January 1: $586,043
February 1: $587,134
Gain: $1,091
January was an awesome month for the markets. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 both gained over 5%. Spectacular! However, the 1500 Portfolio barely moved. Craptacular!!
If you read my post a couple weeks back, you know my irrational exuberance for Apple is what did me in. Apple was 532 on 1/1 and 455 on 1/31. That’s a drop of $82. I own 350 shares, so just this one investment dragged my portfolio down $28,700. Uggggh.
While Apple’s fall was breathtaking, I stayed put for a couple of reasons. I think the market overreacted a bit. I expect the stock price will recover, although we may not see $700 (Apple’s all time high) for a very long time. I’m also in a bit of a holding pattern now with my finances. We’ll be moving soon and hope to buy rental property as well as a primary residence. I do understand the need to seriously pare down my Apple cart though and will do so before the end of the year.
1500 days comes out to 50 months. So, at this point, month 1, I’m just 2% into this experiment. One battle does not win the war and there is lots of time to recover.
My goal of 672K by the end of the 2013 just got a little harder, but I’m a perpetual optimist and like a challenge. Bring it on!
Optimism and a long-term perspective! No need to stress over January 🙂 For all we know, Apple is about to unveil another incredible something in the next few months and the stock price will jump big-time. Here’s hoping, right?
Hi Mrs. Herb!
Thanks for the words of encouragement! I think Apple still has some tricks up it’s sleeve (iTV, come one!). We shall see.
Mrs. 1500 loves to cook, so I directed her over your little slice of the Internet. Very nice blog. Only problem is that is making me extremely hungry (the chocolate chip dip is about to make me lose my mind).
Thanks for reading and say ‘Hi!’ to Powell’s for me!
Powell’s?
Thanks for stopping by – I have the same problem of making myself hungry while blogging 🙂 It’s best to blog on a full stomach!
“Powell’s”
I’m sorry, I saw Portland and automatically assumed the Oregon version. They have an awesome bookstore there called Powell’s. Dumb me for making an assumption. That pizza in your Portland looks awesome though.
“It’s best to blog on a full stomach!”
Ha, yes! No more stopping by herbonherbs.com unless I’ve recently eaten.
Mrs. 1500 is always looking for fun recipes to make with our young girls. Your chicken roll ups and baked spaghetti are both on the list.
Ah, okay! Yeah, we recently visited Portland, Maine. We’ve not made it to the West coast, though we hope to travel to Portland, Oregon in the future!
We actually live in Tennessee 🙂
Hope you enjoy the recipes!