In today’s post I’ll share my finances and investment performance over the last 3 months. 🙂
My liquid net worth does not include my home, digital currencies, or rental properties.

Liquid net worth – July through September

Both the TSX and S&P 500 remained relatively flat as they fell last month, wiping out the gains of the previous 2. Here’s a summary of my liquid net worth changes.

Liquid Assets:
Cash = $21,000 (-$1,000)
Canadian stocks & bonds = $352,000 (+3,000)
US stocks & bonds = $222,000 (+5,000)
Retirement = $228,000 (+3,000)
P2P lending = $27,000 (+1000)
Mortgage funds = $45,000 (+1,000)
Total = $895,000

Liquid Liabilities:
Margin loan = $113,000 (-4000)
Total = $113,000

Liquid Net Worth = $782,000 (+$16,000) + 2.1%

All numbers are rounded to the nearest $1,000 and in $CDN at 0.80/USD

Year to date performance

My liquid net worth has grown by $136,000 so far this year. Wow. 🙂

My Interactive Brokers portfolio has returned 30% year to date.
For context, the total world stock market index is up about 11%.

I attribute my portfolio’s outperformance to holding businesses with a history of relatively high return on capital, and revenue growth. These are companies like Couche-Tard, or Descartes Systems Group, or other stocks I’ve written about over the years.

Another contributing factor to my gains this year is trading options. So far I’ve made about $6,000 by selling call and put options.

Events, and analysis

In global news one of China’s largest real estate developers, Evergrande, is facing liquidity challenges and could go bankrupt. The U.S. is about to hit a debt ceiling. There’s a shortage of supplies and workers around the world.  Energy costs spiked in parts of the world. And inflation is stubbornly high at 4% to 5%. None of this is good for the financial markets. That’s why stocks have fallen in September. And it’s why the volatility index (VIX) increased from 15 to 21.

Most of these problems will take many months, if not longer to resolve. That’s why it always pays to be prepared. 🙂 You could make a decent living like musician Johann Sebastian Bach did. But if you don’t manage your money properly, you could still end up Baroque.

Looking ahead

In last quarter’s net worth update I predicted financial markets would pull back due to the unsustainable growth in the first half of the year. That’s why I didn’t invest in any new stocks from July to September. I was paying down debt and buying more Bitcoin.

For the final stretch of 2021, I expect the stock market to either continue falling or remain relatively flat and move sideways for awhile. I will be buying on every 5% pullback in stocks. But otherwise I will build up liquidity, continue to sell options, and research the companies on my watch list such as BLK, and NA.TO. 🙂

Twitter poll results 

Money is like water. 💦 With sufficient volume, it can erode the foundations of the traditional work schedule, and cut its own path.

I recently conducted a poll on Twitter to find out if people would prefer to work 4 days a week, rather than 5.

The results are surprisingly split.

______________________________________
Random Useless Fact:

According to special relativity time travel is possible.