Lemur Journal!

Where are you and where are you going?
User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

October 29, 2020

Investments:
Invested - $289,000
Cash Savings - $7,900
Total - $296,900

Financial - Down $5k since last month. Thought it was worse then that seeing all the red on the market lately. I post occasionally in the investments trade log, but I stuck to my strategy of 'getting rid of stocks that are not growing for me / heading towards 10% loss'. That made me sell off all INTC for a loss. I am also starting a retreat to safer investments. So I sold PLUG as well (a company that is not net profiting but will one day most likely) for a profit. PLUG has earnings call in 7 days; lets see how this move plays out.

Microsoft though...is an absolute behemoth of a company and I when my $25k settles, I will probably add more to this position. My brokerage is overweight MSFT but sometimes the best investment is the stock that you already own.

Lastly savings rate for recent paycheck was 54.19% and that includes rent and all the normal monthly bills. The next check is mostly savings assuming no surprise expenses. I'm still tracking a 70%-75% savings rate combined. Not bad. I'm proud of that even if our income is 'easy mode'. :D

Physical Health / Diet: Down another 2 lbs to 175. This is the lowest I've been since November 2013. I've officially lost 20 pounds of fat since I started logging my weight loss progress. I'm questioning my motivation to get down to 162 pounds as originally planned. (1) I'm starting to see my abdominal muscles already...not defined but they exist given certain lighting conditions and (2) I'm already at a healthy BMI below 24.

For arbitrary reasons....want to see below 170lbs at least but I'm not in a rush to drop these last pounds fat. This 2-3 pound monthly loss is sufficient. Some nights all I think about is food. My long-term plan is to eventually get below 170lb and like a thermometer, treat 170lbs as the 'high' and I'll diet if I ever meet that weight or get above.

Mental Health: Stressed. Job, family, market, and election. I've ignored a good friend of mine for over a week now. Not answering texts or calls. Just can't do it anymore. Maybe I'll resume talks after Nov. 3 but if all I receive is "how the DEMS are going to ruin America" every other day for the next 4 years, I'm going to be really start questioning this friendship. The light at the end of the tunnel is that hopefully after the winner is decided it would be much easier to avoid political topics. Months ago I thought our friendship was matured and had held long enough to handle these conversations (we grew up next to one another...I've known this guy over 15 years now?), even if we've opposing viewpoints, and I'm not sure if it is me or him or both but damn I could not have been more wrong about that. The funny part is I changed much more over the years politically. We were both 'Ron Paul' bros back in the day lol and even enjoyed talking the occasional conspiracy (though what hasn't changed was I was always the 'skeptical' one) . Lastly, I should 'accept' my feelings but at the same time asking myself why I am letting this bother me so much.

Job: Still seeking next project. This is the month where I need something lined up. I'm going to try to negotiate starting in January and taking most of December off. I could really use a break.

Gardening: Good news here at least. Pulled 17 tomatoes from 2 tomato plants. That was the last of them. Very interesting that I failed to get tomatoes all year until the past 2 months I suddenly started to get a bunch of them. I also have potatoes still in the ground.

Family: Another big drama. The house my Mother and 2 brothers are renting was sold by the landlord and they've to move out by the end of year. They've no money, debt, one car that always needs repairs, and they will likely lose their deposit due to property damage, and one brother is officially chapter 7 (or 11?) by next week. Sister and I are not sticking head in sand on this one...helping Mother get a personal loan for the deposit at least and will go from there but damn if this year hasn't already sucked.

Other: Halfway through reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. My new routine has been reading from 10-12pm after putting son to bed. This has been something I've really been looking forward too. Excellent book so far. It has given me new perspectives.

Jotting all my thoughts down in today's journal has been reliving. From a birds eye view my life is okay and every bold above I'm either working it or in the middle of solutions. Sometimes I wonder if we make our own problems sometimes due to boredom. Just need to take a breather sometimes. Maybe not take things so serious.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Funds settled from sell of INTC and PLUG in addition to some regular savings. Added to the following positions:

$12k on MSFT
$8k on AMD
$3k on WMT
$3k on SQ

I now own the following stocks:

AAPL
AMD
DIS
MSFT
PEP
SQ
V
WMT

MSFT is my heaviest weighted stock at 23.65% of the portfolio. SQ and AMD are both 15% each. Note these stocks is only my brokerage. Mentioned before but my 401(ks) and IRA are all index funds.

I'm being a bit more patient on DIS but this stock is a potential sell at end of year if it doesn't start rising.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

I slept 3 hours last night. If that. Woke up, wide awake. It is so close. I've it 271-268 Biden but, no matter who wins, I hope my country can return to some level of normalcy (okay that is too optimistic). That are still so many problems...virus is still raging and growing, economy is still sufferings, but on a very positive note, I do think people, ones in my inner circle at least, are starting to open up about how things are just so divided no matter who wins and no matter which side you're on, there is some recognition that a call of action is needed about the sound of silence...

