Wo hoo – The Bear Market is here!

The stock market is officially in the bear market territory now. Whatever that means – in my mind it’s a technicality created by statisticians to keep themselves from being bored. Come on, now really does it make such a huge difference between Dow at 11,350 or 11,345? Should I panic because the Dow is in bear market at 11,345 and not at 11,350? I honestly don’t think so.

My stock portfolio has been significantly down this year (though not as much as the broader market), but I am thoroughly rejoicing these low levels of stocks. Stocks today are definitely cheaper than they were a month ago or were a year ago. This is something that really excites me. I have been buying more and more of financial stocks (I know I know – the sky is falling on financial companies) and am hoping for them to keep going down over the course of the year. Will I be correct in my judgment? I don’t know but I do know that there is a higher probability of good financial companies to emerge stronger from the current market turmoil than there is for them to cease to exist. Time should hopefully be an ally of good companies. The ultimate result remains to be seen and I am hopeful that you and I will be alive to discuss the outcome in a few years from now.
I have been contemplating if I should post details of my portfolio on the blog. I’ll sleep over it for the weekend.

Monthly Networth Update (May 2008)

Since this is the first update I am making to the blog on my networth, I thought I would share with you the networth as it stands today and the progress made since the beginning of the year. Couple of things that I would improve on my tracking in near future:

1. Account for tax liability I would incur at the sale of my investment assets - real estate and stocks.
2. Seperate the brokerage out into actual stocks held and money held for investments. There is a small portion of my cash in the brokerage account that is held in money market accounts for future investments. In my current tracking I have lumped them together.

So far this year, the increase in my networth has predominantly come from savings. The stock market has been sideways and has not generated much returns. However, given my value orientation to investing my stock portfolio has not declined much compared to the broader market. Stock portfolio details to come soon.