Hello everyone, It’s Christmas time again!
While we do our best to follow God’s lead and shower our loved one’s with gifts. I hope we’ll also remember to stay alert and remain faithful. In 1 Peter 5:8 we’re told, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour”. Maybe I’m the only one, but I think this time of year can easily bring as much anxiety and stress as it does joy. And with it, an opportunity for the enemy to step in. However, we can take heart because in Jeremiah 29:11 we’re told this, “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future'”. And that, to me, is one remarkable gift!
With that, I thought today I’d take some time to review my entire portfolio. In the past few months I’ve written several posts about what I’ve been up to in all of my accounts. But, it’s been a little disjointed for my liking. Last week, I wrote about my portfolio protection plan and earlier this year I discussed cleaning up my financial house. Still, it seems a little scattered.
I’ll try below to pull it all together.
Post Agenda

2024 Investment Review
Let’s start with a brief discussion about my overall portfolio. First, many things have changed this year. I went from holding individual stocks to mostly holding ETF’s, I moved from speculative to strategic options trading, and I restructured all of my accounts to serve a larger purpose. Each of which has proved beneficial as of this post.
Bucket System
Earlier this year, I decided, after watching this video on Youtube I would structure my accounts to act as buckets. Each one providing a particular function, both holistically and individually. The woman in the video focuses more on how each bucket will benefit each subsequent bucket but I took it a step further. I tried to design my buckets to be self sustaining without losing the ability for each bucket to benefit following buckets. Further, I even added a few additional buckets to accomplish several goals. In time I’ll see if any of that made one inkling of difference.
If you want to read more about how I’m using my bucket system, you can find that in the post I linked to earlier or again right here; Half Way Through 2024…Cleaning Up My Financial House. I have changed things some since then but that describes the system I’m using.
Options Trading
The next major step I took was with my options trading. Prior to this year, I had been all over the place with my options trading. Admittedly, I kind of miss trading all the different strategies but in the end it just wasn’t worth it. It was truly an exercise in futility. I would spend hours, days, weeks, or even months on a strategy only to break even in the long run. I was fortunate to have had some big wins along the way but losses were always present. As such, my accounts were mostly stagnant so I needed to adjust accordingly.
Rather than attempt to utilize just the right strategy at just the right time, which I doubt anyone does with great success. I decided to focus my effort on those strategies that I’d found worked for me. Namely, the options collar strategy, the protective put strategy, the baby rhino strategy, and the poor man’s covered combo. All of which I discussed in a post, My Top 5 Options Strategies.
Investments
The last, and obviously the most important change I made this year is with regard to the assets I’m holding. With careful consideration, I decided to dump most individual company stocks I owned and instead became heavily focused on ETF’s. That said, in fairness, I did keep some small individual holdings for my income bucket. Ultimately, I just liked that ETF’s have managers in place to add or remove individual holdings from the fund. That aspect alone removes a large amount of the due diligence that would otherwise be my responsibility. For now, it’s enough to justify the decision.
2024 Investment Review – Account Summary

