October 2022 Financial Update

Greetings from Arizona where we have settled amongst the snowbirds and will be riding out the fall and winter months in the warm desert sun.

In addition to being in a warm location we have started our largest work-camper assignment to date. We made a 5 month commitment at an extremely large RV/Mobile home resort. This is a 55+ resort and by the time December rolls around there will be approximately 3,000 people on site. Our job is in the entertainment / activities department and let me tell you this place has a lot going on and it gets very busy.

Our job involves everything from serving coffee and donuts to residents in the morning to setting up and decorating the entertainment halls for parties or headliner events. The calendar is jam packed every day of the week so we always have something going on. The best part is that we will typically only work 2 or 3 days a week and since we are considered residents we will get to enjoy all of the amenities and events too. And if we work ticketed events we get to enjoy the shows for free so we are hoping to get scheduled for some of the bands and headline events on the schedule.

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September 2022 Financial Update

Another month down, literally, and we are heading into the 4th quarter of what has been a miserable year for the markets. The questions is, when will this pain end?

Since our last update we have relocated from our beautiful spot in Tennessee to an amazing lake front spot in Oklahoma. This location has quickly become one of our favorite destinations since hitting the road. We have a pull-in spot and everyday when we open the shades we look out at the lake and enjoy the views and the wildlife. This year has been a disaster financially, but being able to live this life and wake up to these views and scenery almost everywhere we go has made these tough times much more bearable.

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Dividend Portfolio Update

It’s been a little over two months since we last provided an update on our dividend portfolio and there have been some interesting, and not so good, developments since then.

Obviously the markets have been going through quite a rough patch, to put it mildly, over the last two months. The result is that our portfolio has taken a little bit of a hit on the top line number. On the bright side it represents chance to add some shares to our holdings at a lower price. It can be hard to watch and difficult to stomach some of these roller coaster days, but we have to keep the big picture in mind.

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August 2022 Financial Update

That didn’t last long!

In our last update we said it was nice to see a positive month. But we also cautioned that we should not get ahead of ourselves and expect it to continue. This turned out to be a good call as one can never underestimate the power of incompetent government lifers to further screw things up and cause more turmoil.

Additionally, in our last update we questioned Mr. Fed Chairman’s rational for saying that he believes interest rates, currently at 2.5%, are now at neutral and neither helping or hurting the economy when their own preferred inflation gauge clocked in at 4.8%. And that’s after stripping out food and energy which puts inflation at a disturbing 6.8%. As has become customary with our esteemed and incompetent fed chairman he and his cronies had to spend a lot of time walking back that idiotic comment over the last month. Much like they had to do with the transitory inflation hoax they perpetuated for over a year to justify not doing their job.

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July 2022 Financial Update

Don’t call it a comeback…………………

Another month in the books and market conditions improved, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start celebrating the return of the bulls. Sure, it was nice to see the markets move up for once. And they moved up in a significant manner as well. However, we are not even close to being out of the woods on inflation and our economy is slowing down.

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Dividend Portfolio Update

Since our last dividend portfolio update the markets have continued their roller coaster ride. I won’t go into my opinion on the current state of our government as I aired my frustrations in our last blog. You can find my take here if you’re curious or want a recap.

While there isn’t anything we can do about the economy, there are things we can do to set ourselves up for long term success. Now is not the time to panic and sell your positions as that will only turn paper losses into realized losses. It can be hard to stomach this type of volatility, but having been through this several times before we know things will turn around eventually. So while we wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way we can take advantage of this opportunity to dollar cost average current positions and/or add new positions at a nice discount.

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June 2022 Financial Update

Well, here we go again! It seems that there is no end in sight for the market volatility that has plagued us this year. And rightfully so, as this is the result of the fed failing to do it’s job and our government leadership being grossly incompetent.

This isn’t to say we are not long overdue for a correction or even a recession, because we are. However the runaway inflation freight train, which is the worst part of this whole economic disaster, was 1) mostly avoidable and 2) could have been tempered with an economic strategy based on facts and data followed by doing what’s best for our country and our economy.

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