May Financial Update: My First "Bad" Month of 2019 and Why it Doesn't Bother Me.
It finally happened. My first "bad" month of 2019 has happened. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this position, with the S&P 500 declining over 6.5% during the month of May. Just about all of my investments declined in value during May, but I'm not stressing too much. In fact, in some ways I'm a little excited by the recent market declines. Why is that? Let's take a look at the past month and find out!
Comparison
A quick look at a comparison of my financials from April to May shows a lot of red, which is different from the other months this year so far. My cash is down big, my investments are down - in fact, all my asset categories declined during the month. The lone bright spot was a decrease in my liabilities of over 6% since April, but even with that, my net worth decreased nearly 2%, my first month over month decrease since I've begun tracking on the blog.
However, it's not all as bad as it looks. Sure, the value of my investments took a pretty significant hit, but I see this as an opportunity to buy some quality companies "on sale". With yields inflated due to the decrease in stock prices across the board, I made purchases of $4,300, not including my automatic 401(k) and HSA contributions. This was the main cause of my decrease in cash position over the month, and added over $100 to my forward income. These purchases had an average yield of approximately 2.33% - not insanely high, but not bad considering a large portion were index funds and even a couple non-dividend-yielding purchases (crazy, right?).
So while I'm not necessarily happy that the market has been so volatile lately, I see this as a great opportunity to grab some high yields at a discount, and bring myself closer to my goal of $3,750 in forward dividend income by the end of the year.
How has your month gone? Do you see the bright side of the recent market turbulence? Or are you staying on the sidelines until there's a little more certainty? I would love to hear what you think!
Comparison
A quick look at a comparison of my financials from April to May shows a lot of red, which is different from the other months this year so far. My cash is down big, my investments are down - in fact, all my asset categories declined during the month. The lone bright spot was a decrease in my liabilities of over 6% since April, but even with that, my net worth decreased nearly 2%, my first month over month decrease since I've begun tracking on the blog.
However, it's not all as bad as it looks. Sure, the value of my investments took a pretty significant hit, but I see this as an opportunity to buy some quality companies "on sale". With yields inflated due to the decrease in stock prices across the board, I made purchases of $4,300, not including my automatic 401(k) and HSA contributions. This was the main cause of my decrease in cash position over the month, and added over $100 to my forward income. These purchases had an average yield of approximately 2.33% - not insanely high, but not bad considering a large portion were index funds and even a couple non-dividend-yielding purchases (crazy, right?).
So while I'm not necessarily happy that the market has been so volatile lately, I see this as a great opportunity to grab some high yields at a discount, and bring myself closer to my goal of $3,750 in forward dividend income by the end of the year.
How has your month gone? Do you see the bright side of the recent market turbulence? Or are you staying on the sidelines until there's a little more certainty? I would love to hear what you think!
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