Details
First, take notice of the “Account Selection” box in the top left. Leaving that box blank allows me to view all of my accounts in aggregate. From the “Details” section, all of my accounts total to a value of $67k. This is dramatically lower today due to payment towards re-roofing my house.
Regardless, as you move down the “Details” section you can see overall I’m up by $4k with a weighted YOC of 4.62% since I started using this spreadsheet. Admittedly, the lion’s share of that yield comes from just one bucket. A bucket implemented to generate cash that will be primarily be used to buy protective puts. So, unfortunately I don’t currently have plans to keep, spend, or re-invest those dividends.
Gain/Loss
Moving across, you can see the “Gain/Loss” graph showing every holding and the total return for each. Currently, QQQM, VGT, and VTI are the best 3 holdings by total return. Funny enough, the only holding on that list that I haven’t DCA’d in to is also the only holding currently showing a loss, SPYD.
Portfolio Growth
In the middle, “Portfolio Growth” let’s me quickly see how my portfolio’s are doing compared to SPY, QQQ, GLD, IWM, or DIA. Each of those ETF’s can be selected from the drop down box and their price performance will be reflected on the graph. Unfortunately, this was a bit of an after thought so I don’t have my own portfolio data going back to the start of this portfolio Journal. That’s why the peach line is long and straight for most of the graph.
Across the top of that section you can see in total, I’ve been able to achieve 7.58% on all of my capital. If I can maintain that percentage return over time then I will more than meet my long term goals.
The last thing I want to add with regard to the “Portfolio Growth” chart is the peak ROI metric. I use that as a barometer to see how my accounts fair when the market falls. Currently, from the peak, my portfolio is down .50% while the SPY is down .69%. Obviously, I’d like to see a better margin there but I’m not losing more than the market so that is a good thing. If ever the opposite were true, it would be imperative, based on my risk tolerance, to alter the portfolio.
Contributions
Across the top, you can see my contributions for the year as well as the total gain/loss again. Adding the gain/loss metric again just made it easier to keep a watchful eye on how I’m doing P/L wise. However, you may notice that my contributions are relatively low. That’s due to the large withdraw from my savings account to repair my roof. Honestly, I may need to address that but from this total view the number does become skewed as withdraws are made. That said, when I switch to different accounts, the HYSA is separated so I’m able to see the actual total contributions. Maybe in the future I’ll add contributions and withdraws separately, so withdraws don’t alter the total.
Asset Growth
“Asset Growth” is the net liquidity of each individual asset I own and each ticker can be selected from the drop down box above. Again, this chart was an afterthought so I don’t have much data just yet. Regardless, as time goes on, it will serve as a nice way to view how my equity is growing in each position. Additionally, my thoughts were, by graphing this out, maybe I could eliminate any would be laggards sooner rather than later. It’s honestly one of my favorite graphs because it’s not something I’ve seen elsewhere. Generally, all we see graphed is the portfolio as a whole. I guess we’ll see if it’s anything more than just a nice viewport.
Change
To the far right of the page is my account value change statistics. From here, I can see at a glance how my account is growing or shrinking for the selected periods. You’ll also see that large withdraw from the roof today. Moreover, I think it’s important I mention these aren’t gain/loss metrics. Gains/losses are certainly included but these numbers reflect the account value changes rather than investment returns alone. Hopefully that makes sense.
Dividends
The “Dividends” section represents the month and amount I was paid for the asset listed in the “Asset Growth” chart. These calculations happen behind the scenes and I was getting tired of having to wade through a table of data to see how much a single asset was paying me. Truthfully, I use this graph more than I ever thought I would. I guess it’s just nice to see, graphically, the dividends growing over time. So you’re aware, I have the total dividends calculated and graphed in another section but this graph let’s me focus in to just one specific holding, which I like.
Dividends by Period
Last but not least, the “Dividends by Period” section to the bottom right gives me the ability to see my income from a specific date. In this case, from 12/1/24 I’ve collected $133.25 in dividends. I’ve separated it to show me the total dividends received as well as the total dividends received from that date for each individual holding. Again, just a nice way to view some information quickly.
Position Details
I almost forgot to mention the “Position Details” section. Arguably, the most important feature of the entire summary page. It isn’t shown in the image above due to size but I’m including a snippet below. From here I can view every important metric for a given asset, all updated by Google Finance or by new transactions. In all, this table gives me the ability to slice and dice my data without altering the underlying source data. A feature I desperately wish I’d learned about sooner. In any case, here is an image of the “Position Details” section for you to view.

Final Account Summary Thoughts
I really don’t have much more to add but did want to share that every calculation, chart, graph, and/or data point here is updated based on the “Account Selection” criteria. I wouldn’t be viewing the “Portfolio Growth” for the all of my accounts if my margin account was selected. In that case, the summary page would only reflect the “Portfolio Growth” for the specific margin account and so forth. This feature keeps everything within just 2 quick clicks. I can open the drop-down, select the account, and be viewing specific information within that account in seconds. It was cumbersome to build but does allow for total visibility into all of my investments which I’m thrilled to have available.
Finally, the “Account Summary” tab/page is where I spend most of my time within the spreadsheet. This page gives me the ability to focus in on specific items where as the “Overview” page is geared toward the bigger picture. Kind of a macro vs. micro view. In any case, let’s move on now and discuss the “Overview” page.
2024 Investment Review – Overview

Similar to the “Account Summary” section above, the “Overview” section has a lot going on. However, I’ll be much more concise from here on out with my 2024 investment review. Rather, than describe each section, which I really shouldn’t have done, I’ll add the images for your view and quickly touch on the data that’s most important to me.
Portfolio Value
Again, sort of an afterthought, hence the flat area to start the graph. However, my accounts are growing at a steady rate and over time, if that grows at an increasing rate, then I’ll achieve my goal of financial freedom. This, again, isn’t a focus on investment returns alone. It highlights how the account is growing, over time, which does include contributions.
Position Equity
A simple graph to show where all of my money is currently placed. As you can tell, I have the lions share of my capital parked into SGOV & USFR just waiting for a respectable pull back. I haven’t stopped buying other assets but I have slowed way down while the market marches higher. I just want to be ready if/when a pullback occurs. If it takes years then I’ll just slowly keep buying a few shares of different assets each week.
Income Received & Projected
Honestly, more vanity than anything else, this graph just let’s me see the income I’ve received for each asset compared to what is expected. However, this is still a work in progress chart. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but something is wrong here. In the interim, I’ve added the projected years drop down so I can see the expected income based on today’s holdings for up to 10 years into the future.
Remaining Sections
Each remaining section is more or less, self-explanatory. I can see quickly what assets are performing well, what the market sentiment or the economic sentiment is, and even track my net worth. That said, one cool calculation I added was the “Income Estimator”, I enjoy typing numbers into that space to see what my income would be if I achieve different daily income amounts.
Diversification

