I spoke with a guy the other day who sold his house into the recent strong seller’s market. He had a lot of equity so he put the cash into investments and now travels the country in a van, living off the interest from his investments. Good for him.
Van life intrigues me, and it does seem like a decent time to liquidate the house. However, van life would not be a good match for my tribe and is thus out of the question. There is another market, though, that’s been good for selling: the stock market. S&P 500 has had a nice run this year, and Nasdaq has been phenomenal.
This past week I decided to take chips off the table in my 401(k) and one of our HSAs. The 401(k) had a relatively small position in Nasdaq, a larger position in S&P 500, and the largest position was in a 2045 Target Date Fund (which also has done well). The HSA was exclusively S&P 500. I sold EVERYTHING and moved the proceeds into money market funds. I also shut off my bi-monthly automated fund purchases.
I know! I shouldn’t try to time the market! Well, we’ll see what happens. I’m still shoveling money automatically into accounts every two weeks, so at least that discipline remains. I’ll have cash ready when the time comes.
In other news, I put the bulk of my son’s college savings into FDIC protected CDs with a major bank. The CDs pay about 5.25% with only a three month commitment. Since college is only a couple of years away, CD’s are nice place to stash his cash.
Finally, despite dumping my index and target date funds, I continue to hold Intel across a few accounts–bought shares on the way down and on the way up. The last two quarters weren’t great, but Intel did return to profitability after several horrendous quarters, including the worst loss in company history. Pat Gelsinger is turning that ship. In time, those who have mocked Pat will praise him, and we should all be grateful for what he is doing to diversify and strengthen the global semiconductor supply chain.
How about you? Buying, selling, holding? Good luck!
With Love,
P. Gustav Mueller, author of The Present