Dividend Portfolio Update for June 2023

Halfway through the year already?! It sure feels like this year has flown by quick. The dividend portfolio had a nice recovery and far exceeded my expectations for the year. The portfolio is now about 5 years old and has experienced a bit of market cycles. Regardless of all the things that happened in the last 5 years, staying calm and invested provided a nice growing steady flow of income.

Historically, the stock market is generally up in most years. However, there are occasional years when the market experiences massive losses. These losses are often followed by massive recoveries. If you can stay calm and buy during these windows of opportunity, your portfolio will recover much quicker than if you do nothing.

In fact, for savvy and experienced investors who understand the risks of leveraging, these are some of the best times to leverage your investments. By using debt, you can amplify your gains when the market recovers. However, it is important to remember that leverage can also amplify your losses, so it is important to use it wisely.

Using debt is what helped me FIRE early in my life, but I also know many who have lost nearly everything. Therefore, I never recommend using leverage to anyone unless I feel they understand the risks well.

The Nasdaq-100 index (NDX) has had its best year-to-date (YTD) performance looking back decades. This is a humbling reminder of how horrible I am at forecasting short-term market movements. Another reason why I anchor my investment strategy to my long term goals, which helps me avoid making drastic changes to my portfolios too often.

I feel like we are out of the woods for the most part and the markets seem to be climbing the wall of worries once again.

Anyhow, enough of the rant! Let’s get this update on the books shall we?!