With the start of a new year, it's a fitting time to lay the groundwork for forward progress. As such, let's dive in to see the moves I plan on making going forward.
15% to 401K
It wasn't that long ago that Publix capped an employee's 401K contribution to 10% of their income. They upped the cap to 30%, but I've been doing 1% increases each year. This time, I'm doubling that rate. 15% seems to be the magic number as far as building retirement savings goes and it also means that Baby Step 4 is done. Sure, I'm using those as more of a loose guideline than a hard and fast rule (I'm what the fandom calls "ish"), but hey, a finished step is a finished step. It should hopefully make an impact come next year's tax season and it'll boost the numbers in that account a bit faster.
$15 a week to Fundrise
A 50% increase, woo! Yeah, OK, it's not a game changer, but at this rate, I will get to the "basic" account level this year. That'll enable me to partake in the iPO as well as their innovation fund, so that's something to look forward to.
1 share of Realty Income weekly
I've seen quite a few investors as of late adopt this strategy of picking a position and buying it every week, regardless of price. It's dollar cost averaging and it seems to work pretty well. Is my portfolio too small for this? Maybe, I mean, there's still dividend reinvestment, Publix stock, and I'll only be doing this until I hit 100 shares. After that, I'll shift the strategy to another position. Thus, it'll even out eventually. I should note that total refers only to E-trade. Robinhood and IRA holdings aren't going to be counted as I view each branch of the overall portfolio as its own thing. With monthly dividend reinvestment and quarterly increases (that will make bigger impacts the further along we go,) it should be a pretty smooth journey. It'll still take a little under 2 years just going by basic math, but I think it's a good way to really get the ball rolling.
Sadly, E-Trade doesn't have an automatic recurring buy option, so I'm going to have to do this manually. It's a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, but having it happen on its own would have been nice.
$7/Day to VTI
With the market as volatile as it is, some are taking the dollar cost average strategy even further and making daily buys. These lean towards ETF's, as opposed to single companies. Again, seems to work pretty well, so why shouldn't I do it, right? VTI's a solid one to use as a baseline. It's not a huge move, but it should move the needle.
$1/Day to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Dogecoin (DOGE)
And you thought the stock market was volatile. Yes, crypto is on a downward slide, but that seems to be the nature of the beast. It falls, then shoots back up dramatically. This is dollar cost averaging in its most literal form. The upcoming price drops won't devastate me, but I should still see some gains on the upswing.
$1/Day to iShares Gold Trust (IAU) and iShares Silver Trust (SLV)
Admittedly, this isn't an income generator, but it is a bit more asset diversification. Both are pretty solid investments and act as fairly good hedges against inflation. I think we can agree that some of that wouldn't hurt right now. I like this as I can make the investment without opening up another account. I have quite enough, thank you.
$50/Month to Best Buy
Best Buy is a unique position in my portfolio. It isn't under the E-Trade or Robinhood umbrellas, instead standing on its own. That's because that's my first stock holding. Barnes and Noble may have gotten this investing odyssey started in earnest, but this is the real OG as far as my investments go. Despite this, I haven't really done too much with it. I only recently started reinvesting the dividends, but other than that, it's just been sitting there. Well, no longer. Now I'm going to start watering this plant. Like Robinhood, I can do automatic recurring buys. Monthly is their only option, though, so that's what I'm going with. It's OK, it's still a step up from what I was doing before. This will also help mitigate Realty Income becoming too heavy in my holdings in the short term.
So, there you have it. It's quite possible that this is the extent of my market moves for the year. With the big economic poop storm looming, I'm thinking I should shift my focus towards bolstering my defenses. Beefing up savings accounts and attacking liabilities will probably be the main focus. We'll see how things play out though. At least, this way, I can stay in the market without worrying too much. No panic selling here.
All indicators point to 2023 being a bumpy ride. Hopefully, this makes things a bit smoother.
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