Posted by For the month of April, the DOW gained 1442 points. This puts the DOW up 1.59% for the year, and up by 1.62% in the past 12 months. Interest and dividend income was $2023 for the month. Withdrawals for living expenses came to $1965 in the past month. Expenses were higher because car insurance was due. I sold the remaining 400 shares of ETJ which is an Eaton Vance closed end fund. With only a slight gain and low monthly payouts, I decided to sell and use the proceeds to pay down my mortgage. I bought 100 shares of QCLN at $44.35 per share. This is a clean energy fund that typically trades in the low $50 range. Tesla makes up only 8% of holdings, but performance tends to follow the EV maker. I have done well in the past buying QCLN when it drops below $50. I will likely add more if it continues to fall.
As expected, I received a letter from the bank stating that my ARM mortgage would be changing on 8/1/23. Our mortgage balance is currently around $13,000 after transferring $2000 from a low interest savings account toward the principal this past month. The interest rate cannot change by more than 2% each year. It started at 3.25%, then went up to 5.25% last year. The new rate will be 7.25% in August. This month (May) the bank pays the first half of the property tax bill from escrow. After that, I will contact them to get the amount of the final principal payment. Paying the property tax will be my responsibility after paying off the mortgage. This month I submitted our state property tax refund forms and found out that the refund will cover 75% of the tax bill. The refund will make it easier for me to write the $1888 check for the second half of the tax payment in October.