My portfolio is up 31% this year, giving me a CAGR of 29.9% over the past 13 years since I bought my first stock in April 2013! It's my best performance in 5 years which is wonderful. I still lost to the S&P though for the 6th straight year. What can you do.
Here's my performance versus the S&P:
And here's my portfolio:
My portfolio is looking more and more like my mentor's. Lots of stocks with half of them dead junk work nothing.
I'm very happy with my portfolio performance this year. It was my best year in 5 years! What's funny is this is the least amount of time I've spent on stocks since I started with this hobby. This country broke my heart when Trump came into office with his nonstop horror and hatred. His gutter racism, misogyny, and transphobia is so intense it still brings me to the edge of tears regularly. It plunged me into depression. There's a part of me that still feels guilty I couldn't help my younger brother from dying of suicide in 2005. That part is constantly looking around to see where it can help and reduce other's burden. It exploded and overwhelmed me. Stocks immediately felt cold. My style of investing is completely based on optimism and the GOP Trump cult took that away as they do their best to turn our country into Russia. Watching so many companies, universities, and institutions roll over to trump's extortion was disheartening. And so many in the democratic party just have no fight.
I didn't look at a stock or chart for almost a year, really until the MRCR buyout in December. No selling or buying or researching anything. In the spring of 2025 I started seeing a therapist. She's helped me find these stuck and overwhelmed pieces inside. She recommended a book Hope in the Dark which was great. It's about how big major shifts in public opinion and politics takes decades and a summation of many small efforts. Hope takes work.
So that's where I am, on that hope takes work train. I spend very little time on stocks anymore and haven't researched any new ideas in forever. People send me questions and ideas and I respond but I'm not diving into those rabbit holes like I used to. Part of that is my own privilege. I get paid well and have made a lot of money in the stock market so I don't have the motivation I did a decade ago. Another part is the loss of my mentor. Fittingly the last thing we talked about was finally getting that MRCR buyout I excitedly wrote about 10 years ago. He died a few days later. Used to be whenever there's news we would email each other immediately to talk about it. Just all day chatting.
I've spent a lot of time volunteering and protesting over the past year. I've been tear gassed at the ICE building. I have a stack of postcards in the other room I am writing to encourage people to register to vote in swing districts. It really helps me to feel like I'm doing something when I see all the horror and misery. The last couple No Kings protests I've attended with my 85 year old neighbor.
I have done so many different volunteering efforts. Serving lunch to unhoused people at a kitchen, grocery shopping for home bound seniors, repairing small appliances for community members at a repair cafe. I've done habitat for humanity a couple times. Helped clean out an elderly community member's house. Putting together furniture at a transgender equality center. Once a month I go fix broken tools at the local free tool library. Few times a month I go fix building maintenance things at a local LGBTQ+ community center. I've even got my daughters to do some of these with me. Latest one is volunteer orientation at a community bicycling center though I haven't made it in there yet for a shift repairing donated bikes they give away. This stuff really fills me up.
I know this is a stock blog. I'm just trying to communicate where I'm at. The horror of Trump has given me a political awakening. Spending time with my family and trying to help the community are what drive me.
Sorry no charts this year. I hope you're all doing well.
disclosure: long all the stocks in that portfolio pic
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