Portfolio Update: July 2019

July was awesome! I had a three week break from work and the weather cooperated beautifully. And because I had refrained from planning any trips I could submerge myself in vacation bliss from the very first moment after leaving the office. No suitcases to pack, no rushing to airports, standing in line at check-in counters …

Portfolio Update: June 2019

Scandinavia isn't particularly known for its long and hot summers, but recent summers have been on fire. As a figure of speech. And literally. Half of Sweden was suffering from raging forest fires last year, as it was scorching hot for months on end. Luckily this years summer is a bit more modest temperature wise …

Time-Weighted Return

I've been struggling a bit with keeping track of the performance of my portfolio and specific assets and asset classes that I own. I am not an accountant. My initial approach to measuring performance was to take the difference between current portfolio or holding value (V), subtract the amount I invested (I) and divide the …

Portfolio Update: May 2019

June has arrived, so it is time for another portfolio update. May passed extremely quickly as far as I am concerned, mainly because I had a break from work, visited family in my native Holland, went on a road trip with my brother and lost track of time. More about that later. During May I …

Investing: Embracing The Uncertainty

The other day I read 'the best investors are those with the patience and the perspective to do the opposite of what the masses are doing'. I've invested nearly all my invest-able money in one particular stock (my company's). The masses would never do that. The masses diversify. Now, it didn't only say 'those who …

Portfolio Update: April 2019

Time passes with the same speed as it always does. It only seems to slow down or speed up, depending on your frame of reference. Like when we say that time suddenly stood still. A figure of speech that we use when we are intensely focused on one particular event or moment. As in 'when …

Portfolio Update: March 2019

Awesome, spring has arrived! It's April Fools day and once again time for portfolio update. Exciting stuff right? To be honest, it was rather uneventful, which is not a bad thing. There were no major ups or downs and my company stock is a slight 1,5% up compared to last month. But up is up …

Portfolio Update: February 2019

No! Is it March already?! What happened to February? That's how I feel. February is a few days shorter than other months, but what made the difference is that last month was so utterly uneventful - from an investment perspective that is. Well for me it was. January was about recovery, February about...well...further recovery. Everything …

Portfolio Update: January 2019

Time flies when you are having fun! We're in February already; Time to look back again. The days are still depressingly short and my town flirts with freezing low temperatures, but we're in much calmer waters as far as the financial markets are concerned. The volatile and rather stress-inducing see-sawing that we witnessed in the …

Portfolio Update: December 2018

We've reached January 2019. Happy New Year to you all! Most people look ahead and make New Year resolutions. You know, quit smoking, quit drinking whiskey when you are alone and depressed (never!). For me however it's time to look back again and assess the previous month for yet another portfolio update. December was chaotic. …

Portfolio Update: November 2018

We've reached December so it's time to look back again, time for yet another portfolio update. It's amazing how fast November has passed. That's a bit of a cliche, but it's like I published my last update only days ago. Yet here we are: Another month has gone by. October was gruesome. Well, that's perhaps …

Why Invest In Index Funds?

Investing isn't my second nature and I am scrambling up a steep learning curve to master the fundamentals. I sometimes feel like an inexperienced mountain climber who just realized he is afraid of heights while hanging off a cliff. The good news? While a mountaineer has little tolerance for mistakes, I can afford them. More …

Early Retirement: Could A Bad Sequence Of Returns Annihilate Your Portfolio?

You had done all the right calculations. At least that's what you thought. And according to the math the accumulated invested capital was exactly what you needed to bridge the years from your early retirement until full pension age. Even the average return was very close to what you had used in your formula's. But …

Portfolio Update: October 2018

We've reached November so it's time for a portfolio update, look at what has happened during October and reveal my plans for the upcoming period. October has been a very exciting month. It was brutal for equities, with the S&P, Dow and Nasdaq all dropping significantly and with high volatility for the company stock that …

Diversifying My Portfolio: Yea or Nay?

Don't have all your eggs in the same basket. That's the saying. Don't base your hopes for a financially independent future on one particular asset. It's a sure-fire (!) way to lose everything you have ever saved. It will crush your dreams and hopes for early retirement. Not good! A diversified portfolio makes you less vulnerable …