Posted by For the month of July, the DOW went up 1152 points. This puts the DOW up 6% for the year, and up by 7% in the past 12 months. Interest and dividend income was $2281 for the month. Withdrawals for living expenses came to $1223 in the past month. In July I sold 50 shares of DRIV at 27.10. I still have 100 shares at an avg price of $25.88 per share. I also sold 100 shares of CVS at $75.40 per share. My entry price was $71.27 for a net profit of $413. I replaced CVS with 50 shares of STLD at $100.41 per share. Last month I was making adjustments to my stock portfolio by reducing exposure to retail drug companies. My goal is to have a balance of dividend and growth stocks. Fixed income accounts for about 50% of my stock portfolio. Money market funds are now paying close to 5% which will help to improve the stock account balance this year.
I think the stock market has gotten a little ahead of itself in the last two months. In the first 2 days of August, we have started to see a pullback. This could be a good buying opportunity if things continue to improve in the second half of the year. It would have to be a good opportunity because moving money into stocks means less money generating 5% monthly interest. The presidential election in 2024 could affect the markets if there is a party change. Lately, I’ve seen several news reports about our aging leadership. It would be nice to get some younger people in office, because politics can be a high stress occupation. As long as Trump isn’t re-elected, we should be fine. There are too many similarities in how Trump tried to negate the election results and some of the tactics that dictators in other countries have used to gain power.