ETF Monkey Personal Portfolio Update (Abbreviated) - November 11, 2022
A quick report on a substantial cash raise.
In early-October, July, I shared with readers my portfolio update for the third quarter of 2022.
In that article, I explained both how I had combined two previous concepts into one comprehensive update, as well as how I was able to break out my decisions as to asset location by revealing actual dollar amounts in my portfolio while maintaining a measure of privacy. If you are a new reader and have not had the chance to take a look at that article, I might recommend that you take a look at it as context for this abbreviated update.
While I hope to return at year-end with my Q4 and full-year update, I recently made an adjustment in my portfolio of sufficient significance that I felt I should share it with readers. In this abbreviated update, I will share just two graphics, followed by a very brief explanation.
Here’s the first graphic summarizing my amounts by detailed asset class, but further between my investment account (shown as “real”), my IRAs, and finally my Roth IRAs.
On the far right of the graphic, I included my weighting as of the last quarter (9/30/22 in this case) and then a computed column to display the difference. I then color-coded in green and red to visually feature which weightings increased, and which decreased.
The second graphic displays my detailed holdings as of 11/11/22. Again, you can see how each position has changed since my last report.
Brief Overview and Comments
First of all, there is one new ETF in the portfolio, QQQM. I reported on the thinking behind the addition in this article.
For today, what I wanted to share is that, based on the sharp rise in the market last week following the surprise number of 7.7% revealed in the latest CPI report, I decided to raise the cash level in my portfolio by roughly 10%, from 12.37% at the end of Q3 to 22.40% as of last Friday. In my investment account, the funds I am using to fund my current expenses in retirement, my cash position is now up to 38.55%.
I am getting ready to work on an article for Seeking Alpha in which I will attempt to explain my rationale for this. Following that, I will return with an abbreviated version of said rationale here on this site.
The basic premise is that I believe there is likely more downside to come, possibly into roughly the middle part of next year. In harmony with this belief, I am simply raising a little cash with which to take advantage of this should it occur. Further, with money market rates on cash starting to approach 3%, the cash in itself will be generating at least a modest return.
That’s all for today. As always, thanks for reading!