Never thought I'd be posting song lyrics to relate feelings on these matters. Feels cliché but relevant enough.
And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
"Fools" said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

ertyu
Posts: 2886
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2016 2:31 am

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by ertyu »

it would be such a relief to have a person who behaves like a civilized adult in the white house at this stage i don't even care if it's a dirty mop

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@ertyu

Agree. Trump is just a symptom though....almost 50% of Americas felt he was a competent President and a decent enough person to vote for...again. That is just absolutely scary to me...and this will continue to stay in the back of my mind for many years to come.

And I'm not even saying that Biden is going to be some sort of American Democratic hero that is going to save our representative Democracy...far from it. He wasn't even my top 5 choices but to me at least he represents a boring Grandfather that has at least enough class he'll bring back to the office which we so desperately need right now. That symbolism is just too important.

At best I hope I get that last sentence above.
At worst, I'll take the illusion of Democracy over wannabe authoritarianism any day.

Regardless of outcome, I'm ready to move on past politics for a while after this election is decided.
Last edited by Lemur on Wed Nov 04, 2020 4:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Western Red Cedar
Posts: 1200
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 2:15 pm

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Western Red Cedar »

Lemur wrote:
Wed Nov 04, 2020 10:36 am
Never thought I'd be posting song lyrics to relate feelings on these matters.
I was fortunate to see Paul Simon live a couple years ago. It was a great show and he played with the band from Graceland & Rhythm of the Saints. He played Sound of Silence as an encore and talked about it reflecting the current state of affairs in the US as he introduced the song. It's pretty crazy how a 50 year old song can still speak to what's going on today.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Sold SQ on the run-up today. Funny the stock was trading at 185-190 last week...it fell to 150 and I regretted not selling then. This week...flys back up to $190+. So finally sold and locked those profits in (did not want that feelign 2x I guess)...the stocks valuations has become too much for me to handle. I still love SQ long-term, but can not deny gut feelings. I retreated the profits to safer bets - MSFT, AMD, WMT. My active allocation now looks like the following:

MSFT $47,000.00 30%
AMD $30,500.00 19%
WMT $25,600.00 16%
PEP $15,000.00 10%
V $14,000.00 9%
DIS $13,000.00 8%
AAPL $11,900.00 8%

Cheepnis
Posts: 303
Joined: Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:52 am

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Cheepnis »

Hi Lemur, what is your plan for dealing with the tax implications of your trading? I don't actually know any of the pertinent tax rules myself, and I'm also not at a point where I feel I could actively manage my portfolio, but the tax complications seem like one more nasty hurdle if I were to ever go that route.

User avatar
giskard
Posts: 317
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:07 pm

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by giskard »

Lemur wrote:
Fri Nov 06, 2020 1:19 pm
Sold SQ on the run-up today. Funny the stock was trading at 185-190 last week...it fell to 150 and I regretted not selling then. This week...flys back up to $190+. So finally sold and locked those profits in (did not want that feelign 2x I guess)...the stocks valuations has become too much for me to handle. I still love SQ long-term, but can not deny gut feelings. I retreated the profits to safer bets - MSFT, AMD, WMT. My active allocation now looks like the following:
SQ has just been so interesting to watch. They are quickly becoming one of the easiest bitcoin on-ramps and it's paying off for them:
https://news.bitcoin.com/cash-app-bitco ... on-square/

I've been wanting to buy dips on it but yeah the valuation... it is just very very high right now.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@Cheepnis . Usually just long nights on turbotax....Luckily I think there is an automatic upload feature for the various trades.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Added QCLN to portfolio.
The investment seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield (before the fund's fees and expenses) of an equity index called the NASDAQ® Clean Edge® Green Energy IndexSM. The fund will normally invest at least 90% of its net assets (including investment borrowings) in the common stocks and depositary receipts that comprise the index. The index is designed to track the performance of small, mid and large capitalization clean energy companies that are publicly traded in the United States. It is non-diversified.
This ETF traded flat for years and then shot up from COVID Crash. With new administration and increased demand...I can't see the green sector not growing this decade. This will also further diversify my portfolio into another industry as it is mostly tech-heavy.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

So far has been my favorite seasoning combination for fried black beans:

salt + garlic powder + paparika + cumin + oregano + tbsp of lime juice at end of cooking.
Can also add chili powder if feeling for spicy.

My spouse doesn't like cumin which to me is sort of blasphemous. The addition of lime juice made a real difference.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

In one week from now I will be off my current project and will be 'hunting' for the next one. In the consulting world, they call this 'bench time'. So I could be on the bench anywhere from a week or so to a few months depending on how hard I network. At any point during the bench, a consultant could be let go (typically by a surprise meeting with a Partner/Director that happens to have a HR rep on the line lol). A myriad of factors determines this, but typically if ones salary is average or below-average compared to others on the bench in the same organization bloc, one could ride the bench a lot longer because you won't get checked off by the algorithm that is trying to improve bottom lines for the month/quarter.

