Chorus

"On a good day, we can part the seas. On a bad day, glory is beyond our reach."

Thursday, February 10, 2022

The Full Motley -- 1Q, 2022

For 13 years now, I have been sharing my thoughts on personal finance, growing accordingly. Rebalancing my old 401(k) quarterly has kept me actively. I have seen many trends come and go, relying most heavily on indexing to increase my wealth. And it has. At my next quarterly update, I will have been with my current employer for as long as I was with this previous employer. I look forward to sharing the differences between those accounts at that time.

For now, we have seen another early retreat in the first quarter of a year. These declines have not been rare in recent years. Has it become a trend? I would be wary to insist that is the case, largely because of how many times I have seen trends reverse as soon as they are identified, not to mention the disruption to conventional wisdoms. Regardless, the two biggest moves in my account this quarter saw me pull money from Total International Stock Index Fund and direct most of it into the Total Bond Market Index Fund. The other movement from the actively managed equity fund to the passively managed equity index fund and international bond index fund was significantly less than those major moves.

Thankfully, I was fully prepared to make moves in the market during this quarter having seen it happen enough times in the recent past. These moves will continue to pay dividends in the coming years. As an old saying (that I recently heard) goes, "do not wait to invest; invest and then wait."