Evaluating my portfolio

[patty_bush]

In the previous entry I tried to figure out if I had a way of getting money to use to buy a couple new stocks to diversify my portfolio. I determined that I didn't really have spare cash to do so

Comments

[shipitfish]

Wow, honestly, I have to say that if you are holding consumer debt, as you indicate in your last post, you should really consider selling most of your stock, regardless of the market conditions, and going after the consumer debt with all that dough. Your stocks won't beat the market frequently enough that it's positive EV to keep the money in the stock while paying high-interest consumer debt.

[patty_bush]

Actually most of my debt is low interest. I've finally gotten the discipline to track my expenses and make sure that my debt is going down, and not up. I've been very strictly watching where every dollar goes and I know where I stand at the end of the month. Before I'd assess the situation and then be diligent for almost a month then I'd slip.

I've built up a history with a couple companies and I was able to transfer the largest chunk of my debt (60%) to a 2% APR account, with that rate lasting the life of the loan. I also was able to get 10% on a 0% APR account with that APR holding until the end of next year. I'm now very aggressively paying down my 8% account which holds about 1/3 of my CC debt, since I've just finished paying off my 10% account.

I've gotten to about the 1K you suggest for the level that I'm playing. And I actually was thinking of cutting my win rate in half : 20% stock, 20% debt, 10% charity. I don't want to make a living playing, but I'd like something to show for it.