March, a month in review.

The month started with us getting our stimulus check, which shortly after found its way into the stock market. Similar to last month, we were able to put aside over $5K towards our various retirement accounts.

Unfortunately, Italy has remained pretty locked down to where we are essentially locked to getting take out/delivery from restaurants, but other than that we basically sit at home (besides getting groceries and walking our dog). As much as I like to see my accounts grow in value, this is definitely getting a bit old, and I am ready to travel some more…

Besides that, let’s move on to the numbers for this month:

Vanguard Roth IRA – $94,158 (+$613 from last month)

TSP – $80,743 (+$9.7K with -$2.3K invested) As of March 31, 2020 my 12 month personal investment performance is a whopping 67.4%! Obviously this is basically measuring the run-up since the “flash” crash of COVID, but it is damn nice to see those kind of numbers…

Taxable accounts – $36,811 (+5.6K with -$3K invested) The main big thing for me is that I managed to pick up PFE at $35.42 while today it’s trading at 36.35. With the $3K dumped into Pfizer, my average cost basis for PFE is (of this moment) finally in the green!

I am also keeping an eye on DAL and NCLH (and a few dividend stocks) to hit my price targets to buy into as well.

Crypto – $28.2 (+8.2K, no additional investment) Pretty nice to see this. Although there was quite a decent run up the last couple of days – which means I am counting April a little bit – it’s still a very positive outcome!

Cash – $7.8K (+$2.8K) Basically, the $2.8K is coming from the stimulus check for me and the wife. The good news seems to be that this upcoming month, I will once again be able to throw about $3K into the market should the price points appeal to me. Overall, I am very glad I have SOME cash sitting around.


For things I enjoyed or accomplished this month, things are too similar to the last month…

Work has not let up at the slightest. It almost seems like a hydra where each issue I fix, another 3 take its place. We went back into a shift work schedule where we have been in office alternating weeks. I now have a couple of new folks at the office as well, which means finishing the various work tasks takes a bit longer due to the extra training that takes place for them. Thankfully they have been great learners so far, so maybe soon we will get back to normal.

I never was able to go to the mountains and enjoy the snow… we are now hitting the 80s in temperature and looking at the slopes from my balcony, it seems the snow has almost completely melted. We have also gotten more restrictions and can hardly leave our house yet again. A bit upsetting for sure, but at least the warm temps and daylight savings kicking in means more time to take our dog out and so on.

With the temperatures getting higher and days getting longer, this meant that I have been taking my camera out more often on our walks around the neighborhood. It’s nothing crazy, but being able to capture the various blooming flora and work on my technique has definitely been a positive. With the longer sunlight and the smell of the blooming flowers, my mood has definitely been better on average as a whole as well.


Although largely due to the stimulus checks getting thrown at us, I was able to exceed both my main and stretch investment goals by shoveling an extra $3K into the market. Next month, the target remains the same – $1K on top of my regular retirement contributions, with an additional $1K as a stretch goal. Looking at my cash position, this should definitely happen…

Thankfully, this weekend is a 4-day due to good Friday and Easter. I’m having some coworkers and friends over for 2 out of the 4 days, which I am very much looking forward to. The next couple of weeks will be pretty rough at work due to some internal air-forcey things, but hopefully the last couple of weeks of April will swing back and equalize the month to be pretty good overall.