It's been an exciting month for our Income Virtual Portfolio (also updated here).
Our goal was to set up a virtual portfolio of $500,000 that produces at least $4,000 a month in income and we are miles ahead of goal already with only a little bit of our cash deployed and we haven't even hit our first dividend cycle! So we are loving a market sell-off as it gives us more buying opportunities as stocks we want go on sale.
Keep in mind we are trying to establish a low-touch retirement virtual portfolio so we're not "going for it" with these positions as we are with the $25,000 Virtual Portfolio, which is already up 38% in 3 months on very aggressive (and often gut-wrenching) positions. The goal of that virtual portfolio is to practice rolling and saving the positions that go against us and it requires almost daily care. This virtual portfolio is designed for my Mom, who has no time or interest to play the markets on a daily basis but would like to be a little more aggressive with her money than the 6.7% returns she's been getting from the very conservative account my Dad had set up.
I wanted to keep her money with the guys she has but the fee structure alone made it ridiculous. It's not just the obvious fees they charge for managing money but outrageous rates they charge for stock transaction and margins - no wonder the Financial Sector is having such a good year - they get free money and rip off the people who have scrambled into "safer" accounts by hitting them with endless fees.
Just because you are retired, doesn't mean you can't manage your own money - on a $500,000 account, you can save $10,000-$15,000 a year just from that - isn't that worth skipping one round of golf per month for?
