Well, I didn’t intend to go this long in-between posts. We have had a very busy month! On top of that I had some issues with the website that are still being worked out. Then I tried to change our plan and that really messed everything up.

If things look a little different that would be because the website reverted back to our 2022 data. I have been slowing rebuilding it as time allows, but it’s a frustrating and time consuming task. Yes, I had a backup which would have been perfect if I had access to it. It’s a long story.

As I said it was a busy month. We decided to take a road trip back behind the iron curtain of stupidity and visit family in California. In perfect RVF fashion we planned our trip and then a war broke out in the middle east. Gas prices soared just in time for us to hit the road.

For Texans that means prices going from $2.35 to $3.65 per gallon. It stinks, but it’s not horrible or a big deal. In California that means you are happy to find gas for $5.50 per gallon because the state is run by morons.

Thankfully we rented a little Nissan Sentra which averaged 37 MPG. I was able to time it so we only had to fill up the tank one time in California. That little car took us from just outside of Tucson all the way to San Diego on a single tank of gas!

When it was time to go home I only had to top off about a quarter of a tank. Then I ran it all the way back to Tucson. It reminded me of the old days when we would fill up our RV in Las Vegas just to avoid paying for diesel in California.

On the home front, we have several projects ongoing. I started building a little water runoff using rocks from our property. The project is about 3/4 done. It’s hard work and slow going moving all of those rocks. Now snake season is upon us so it’s time to be a lot more careful moving any rocks.

Additionally, we are entering peak gardening season. Onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes and peppers are all in the ground. Can’t wait for some fresh homegrown food!

In our 2025 Financial Wrap Up blog we revealed that we started looking at RV’s. We have a huge desire to get on the road again. That desire has only grown after visiting with almost all of our RV friends over the last few months. The process is ongoing, but it hasn’t been productive.

We really don’t want to purchase a new RV. They are great, but they also come with factory problems and frustration. Not to mention massive depreciation off the lot.

Because of this we have been looking at used RV’s. So far nothing has caught our eye or met our expectations. Everything is either overpriced or looks beat to hell. This might be a much longer process than we had hoped.

On the financial front we had a strong start to the year. Our net worth was just a $1,000 away from hitting $1.9M before the war and ensuing market correction. Hopefully we see a bounce back to those levels and beyond for the rest of the year.

There is something new to report on the financial side. I had been tinkering with options trading on a paper money account for some time now. It was kind of fun so in February I decided to go live and see what I could do.

We have a good amount of cash that is sitting in money market accounts. This cash earns about 3.5% which isn’t horrible, but it also isn’t great. That rate equates to just under $60 per month in interest.

My goal was to sell cash secured puts using that cash as collateral. Any premium income would be in addition to that 3.5% since the money is held but not withdrawn. That is unless the shares are assigned.

If I were to get shares assigned I would simply flip them by selling covered calls. That would allow me to collect premium and a little stock price appreciation until the shares are called away. So how has it gone?

February was a partial month and I tiptoed into the shallow end of the pool. Despite starting towards the middle of the month and being conservative I netted $113 in premium income.

Think about that for a minute. I made almost double the money market interest rate while taking almost no risk in half the time! Instead of just $60 in interest I walked away with $175! Good start!

In March I got a little more aggressive and put more money to work. Again I only sold cash secured puts and ended the month netting $485 in options premium!

Yeah, that’s 8x on top of the monthly money market interest earned! Now we are cooking!

April has been a little different. For the first time I had shares assigned after a rough week. I was actually excited because it finally gave me a chance to play the other side of the table and sell some covered calls.

It didn’t take long for that to be profitable as well. In fact, all of those positions are already closed out. I could have rolled the options and held the shares longer, but I was happy to take my profit and start anew on my cash secured put strategy.

As of this writing I am already sitting at just under $500 in net options premium for April. Add to that another $200 in stock appreciation for the shares that got called away. That’s $700 in 11 days!

$1,300 in a two months?! Yeah, I think I’m going to stick with this for awhile!

For some perspective on how huge this is I have included my tracker.

So far I have taken 14 positions requiring $41k in capital. I’ve held each position for just 11 days on average.

If I stopped today and did nothing else I would be up 2.65% for the year on my capital investment. That’s on top of the 3.5% I get in the money market for doing nothing.

If I can repeat what I have already done for an entire calendar year it equates to a 6.05% return on top of the 3.5% for, again, doing nothing.

However, there is another interesting take ok this. I have only held these positions for 11 days on average. What if I can repeat the same results consistently? There are 33 11 day periods in a year if you break it down. That the last column tells the story. I would say that is a huge return for the amount of time and money being invested!

Ok, probably not realistic to say the least. But, I’m on the right track.

Needless to say, I am very happy with how this is going. The purpose over this is to put money to work and juice the returns on cash being held. I don’t expect to, nor am I trying to, get rich(er) on options trading. I am only using two basic and relatively safe entry level strategies and the capital available to me.

There are a lot of complex and risky ways to trade options and make a lot of money. You can also lose a lot of money, very fast. I didn’t work this hard this long to take that big of a risk at 50 years old. In this case I will be happy staying at the beginner level and pocketing a few hundred dollars a month for my limited efforts.

Don’t try this at home. Or do, just learn about the risks first.

Let’s see those Q1 numbers!

Our Portfolio Quarter Ending March 31, 2026:

Portfolio Value = $1,574,183

Portfolio Decreased By $53,112 or 3.26% From The End of 2025

Net Worth = $1,803,833

Net Worth Decreased By $53,161 or 2.86% From The End Of 2025

The market started the year on a high note, but all of those gains were erased and then some. A war and an election year is going to keep making things interesting.

We were so close to crossing the $1.9M mark before the markets corrected. I think it’s just a matter of time before that happens this year anyway. Of course, I would absolutely love seeing a $2M print in 2026. Talk about a huge milestone!

As of this writing things seem to be turning around so we will hopefully still see some nice returns this year. Getting a new FED chairman will also help. Powell is more interested in politics and burning an extra billion of our money on his pet project than helping the American people and our economy. I will be a good day when he is gone.

One more thing to add before we go.

At the end of last year we wanted to diversify our portfolio since we were at about 95% equities. I made some adjustments which put us at an allocation of about 85/10/5. Unfortunately, that’s about where we still sit.

I only need to move another 5 or 10 percent to get where I want to be. Psychologically it has been tough for me to pull the trigger for some reason. When the markets were doing well I kept putting it off. Now they are down so I have put it off once again.

Very amateurish, but it is what it is. We will get there eventually. It really should be a priority at our age and already being retired. Market downturns have always been an opportunity to me and I don’t really care when they happen. At this point it probably should care more given our circumstances.

That about does it for this update. I will be putting together an update on our dividend portfolio soon. That portfolio was rocking until the downturn happened. It’s still running nice and steady during this time.

Until then thank you for sticking with us and taking time to catch up.

Happy Investing!

Joe 

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