This is late.
In March, our net worth rose by 2.83% and 3.38% to $124,495 and €111,555 respectively.
Long story short: the stock market rallied in March, and my positions were brought along for the ride. I also sold off some of the camera stuff that I mentioned in February, which brought in some cash.
Here's my portfolio at the end of March:
A few notes:
- Berkshire Hathaway has grown into the largest position in the portfolio, overtaking my tax advantaged IRAs. Berkshire has done very well this year, and it's helped bolster the portfolio against some of the volatility.
- My tax advantaged accounts are still in a money market fund since the Vanguard Total World Stock Index is still below its 10 week moving average.
- A lot of positions are in significant drawdowns from their previous highs.
Do I Want to Keep Picking Stocks?
With all that, I'm considering whether I want to keep picking stocks. I devote a lot of time to this practice, and the results I get are - thus far at least - fine. Not disastrous. Not brilliant. I've basically performed as well as VT has over the past few years, while also spending a lot more time on the project.
At the same time, I have other activities I'd much rather be doing. I have a side hustle I'd like to build up. I'd like to spend more time developing my "hopes and dreams" career. When I listen to podcasts, they're usually investing podcasts. When I do research, it's often stock research. What if I could get rid of those activities and just focus on the stuff that truly brings me joy?
But then I remember I'm an expat and I'd be signing up for tax and reporting hassles. Doesn't mean I won't change this up at some point, but a decision that I could just choose were I living in the US is much more complicated.
This is the dilemma faced by American expats in Europe. I kind of want to get off this train, but the alternative is misrepresenting my actual address to a US brokerage and putting a lot of my assets in it in order to have access to US ETFs. I'm not comfortable with that, but I'm getting tired of waking up and thinking about or worrying about stocks and stock prices and trying to determine where I should put my money every month. I could just buy a few ETFs and be done with it, but then I'd be creating my own tax data and all that crap.
This is stupid. This is all so stupid, and these governments can't be bothered to actually fix the problem for us.
April Outlook
Well, April is almost over, so I have a good idea what's up.
My stocks have performed badly, but basically in line with the overall market.
We've spent some money on travel. We likely won't save much because of it. There's a family medical emergency in the US my wife is attending to, and that kind of stuff supersedes stock investments.
I've made a little money on the side, but I've also spent a good amount, so it's kind of a wash. On the whole, this camera switch has been expensive.
I also went to France for a weekend on someone else's dime. But it felt dishonorable to rely on their money the whole time, so I paid for some of it myself.
Until next time. Stay healthy, save what you can, and remember that your relationships are wealth.
