Tag: personal finance

June 2023 Financial Update

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We will keep this months financial update relatively short as the writing mood is just not in us at this time. As we wrap up our stay in Montana and head to South Dakota we will be doing so with heavy hearts. If you follow us in social media you know by now that we lost our travel buddy Murphy unexpectedly this month.

The loss has brought down our enthusiasm levels considerably and driving away from here without him is going to be extremely difficult. We know that time will heal our hearts and our adventure will go on. But an important and loving part of our lives for the last 13+ years will be missing as we go forward.

So long little buddy!

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June 2023 Dividend Portfolio Update

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It’s time for another dividend portfolio update! The month of June was a strong month for the stock market and not too shabby for our dividend portfolio. This was a welcome change from last month when we had the largest percentage loss ever for our portfolio.

While our largest holdings are still underperforming a few rebounded this month. Additionally, we had great action in some of our other holdings that helped to buoy our portfolio until those larger holdings regained some traction. One of the holdings that’s been on a tear is ABR, which was up over 15% the past month and 30% over the last 3 months.

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May 2023 Dividend Portfolio Update

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The month of May was pretty brutal for our little dividend portfolio. It seemed that everything we own was going in the wrong direction. As such, we took the biggest monthly hit we have ever had for this account. That’s how it goes sometimes. Maybe the month of June will be kind and give us a nice rebound. Looks like it’s off to a good start, but will it hold?

Looking at the performance of our dividend portfolio we see that our largest holdings like ABBV, JNJ, FRT and, our own personal anchor, MMM all suffered significant losses for the month. The good news is this gives us a nice buying opportunity for some stocks positions we haven’t added to in a long time. The bad news is we need cash in order to take advantage of this opportunity.

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What’s Our End Game?

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After being on the road and seeing the country it’s only natural to start asking questions. The biggest question that comes to mind is…. What’s our end game? We love being on the road, but it would be naive to think we can do this forever. Our family would certainly like to know the answer to this question. Some of them think we are crazy for living this way to begin with.

In hindsight, this is probably something we should have considered during the planning phase. But back then we were focused on getting to a better place in life. We have always known that our end game didn’t include staying in a high tax state like California. It was always just a matter of time before we moved somewhere else regardless.

In a way we are just doing what we do best, winging it!

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April 2023 Financial Update

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April went by in a flash and it feels like May is shaping up to do the same. Ever since we left Mesa we have been busy trying to get caught up on projects and hobbies while at the same time getting back to enjoying the things we love like hiking and sightseeing. And since we have family that lives close by we have to make sure we find time to visit and catch up while we can.

Over the last month it has been great to be out in the open air and enjoying nature again and we have tried to get out for a nice size hike at least once a week. The great part about being full-time in our RV is we get to enjoy things while everyone else is busy working and the kids are in school. Often times when we go on hike we are the only people around which allows us to enjoy the views and our surroundings undisturbed. That will begin to change over the next few months so we are trying to take advantage of it while we can. We are hoping to hit Zion National Park before it gets too crowded and we have to leave. It’s been awhile since we have been there and it has some of the best hiking!

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April 2023 Dividend Portfolio Update

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Time flies when you are having fun and feels like April was over before we could even get ourselves completely settled in and back on track.

As the markets struggled for direction so too did our dividend portfolio. At times it seemed like April was going to be a banner month as earnings overall were turning out somewhat better than expected. Then our account took a hit with the earnings release for Abbvie (ABBV) which is the largest position in our portfolio. The subsequent drop in the stock price was a bit odd as the numbers were actually pretty good, but the erosion in the sales of their flagship drug after losing patent protection was just too much and the stock sold off.

Over the last couple of trading days the markets rallied and ABBV recovered a small portion of the drop. Our portfolios roller coaster ride ended slightly in the positive for the month which we are always happy to see. Of concern going forward is the continued volatility, continued fed incompetence and yet another bank failure which could have further negative impact on the economy and the markets.

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Operation Enduring Mesa

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It’s no secret, we had a pretty miserable experience at our Fall/Winter work-camping gig. While we wanted to give more details throughout the months of frustration, we refrained from doing so on the off chance someone at the resort would run across our blog and it would make it’s way back to management thus causing more problems. Not that we really cared what they thought, but there were other people who were work-camping there too and it wouldn’t be fair to them if things went sideways even more because of our blog.

While it might sound like we are giving our little blog too much credit when it comes to exposure, it’s not hard to put two and two together and figure out who we are when we are at a campground. It’s happened before so it can happen again and there were about 3000 people at this resort so caution was warranted.

Prior to this gig we had only one other work-camping job and we absolutely loved it. In fact, we loved it so much we became lifelong friends with the owners of the campground and we talk to them all the time. They actually sold the campground they owned and are now full-time RV’ers too!

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