Monthly Update #002 – February 2021
It is time for the second update on my investments, the site, and myself. As promised there will be a quick overview of the most important things that have been going on over the last month.
My Investments
My dividend portfolio makes up 6.9% of my investments. My growth stocks 93.1%.
Throughout February my dividend-focused portfolio has increased by 2.19% while my growth-focused portfolio has fallen by 12.05%. This small balance shift has resulted in my dividend portfolio now making up nearly 7% of my overall investments compared to 5% from last month.
I saw a significant drop in value of my growth stocks in February compared to the overall market which also fell.
It seems February has been a tough market for most. Especially Tesla (TSLA) and Unity (U) took a beating this month dropping 23% and 29% respectively. Near the end of the month, I also saw a big drop in value in my position at Virgin Galactic (SPCE) due to delays of an ever-important test flight.
Last month TSLA made up near 60% of my growth portfolio. It is now down to 53%.
I have an automatic investment go through the 5th of every month in an index fund. This month however I invested nearly three times as much into it as usual on the basis that the price per share went down as it paid out its yearly dividend.
Speaking of dividends here is what I received this month:
My total dividends received this month before taxes
I did not receive any dividends from my growth stocks this month. February is known to be a great month for dividends and this certainly holds true for me. It is the first time I have received more than 1000 DKK or 200 USD in a single month.
I have made no further investments this month as I am gearing up for a very significant purchase next month. Expect a new post on that sometime in March.
The Site – http://www.jesbaek.com
This website has now been live for two full months. This month I have published three new posts (four including this one). The most popular is The case for Unity and the future of real-time graphics which has been very well received and even shared a few times on Twitter.
In comparison to last month where I received a total of 1300 views from 927 unique visitors February has brought along 1668 views and 1209 uniques. Most of you continue to find my stories through Facebook, and Shareville but now also Twitter, which is really great - Thanks so much to those of you who shared my article.
I have worked on improving SEO (Search engine optimization) as well as making the homepage a bit more attractive. Search engines from everywhere in the world are now directing to my site - This includes Google, Baidu, and Bing. There is still a very long way to go in making sure people find my posts when searching for relevant terms but I am glad to see it has already helped. I also cleaned up post categories and tags.
The list of visiting countries is growing, and the list is getting so long it is getting hard to capture in a single screenshot. Thanks so much!
Me
As is tradition, I like to end these types of posts with a small update on my own life. I have been lucky enough to return to work even though the lockdown is still ongoing (We should be slowly opening up in March). That means a tremendous amount to me as without this income I am not able to do much investing - or even live comfortably for that matter.
As mentioned in my previous update I had signed up for a paid IT strategy workshop by Deloitte - I attended that this month and all went well - however, the payout will not come until all sessions have been completed sometime next month.
I was also lucky enough to be selected for something called SAP Next Gen this month - a series of workshops and network opportunities in place by the German software corporation SAP (SAP). It has been a pretty cool experience and they even send me cool merch like a filtered water bottle, a facemask, a T-shirt, and some snacks!
At University I have been busy trying to juggle four different courses in an online-only format - It is a challenge to stay motivated and keep your mind fresh when all days feel the same. However I am really proud to have been able to build and write a working program for an Arduino - A truly simple one, making three LEDs blink in a certain pattern. But to me, that was very cool.
That is most of my February summed up. Thanks for your time, and support, and as always please let me know any feedback or suggestions you might have for me!
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, the opinions expressed in this article are entirely my own – always invest at your own risk.