Summary of April 2024

 

Summary of April 2024

The war continues and what is worse is that Ukraine have started to lose some ground. I hope that this can be turned around again and it's a pity that there are so many young Russian men that considers that joining the army is their only way to improve theirs but probably more often their families life.

My van is now standing on all four wheels again. Lesson learnt for me, no chance to change wheels on the rim as a single person and without the proper equipment. So I took one wheel at the time to a garage and had them do it for me. The temperature is now also increasing meaning that it is now more comfortable to take it out for a spin again. I see several proper mobile homes out on the roads and on seaside parking lots so also I should do this.

I flew down for a week to take a look at properties in my favourite area. I had some difficulties to get hold of the brokers so in the end I only got to see three places. All of them were "illegal" dwellings. Two had no water and no electricity and ALL of them had a toilet that is flushed out to a dug out and covered hole in the ground. Madness Spain, madness! When I was there back in 2006 I was horrified that the University drains was just going straight out into the ocean but clearly this has not improved over the years in Spain. It is time for improvement and it is not THAT difficult to install a 3-chamber well for your black water. As you probably understand I have slightly changed my strategy and I've decided to buy the place first and then drive down there. It is yet another change to my plans but what can I say... life is good in my summerhouse and driving there in three days with all my stuff will be more convenient.

In April there was a proper dip in the stock market which it has started to regain a bit of again, being 100% invested, no income  and not yet bought my house I am for sure more sensitive to these fluctuations.

For the previous summary please visit Summary of February/March 2024.

The total invested value is now at: 343,328 €. No further investments were made.

The value of the portfolio is today: 542,962 € and I have 2,188 € in cash. I have realised gains of 9,653 € and unrealised of 199,633 € (58%) which is not good enough. My ETFs are now up at a value of 78% of my portfolio.

DAX is now up at 18,061 points which means that it has decreased by -2.1% since the previous summary and my own portfolio has decreased by -1.8% in the same time period.

Conclusion: The biggest drops have been coming from the US stocks for me during this month. Received some nice dividends and 25 degrees in Spain is not bad!