This spreadsheet, in my opinion, does a number of things well but none better than tracking the portfolio diversification. From the image above you can see immediately where all of my capital, across every account, is currently allocated. If I want to view specific holdings from say, the S&P 500 Category, I can simply select that in the “Category Selection” area. How much am I holding within the dividend growth asset class? I can select that too! Here is a view of both.

I know I’m bias because I made it but I think it’s a simple, efficient, and stylish way to view how my assets are allocated. If I hover over the chart, I can quickly see exactly how much capital I have committed to any particular asset, within each category or asset class. Honestly, I believe this is a staple requirement for any spreadsheet tracker.
Profit/Loss

Pretty self-explanatory here, each graph shows either a realized or a total view of profits and losses to all accounts. Realized profit/losses have been declining lately but that’s just because I’m not shuffling the portfolio anymore. Most of what I’m holding now I plan to hold long term. Ultimately, that section really just becomes another income graph but it does also account for any closed positions, which I thought was important. I’ve broken it down into p/l by year, month, category, asset class, and by investment so I can see every possible level of profit or loss across my portfolios.
Income

Exactly the same as the profit/loss statement, only calculated for dividends, interest, or any bonuses I’ve received. Nothing here should ever show a negative value. It’s just a simple way to view every holding, every class or category, and all income received over time.
Options

Tucked way down on this post is finally some options data. As you can see, pretty boring for someone claiming to be an options trader. However, as I mentioned earlier, I’m more focused now on strategic options versus just trading all the strategies I know. I don’t want to continue trading just for fun and don’t get me wrong, it is fun. I would much prefer to see my accounts grow more consistently. Unfortunately, options and consistency, at least for me, didn’t seem to ever work very well. I am however happy with my results thus far. As I become more comfortable with my strategies this section will become much more useful.
Allocation

Simply, a tool that makes for quick allocation of capital. I look at this criteria each time I decide to invest in some shares. Currently, I have my margin account selected from the “Account Selection” drop down. You’ll notice I’m near complete allocation of the capital currently available. That said, what I use this for is to determine which assets I’m light on, according to the percentages I’ve decided I want to hold. At the moment, HTGC is my lowest holding. Thus, when I’m ready to buy more shares, HTGC will be the first share I DCA in to. Additionally, this tool makes seeing any overweight assets a breeze. Currently, I’m overweight in VUG, ISPY, YMAG, and YMAX but most not by enough to suggest any reallocation of capital. If my YMAG position, for example, were to become hundreds of dollars over my desired percentage, I could easily sell some shares and re-invest that money elsewhere to maintain the balance I prefer.
Projection

Finally, the investment projection graphs. A rough guess as to what may be possible based on actual data from other areas of the spreadsheet. Really this is just a fun tool to play around with. You’ll notice, If I’m able to consistently achieve 7.6% in growth with the 4.6% in yield, I’ll be a millionaire by my 60th birthday! Still, its a long shot at best. That much money is far and away more than I need to consider myself financially free. Take notice of the pink line just under 2039. That would be my 55th birthday and what I think is enough capital for me to officially retire. Who knows if that’s even possible but it’s a nice day dream either way.
Lastly, the graphs to the right just depict the data in graphical form. The upper graph shows the total value, total income, and total contributions across the entire 25 year period. The lower graph highlights how much value is gained each year. Between the ages of 51 and 58, theoretically, I’ll begin to earn more from my investments than I do at my teaching job. We’ll just have to see what God has planned.
Final Thoughts
First, if you made it to this paragraph, you’re a soldier! This 2024 investment review was a much longer post than I’d anticipated when I sat down to write. However, the post is mostly for me, although I do hope you enjoyed seeing all I’ve been up to. I wanted to write this so that some time next year or in 5 years I can come back to it and see how things used to be. Maybe I’m making some mistakes, maybe I’m doing something well, only time will tell. Still, I’m going to want to review it in detail later to know.
In any case, that’s just about enough for one day. I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and you’re able to find an abundance of rest and relaxation. If nothing else, remember this, Jesus is coming and when he does every worry of this life will be no more. Hallelujah!
Until the next post.
God bless,
Jeff