Apple was kind enough to give me a 4% raise. Another welcome increase with all of the volatility in the market lately. I updated the dividend payout numbers on the Assets page for not just for AAPL, but for the funds (DIVO, JEPI, PEY, SPHD, BND, etc.) as well. JEPI seems to pay well when the market is volatile. NVDY had a noticeable decrease in its payout. It was time to end the YieldMax experiment and so I sold all of NVDY today. I about doubled my money, but I would have done better investing in a real company with real value. I lost the principal I reinvested by a decent margin.
This is all in line with cleaning up my portfolio and shoring up my positions. I added to RGLD and CL – materials and health care. I also added to SCHD and PEY. PEY does have a high expense ratio but it has a decent amount invested in sectors that I don’t. There is some volatility month to month with funds versus individual companies that pay steady dividends, but I don’t think I will lose out greatly with the funds I’ve selected. I imagine they will remain fairly consistent and continue to increase, but I do want to keep investing in individual companies that allow me to plan how much income I’ll receive each month. Taxes are also a consideration.
The only two holdings I have left that give me pause are GOF and BST. When I invested in them I thought I was doing well because of their history, but there are many other factors to consider and I just don’t know if they are sustainable. I may maintain the approach to hold and drip them since they are a small part of my portfolio (less than 3% each). Perhaps only selling if they cut the dividend. But perhaps it would be smarter to just sell now and reinvest in companies that I know will grow their dividends. Or maybe find a middle ground like I did with NVDY where I reached a certain monthly payout and didn’t dip below $100 a month in dividends before I divested.
I did invest in cryptocurrency that pays interest. As of right now I haven’t added this to the Asset page yet because I’m figuring out how to best account for it, but that is coming soon. As I mentioned in my last post, I know roughly what categories of assets and sectors I need to contribute to in order to diversify and a small exposure to cryptocurrency seems okay for now.
In any case, it’s all something to consider while I work toward better diversifying my entire portfolio (and growing it).