To Our Subscribers and other readers - June 1, 2007
The old adage - "Sell in May and Go Away" - would have left many investors kicking themselves this month. Perhaps it will be June this year? Or July? Or September? No one knows and if they say so, then run away as fast as you can.
Our portfolios performed as expected with all divdends paid out as anticipated. The beauty of income investments is that if we are wrong and the market takes a nose dive (which it will again) at least we will still be receiving our dividends at an 6% - 10% +/- yield.
I'm not smart enough to know which individual stocks will double or triple or for that matter collapse. But I am smart enough to at least get paid while I wait.
So how did our portfolios do? Your own results will differ from mine in that many of the securities in the portfolios could have been purchased at lower prices since the markets were quite volatile in February, March and April. To be consistent, I have to show our portfolio results with a fixed date of February 2, 2007. As you know by now, I will send you an email whenever a change is required.
Our closed end bond funds suffered this month because interest rates have edged higher, especially in the last two weeks in May. However, our focus is on what our money is yielding, not in how the value of the portfolio (without dividends) is doing. From month-to-month we will see either an increase or decrease in that value, although, over time we have seen many income securities also grow in share price.
|
| Portfolio |
Beginning Value
as of 2/02/07 |
Ending Value
as of
6/01/07 |
+ Cumulative
Dividends from
2/02 - 6/01/07 |
Total Value
as 6/01/07
(4 Months) |
| |
|
|
|
|
| $ 20,000 Con |
$ 20,000 |
$ 19,651 |
$ 484 |
$ 20,135 |
| Mod |
20,000 |
19,193 |
517 |
19,710 |
| Agg |
20,000 |
20,309 |
419 |
20,728 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| $ 50,000 Con |
$ 50,000 |
$ 49,260 |
$ 1,307 |
$ 50,567 |
| Mod |
50,000 |
50,252 |
1,601 |
51,853 |
| Agg |
50,000 |
50,994 |
1,330 |
52,324 |
| |
|
|
|
|
| $100,000 Con |
$100,000 |
$ 98,823 |
$ 3,832 |
$102,655 |
| Mod |
100,038 |
99,897 |
3,366 |
103,263 |
| Agg |
100,000 |
105,954 |
2,739 |
108,693 |
|
|
NOTE: Some portfolios appear to be a little weak on the dividend side but remember, different securities pay their dividends out monthly or quarterly and one in particular pays semi-annually (June in this case). Different portfolios have a different mix of securities in them.
|
|
As for our ETF portfolios (4 months into the program), the $50,000 portfolio's value increased to $52,731.
The $100,000 portfolio increased in value to $108,076.
|
|