Admittingly, I have some anxiety about this idea (the programming is coded hard in the mind I guess) of not working but on that same note I'm not nearly as nervous if it were not for the following:

1.) I have 4 months of expenses in cash.
2.) 6 years and 8 months of expenses in just my brokerage account.
3.) 12.5 years of expenses altogether.

Not counting potential unemployment...possible stimulus...tax refund.

Needless to say, in the worst case scenario, Lemur might just have a vacation. Perhaps a chance to build other skills or even reconsider my whole career altogether. Sky is the limit?

ERE has certainly allowed me to more embrace the unknown then to be fearful of it. I'm grateful for that.

Frugalchicos
Posts: 658
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2017 9:23 pm
Contact:

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Frugalchicos »

Lemur wrote:
Mon Nov 16, 2020 10:41 am
salt + garlic powder + paparika + cumin + oregano + tbsp of lime juice at end of cooking.
Can also add chili powder if feeling for spicy.
Pretty good combo. Should try the same combination with lentils and make some tacos with it. Add some salsa and it will blow your mind man

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

@Frugalchicos

I tried that and I liked it :) Salsa...appears to be the missing ingredient for the way I make lentils.

Finished reading Sapiens: A brief history of humankind. Excellent book. I had a lot of takeaways from that book as well as some interesting and different perspectives on the future of humans.

Looking for my next book. Probably will go with the Global Warming book by David Archer; OTOH, I may have to allocate some studying time to up a career skill. My project ends this Wednesday and two opportunities fell through for me.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

November 30, 2020

Investments:
Invested - $326,000
Cash Savings - $7,900
Total - $333,900

Financial - Yes...that is a record. I am up $37k since last month. Due to selling and making great profit on SQ and investing in AMD/MSFT before short-term run up / election bull. I'm getting some FOMO about EV Battery Market and other green companies but have stayed out so far...was looking at QS specifically but I'm in a 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' situation with my investment strategy so do not see the need to fight for more growth. The stocks I'm holding now seem to be doing the job.

Savings rate is down due to Christmas and Birthday gifts. November-January is like a mine field for this situation.

Physical Health / Diet: Gained. I'm at my absolute top-limit of 180lb. Still healthy BMI of 24.5 but need to start watching food intake again. The cold weather is making me subconsciously eat more. Could also be some stress due to being job benched at the moment.

Mental Health: Better because I am past getting into political arguments. I just change the subject at this point. I think this phase is over as the past 2 weeks I have barely looked at the news or even cared too.

Job: On the bench. Like a free agent in the NFL or a MMA artist looking to sign his next contract. In hindsight, I should've gotten some certifications or bumped up my resume a bit when I had all that time on my hands from pretty much automating 90% of my work this year. Oh well. :lol: On to the next one.

Gardening: Somehow a lettuce and cabbage are still growing in this weather...it is far too warm in my area for end of November. Just today I can walk out in a t-shirt.

Family: Sister is very close to closing in on a home and we will be moving 20 miles further south from the city. We will be moving with her to keep the low housing / expense arrangement but should my next job require me back to Washington DC, I will be moving if I can't work out a remote option. 2.5 hours one way is too much and if I learned anything from this COVID stuff is that remote work is for me :). And that commuting is not for me.

Other: None I feel like typing today.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Came across a really well written article about Leadership.

The Authenticity Paradox
https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-authenticity-paradox
To begin thinking like leaders, we must first act: plunge ourselves into new projects and activities, interact with very different kinds of people, and experiment with new ways of getting things done. Especially in times of transition and uncertainty, thinking and introspection should follow experience—not vice versa. Action changes who we are and what we believe is worth doing.

User avatar
giskard
Posts: 317
Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:07 pm

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by giskard »

Nice monthly gains. Also, nice trade on SQ. I'd like to buy some myself if it goes lower, but I agree it feels high here. It does have that bitcoin momentum though, you never know what it will do.

That EV market stuff is a crapshoot imo, even if the narrative is correct most of those companies might end up bankrupt. An alternative bet is copper miners then you just have to be right about EV demand in general.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

About 1:12 through 1:14. This is the second time I have come across this behavior psychology lesson? (relating to the article /quote I posted above)
Mood follows action: https://youtu.be/SwQhKFMxmDY?t=4350

@giskard. I'm thinking if SQ takes a nose-dive into the $150-$160 range again I'll buy - especially if the downfall is part of an overall market correction /trend.

User avatar
Lemur
Posts: 1604
Joined: Sun Jun 12, 2016 1:40 am
Location: USA

Re: Lemur Journal!

Post by Lemur »

Interesting Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukZBung2eoM

Earth Talk: The Moneyless Man meets Fergus the Forager

Post Reply