Another month in the books! We finished the month of March in the black marking our first positive month the year. But like most of you, we experienced our first negative quarterly returns in two years. At the lows we are nearly $175k in the hole so it was nice to see a recoverey albeit a small one. There is a long way to go just to get back to breakeven on the year, but that is really out of our hands so we will just take it one month at a time.
Given the current geopolitical environment and rising interest rates the chances of a rally to higher levels, similar to what we had in the last three quarters of 2020, seam to be slim to none. If things continue down this road the best outcome we can probably hope for is a breakeven too slightly positive year. Even that might even be a stretch.
This is not a political blog, and I hate to go on a rant here, but sometimes it’s necessary to talk about politics when circumstances are impacting people as a whole. That said, it is very alarming how our current group of politicians don’t seem have a grasp on how to deal with anything in an effective manner. They are either asleep at the wheel, living in an alternative universe or just plain incompetent. I’m leaning heavily towards option number three.
We have the fed who spent over a year hoping and praying with fingers and toes crossed that inflation was transitory despite the obvious signs it wasn’t. And now we have a geopolitical situation that is impacting everyone and everything, but the politicians would rather pander and push their ideological wish list instead of doing what’s practical. Shouldn’t they be choosing the best path forward to help the American people through this mess we find ourselves in? Isn’t that what a representative government is supposed to do?
Ignoring basic economics in order to push a political agenda is not progress, it’s stupidity. The laws of supply and demand do not care what letter a person has next to their name. When people go to the gas pump or to the grocery store they are not required to make a keypad entry for their political affiliation. We all get screwed the same, regardless of political leanings, when politicians are unwilling to make sound decisions that are not clouded by the desires of special interests and lunatics.
It didn’t have to be this way and those in the governnment know that. But they choose to put utopian dreams and partisian politics over what is best for the country anyway. That’s what happens when politicians are bought and paid for by special interest groups and no longer govern for the electorate. Now we all get to pay for those poor decisions. It’s a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in.
Here is how our portfolio performed in March 2022:
(Our original portfolio goal was $1.5m)
Portfolio = $1,539,425
Our Portfolio Increased By $25,388 or 1.68% From The End Of February
Year-To-Date Our Portfolio Has Decreased By -6.23%
Net Worth = $1,584,080
Our Net Worth Increased By $27,657 or 1.78% From The End Of February
Year-To-Date Our Net Worth Has Decreased By -5.83%
It was nice to finish a month in the positive for the first time this year. Looking forward it’s really hard to see a positive catalyst that would move the markets up, aside from an end to the war in Ukraine which would probably provide some sort of short term relief rally.
Our spending in March was much better than previous months as we didn’t have any annual expenses come due and we pretty much stuck to doing free adventures. We did have some unexpected expenses on the home front which is frustrating when you do everything you can to manage expenses. Getting hit with unintended repairs or needing to replace something is a part of this lifestyle and all you can do is deal with it and move on.
Here is how we did on our spending for March 2022:
Monthly Budget = $5,000
Total spend for March 2022 = $4,856
Over/Under Monthly Budget = +$144
Over/Under Budget YTD = -$1,298
Less Prepaid Site Fees = $1,081
Net Over/Under Budget = -$217
As you can see I decided to make a small adjustment to reporting our expense numbers. We are always looking for places to stay in the future and making plans. Having to prepay site fees is a part of our lifestyle that can hit in any month and in various amounts. As such they will always skew our numbers and unlike annual expenses such as insurance or registrations they are not represented clearly on our annual budget when we are booking a year in advance.
In an effort to give our readers a pure picture of our monthly expenses I decided to breakout prepaid site fees and provide a net over/under budget that excludes that amount. As we move to new locations that we have prepaid for we will draw the appropriate amount from the prepaid category and realize the expense in the proper month. This will smooth out the bumps and will also benefit our readers who are looking for financial insight on living this lifestyle. Call it pro-forma RV budgeting.
We managed to stay under budget for the first time this year although not by as much as we had hoped for. It was important for us to accomplish this in March knowing that the next couple of months will be well over budget with an annual insurance expenses coming due in April and splurging on a posh gulf coast resort for the month of May.
In April we plan to get out a little more and do more sightseeing. One of the things we always wanted to do is see a baseball game in every stadium. We will start that journey by seeing our first game outside of California towards the end of the month in Houston. Hopefully we can get to more games as we move across the country.
Thank you for reading our blog. Please leave a comments, questions and suggestions below. Also, make sure to follow us on social media for more updates on our adventures as they happen.
See you on the road………..
Joe
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