I finally have a little window of time to catch up before we hit the road once again. Welcome to our belated Q3 2026 Financial Update blog!
The last month has been completely insane! After leaving Texas we headed to Southern Utah to visit family. We decided to stay at an RV park we always wanted to visit but never had the opportunity to. The plan was to stay there for a week and then head to Washington to see our son and help him move into his new house. We were really hoping to make it through Thanksgiving before the cold weather forced us to head south.
However, as I mentioned in our last blog, we changed plans because of weather concerns through the mountain passes. So instead we decided to book a full month in Southern Utah and make a rental car road trip up to Washington. Turns out the crazy weather decided to stay with us in Utah and luckily we dodged a bullet.
After enjoying a wonderful week we were going to just extend our stay in the same location because it was perfect. My only concern was that we were going to be gone for a couple of weeks when we went to Washington and it was supposed to be colder during that time. Ultimately, we decided to move about 15 miles south where we didn’t have to be worried about temps hitting freezing while we were gone. It was a little disappointing, but it’s always better to play it safe when you live in an RV. With that, we moved down to an RV park that we are very familiar with as we had stayed here for a long period of time previously.
Now you might have seen the news, but just a few days later there were torrential rains in Southern Utah. The crazy part is that the RV park we had just left was evacuated when a shipping container washed downstream in the flood water and smashed right through the retaining wall. This allowed the flood water to overrun the RV park and a full evacuation ensued. On the local news they literally showed the spot we had just left a few days earlier and it was under water.
As I said, we really dodged a bullet. This adventure could have been over with before it even got started. It was like déjà vu from 2021.
If you’ve been with us for a while y’all know the story. When we were just getting started on the road in 2021 someone hit our RV just 30 minutes into our drive. Instead of a fun adventure we had to live in a bodyshop parking lot for weeks while repairs were made. You can read all about that here if you like.
So after all of that we finally made our rental car road trip to Washington. We had a great time and it was exciting to help our son move into his new house. Most importantly we made it back safe and sound.
Now we have been able to enjoy a full week to relax and get caught up before heading a little further south. Next up is another month long stay in Las Vegas.
Vegas is not exactly where we wanted to go next, but we really didn’t want to drive into California. It’s expensive also the wrong direction to get us where we plan on going after Las Vegas. So staying in Vegas is close enough that we can visit family over the holiday and continue on the same path we would like to travel afterwords. Plus there is no shortage of things to do in Las Vegas and we have stayed there many times before.
As for the financial markets, it’s just your regular election year volatility with a side of AI paranoia and geopolitical mania. I’m not going to get into the whole political nonsense. As I said before I’m just sick and tired of all of it.
Now that the election is over the volatility should start to subside a little. I know people are paranoid about the election results, but in the end this will probably be something the markets love. Complete gridlock where neither side can do anything to screw things up more is usually a plus for the markets. There will be completely moronic things coming out of the Congress and there will be a brick wall in the White House blocking everything with the veto pen.
Between these results and oil returning to more manageable levels the markets should start to stabilize and turn attention back to what really matters. Earnings, forward guidance and valuations.
I know, I didn’t mention inflation. Lower oil prices and the fed raising rates will take care of that problem. Well, lower oil prices will take care of most of the problem as we have already seen before. The Fed will do what they always do which is try to fix a supply-side issue by killing demand.
The problem isn’t that interest rates are too low. The problem is that we have an international supply shortage of oil and diesel fuel in addition to shipping costs increasing due to the war. Last I checked, raising interest rates doesn’t help get oil out of the ground, doesn’t lower transportation costs on cargo, doesn’t create more refining capacity and it sure as hell will not put an end to a war.
It will however raise the overall amount of money every day people pay for goods and services. Regular working people will now pay more for anything they do on credit. God help you if you have a variable-rate mortgage. It’s almost as if raising rates is inflationary in and of itself. Who would have thought!
But that’s ok I guess. I mean, it’s just the lower and middle class working people who need to use credit to live their lives that get screwed. Everyone else will be fine. Ladies and gentlemen, your federal government at work!
The only question in my mind is does the Fed eventually cause a recession or not. History says the Fed always overshoots. I have been hopeful that Warsh was going to be different then the last dope, but that hope is treading water at this point. Only time will tell.
Our Portfolio Quarter Ending September 30, 2026:
Portfolio Value = $1,715,374
Portfolio Decreased By $10,693 or 0.62% From Q2 Ending 6/30/2026
Portfolio YTD Change = +$88,078 or 5.41%
Net Worth = $1,998,952
Net Worth Decreased By $16,885 or 0.83% From Q2 Ending 6/30/2026
Net Worth YTD Change = +$141,957 or 7.64%
The 3rd quarter was really a big volatile nothing burger for our portfolio. July was essentially flat, August we were up a fair amount and then we gave it all back in September. The result was a decrease of just over a half percent which is nothing to crow about one way or the other.
Really the only thing that kinda sucks is that our net worth dropped back below $2M. But, if that’s the least of my worries I think I will survive.
With the sale of our home now completely in the rearview there will be some significant changes to our portfolio numbers as we move into Q4. Now that all is said and done we are sitting on a pile of cash. Going forward this cash will be reflected in our portfolio total as it will be earning a good amount of interest each month.
We are not putting that money at risk in any way. Our plan for that cash is to maximize interest returns and build up that fund as long as we are on the road. When the day comes that we decide to purchase another home we will be sitting pretty and putting ourselves in a good position to succeed. Until then our portfolio numbers will closely relate to our net worth number as the only hard assets we currently have are our RV and our Jeep.
We are getting back into the swing of full-time life on the road. We have a good idea of what we will be doing over the next couple of months to get us through the rest of 2026. We are kicking around a few routes and places we would like to visit in 2027, but we are not setting anything in stone.
The nice thing is that we have enough flexibility that we can wait until the middle or end of December before worrying about what comes next. Until then we are going to visit family and friends where we can and most of all enjoy the freedom we have living this lifestyle.
That about does it for this update. Thank you as always for taking time to read our blog. We look forward to sharing more as we get this ball rolling.
Happy Trails…..
Joe
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