APRIL AND MAY BUYS AND SELLS - TEMPORARY SHAKEUP

Hello folks.  Took most of a month off from blogging to deal with some major league stuff.  

April began as a normal month, with my regular purchases using my easily earned dividend income.  Then things changed.  

I am in the position to have to take care of my mother and place memory care.  She had always refused to even consider any form of long term care insurance, or even any planning for any care.  She was sure she would just live out her life with no medical issues at all and  just peacefully disappear one day.  

Of course that does not happen to most people.  Time has come when she can no longer live at home on her own.  Sad, but I knew this day was coming for a few years now.  And sad for her, but with zero short term memory, she will only be upset for a short while after we move her. I would have been able to plan better, but she even refused to let me be power of attorney until she hurt her ankle 2 years ago.  

So it's up to me to pay for the first few months of care.   I had to do the inevitable:  sell a bunch of shares to cover the costs until we sell her home and recover the costs.  

In order to minimize the impact of these sales, I mainly chose the investments that pay the lowest dividend rate.

So first I will show the chart and then break it down.

So I now have $88,000 in cash.  This will allow me to pay for a few months of her care and prepare her house for sale.  The home repairs will take some serious cash, but will be worth it for sale price.

I decided to pick the holdings that had divided rates at 2% or lower.  A couple were a bit higher, like Target (TGT), but they had gained over 100% in equity and so I did not have to sell other holdings to get this much cash.

Once the home is sold, I will pay back this into my account and will start these over.  I kept at least one share in all of the holdings I closed out in order for me to remember the ones I will buy again.

In summary, I lost $1.346.70 in annual dividend income.  Not too bad considering the amount I took out.

I will update this as time goes on.

Take care of yourselves!