Wednesday, April 04, 2007

First Monthly Portfolio/Net Worth Update - March

I really haven't updated this and need to get back in the gist of things. It was a lot easier to stay active in the initial phase of my blog because I was learning, finding what allocation I wanted, etc. This does not mean I have stopped trying to learn but rather have no insightful information to put down that wouldn't be a repeat of another blog. However, Below is my first monthly update that I will be doing from now on. My net worth increased approximately 4.66% from $72,587 to $75,969. This was largely due to my tax refund and recover from the stock market dip in late February. Since my portfolio updates are done the first Monday of each month, this month did not take into account the upward spike that occurred this Tuesday. Relatively, I bought into GOOG much later than I hoped for, but I believe I know enough about this company and see it as a long term investment.

In the coming months I hope to liquidate some of my holdings in CSCO. After the last quarterly announcement, I sold 600 shares for $28.5 and hope to do the same or better before the end of the year. Also, I have been researching my local real estate market and the possibility of buying a townhouse/condo in the $200k-$300k price range. Although it is a buyers market, I cannot guarantee that I will be here for more than 3 years and my current rent is approximately $1000 after all utilities. Does anyone have any advice or suggestion regarding this? If I purchased a place here in South Jersey, real estate tax will be about $5k-$7k a year alone!! I have done several rent vs buy calculators (the eloan one is great) and it is hard to know whether I'd come out on top. There are a few possibilities still: If the market here is a renters market, I could probably rent out my house for a large percentage of my mortgage if I moved. Any suggestions?
Lastly, my next goal in the coming months is to stay active with this blog and welcome readers and obtain feedback!