looked at PG and EMR before. But there was always either something else that was more attractive, or I didn’t have any money available. I should probably revisit them in the future and see if they’re attractively valued.
Congrats on your growth. $250-$300 a month in dividend income is great. Based on your comment on my site, you say you are on tract to retire in 10 years.
What type of dividend income do you think you get on what size portfolio? If you grow your portfolio at a fantastic rate of 20% a year for 10 years, you’ll get around $780,000-$1,000,000 based on contributions. A 3.5% dividend would be around $30,000 a year as a result. Is this in the ballpark for what you are aiming for?
Thx
Envelope math says I’ll have around a million dollars by the time I’m 45 (a bit over 10 years time). At my current expense level, I need to pull in ~$35000 a year to cover my expenses. Of course I could move back to one of the lower cost places where I used to live and live just as well on ~$24,000.
I’m expecting that my contributions to my investment account will increase a lot over the next 3 years as I finish building up my cash emergency fund and my long term incentive bonus kicks in.
That will be some great performance over 10 years. Hope you get there.
MFIJ, the numbers look good, but since the Dow is at its peak, do you plan on getting out of any of your positions? Great job, love the transparency!
I’m not planning on exiting any of my long positions. My intention to hold my stocks forever and let them keep cranking out the dividends, with the eventual goal of having enough dividend income to cover all of my expenses.
I exited my INTC put today. The stock wasn’t really gaining much since I sold it originally, and I’m not that interested in being assigned INTC stock at this moment. I think I have a large enough position. I’m thinking about exiting my NSC put soon as well. It’s had a great run, but looking at the numbers I might be better served by freeing up the cash and selling a new put.