Sorry I missed last week’s update as I was on travel for work. This update will cover the 4/16/18 to 4/27/18.

I have had some wild swings over the last two weeks. At one point I was up around $16 and another point I was down $22. My REITs and Bonds have taken hits due to interest rate hikes. There have also been more decline in REIT value due to the “Retail Apocalypse”. Apparently more and more retailers are closing stores across the country due to an increase in online shopping. My stocks overall have been pacing with the S&P 500 if not exceeding slightly.

I also noticed on my account that the “All” button shows my performance since March 26, 2018. So this kind of my one month mark! A week ago would have really been my one month mark because if you recall I liquidated everything just to clean up my pies. I’m gonna have fun this tax season.

Summary of Gains

Total Gains: +$6.45

Market Gains: $4.07

Earned Dividends: $2.38

Analysis

Honestly surprised that I ended up positive on REITs this week since during the middle of the week I was down about $15 just on REITs alone. I didn’t panic since I was counting on the dividend payouts to get me back in the positive. However, I believe this presented a buying opportunity for many investors, which is probably why I ended up positive at the end of the week. I think many people are scared with REITs because of all the retail stores closing, but I believe this just means that the real estate could be used for something else besides retail. Perhaps more gyms, medical practices, movie theaters, etc. I’m also sticking to the belief that with interest rates rising, more Millenials are

Stocks are holding well with overall return of 1.71% compared to my SPY holding of 2.55%. The major losers in my stocks are my defense contractors. Raytheon (-7.32%), Northrop Grumman (-11.02%), Lockheed Martin (-6.48%). Pure speculation: peace talks between North Korea and South Korea. However, this article explains why Lockheed specifically dropped as much as it did. The other defense contractors could also have reasons of their own for their drops.

Bonds. The interest rate hike has caused bond prices to go down and bond yields to go up. Not much I can do here but hold and wait for those dividend payouts.

Plan Forward

Going to hold on all positions. Not going to manually rebalance, but I am going keep my dollar cost averaging plan going to eventually achieve my target 45/35/20 REIT/Stocks/Bond balance. Honestly, wish I could have seen more returns by now, but this is only one month and I think my investment strategy will show more return in the long run. Just need to remain patient!

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