As an investor I try to keep my eye on the bigger picture of account growth versus individual stock performance. Clearly some stocks will be winners and others will be losers. To help me keep my focus last year I created a chart for milestones of where I wanted to be by the time my birthday rolled around each year in July. That chart is posted on my goals page.
To start the month of May off, I was able to deposit $4,000 instead of my usual $2,000 regular monthly deposit. This came mainly from watching our savings more closely and getting caught up on reimbursements quicker than planned from my wife’s business expenses. I could probably start sending in $2500 every month, but want to make sure we don’t feel pressured not to buy stuff at home. We still have some more decorating we want to do on our house we bought more than two years ago, but we’ve been too busy to actually plan our choices and spend the money. So, until then I get to invest it.
My goal was to get to $92,260.00 in July 2008 and as of Friday I crossed that mark. Today, a few minutes after the market opened my account balance was just over $92,400.00. The trick now is not to go below that mark by July. I’m not claiming this is due to my incredible returns. It’s more for steady deposits (and one larger deposit late last year) and lack of big losses. My goals include steady deposits, 20% annualized gains and annual withdrawals to pay taxes on capital gains. I did not withdraw money for taxes this year; I just skipped my January deposit and kept the next few deposits smaller. I’m only up about 1-2% over the past year, but at least I’m positive.
I’m already getting confident in my chances to reach my July 2009 goal on schedule. I’m sitting on realized losses in my account for 2008 and have more unrealized losses I’ll be taking soon. This should substantially reduce our tax burden next April which removes a big factor in my chart. Also, unless high oil prices change the course of the economy, we could be in for a long slow up tick again which could provide a perfect scenario for selling naked puts.
Congrats!
Good work! Congratulations!