In 2013 to date, I’ve decided to do a bit of rebalancing to my portfolio. I really have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to portfolio management, but trying my best to keep my cost ratios down, keep dividend-paying stocks in my retirement accounts (not doing the best at this), and be smartly diversified.
The good news so far is that I’m still “up” this year, but I haven’t effectively ridden up the stock market boom as too much of my portfolio was tied to AAPL, which, as anyone following the stock market knows, is down to under $400 from its high of $700 a share. Should have sold when it was $700 a share and I owned 100 shares, but what can you do if you’re not psychic?
TAXABLE ACCOUNT H1 2013 (TOTAL $65.2k)
BUY — F: continued to purchase Ford stock (should have bought more when it was under $10)
BUY — WFM: bought some more shares, not sure if this is a good move
BUY — HYG: bought about 26 shares
SELL — APPL 53 shares. I was overweight in AAPL and despite their future prospects the volatility was killing my portfolio. First sold some to pay for my car and then decided to sell more. If I understood shorting and calls and puts there might have been a better strategy there than selling the shares, but I’m trying to keep it simple and 103 shares were too many to own out of a $200k portfolio.
SELL — INTC sold all my shares of intel. Trying to diversify out of tech, and took a loss on them to offset apple gains.
HYG — sold the 26 shares I bought earlier in the year to afford the car. Shouldn’t have bought them in the first place.
ROTH IRA #1 (Total $11.1k)
BUY – VTI, 25 shares
BUY – VYM, 42 shares
BUY – XRT – 10 shares
ROTH IRA #2 – VANGUARD ACCOUNT ($23.3k)
No Change
TRADITIONAL IRA ($12.7k)
No change. Went with the ROTH this year.
401k #1 ($39.3k)
No matching from my company, but have maxed it out for the second year in a row. Happy to have done this early so as long as I keep my job the rest of this year I’ll see a higher monthly paycheck until Jan 1.
401k #2 ($22.9k)
No Change, should consolidate my retirement accounts at some point. If I go to a grad program or travel the world for a year this is a good time to convert everything to a Roth.
Then I have other funds like my Vanguard Index fund I bought a long time ago directly from Vanguard, my 529 plan I started for grad school or my future children (though I stopped investing in that a while ago and it just has $3683 in it, enough for textbooks maybe.) And, of course, my company stock which I exercised for $20k plus loan interest… which may or may not be worth anything. I like to pretend that my shares will one day be worth $5 a piece so I’ll have over $1M in networth, ideally before 35. It could happen, but still a very long shot. Those shares could also very well be worth nothing, which means $20k down the drain. Stock options, esp ones you’ve exercised early, really mess with your brain.)
