Tuesday, August 20, 2013

August 2013 update ($260,290 +$1,500 or + 0.6%)


 The portfolio changes:
↑ Accumulated additional 3,500 USD as part of recreating my Emergency fund.
↑ Precious metals grew by 70 USD
↑ GBP vs. USD exchange rate went up, brought additional 200 USD
Grand total additions:  3,770 USD

↓ Vanguard Energy ETF down by  810 USD
↓ Vanguard 500 Index down by 200 USD
↓ Company shares are down by 460 USD
↓ Rosneft shares are down by 800 USD
Grand total losses are 2,270 USD

 Observations:
- Despite re-investing company shares (number grew by 4 to 264), overall value dropped.
- In 2010 money value of my nest egg is $ 230 K or roughly 3.8 annual expenses. I expect to boost this number to 4.1 times by end of the year.
- I think I am already quite heavily exposed to Energy Sector, need to diversify either to S&P 500 or other sectors. The challenge is that with diversification into ETF…it is average risk and the same level of performance.
- The only way forward is to figure out how to contribute more towards financial independence.

2 comments:

  1. You're doing really well :) Diversification doesn't just have to be in stocks either, you can think about alternative investments like land, hedge funds, commodities, etc. I think you can hit your 4.1 times expense goal for sure and end the year with about $280,000.

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  2. Hi Liquid,

    Thank you so much for stopping by. Road to financial independence is not always a straight line, so I am pushing as much as I can, while there is an opportunity to do so. I want it so badly to achieve it and understand what does it mean for me.

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