Barbados

Should I Stop Looking At The Stock Market?

I might regret saying this, but as of August 2022, I’m pretty happy with my portfolio.

The expected yield on my portfolio is 5.41%, but some of that money is invested in GICs and balanced mutual funds. Looking strictly at my stock portfolio, my yield is 6.27%. (I guess that’s below inflation, but high inflation is temporary.)

Now my goal is 8%, but I’m not sure I’m willing to push farther up the risk curve to get there. I currently own some financial stocks like CIBC, Bank of Nova Scotia, JP Morgan, and T. Rowe Price that pay between 3%-5%. And that’s OK with me. Hopefully, some capital appreciation will make up the difference over the years.

I also bought some Vanguard Total Market Index (VTI), which has a very low yield but is expected to grow when the economy grows.

Part of me wants to skip ahead. Jump ahead a year or two, and see where this portfolio goes without any more intervention from me. Since it’s dividend heavy, and not every stock can be automatically reinvested, I expect to have some cash building up that requires manual reinvestment.

Maybe I should stop looking at stock prices for a month. Can I do that? It is possible at this point not to look?

Not sure I’m willing to challenge myself to that. But I need to spend more time working and less time dreaming about money.

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