Late Bloomer Wealth

Beginning Investing

Quarterly Report Q1 2021

    Steve’s Bio Stephen A. Schullo, Ph.D. (UCLA ’96) taught in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) for 24 years and UCLA Extension teaching educational technology to student teachers. Steve wrote investment articles for the United Teacher-Los Angeles (UTLA) union newspaper for 13 years. He has been featured and quoted in many mainstream …

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Steve’s Portfolio Y.T.D. Q3 Report 2019

If this year-to-date performance holds up till the new year 2020, I will have the highest gross income in my life.
I have often said that my portfolio is boring. But I have one exception–10.5% return Year-to-Date–January 1st, 2019 to September 30, 2019. The only reason my portfolio is up is that I am broadly diversified in 33% stocks and 67% bonds. As you will see in the graphs and tables, my bonds went up almost 9% and my stock index funds went up almost 20%. Its been a good year for both stocks and bonds so far. It is not the end of the year yet.

Michelangelo’s Famous Quote

One of the most famous artists in the history of art Michelangelo Buonarroti’s offers a metaphor for discovering the basics of investing. Because we live in the 21st Century, Wall Street, Vanguard Group and TIAA (Teacher’s Insurance Annuity Association) have already created the pieces we need. All we have to do is “chip away” the material that doesn’t belong in our “David”–a very simple and easy to understand portfolio of stocks and bonds. I know this may seem like a stretch of my imagination, but please read on. This post is short and to the point!

Book Review: “Your Money or Your Life”

I have read many books on personal finance. The majority were about the quantitive aspect: the data, graphs, statistics, market history, types of stocks and bonds, and the skills needed to construct low-cost diversified portfolios. This book finishes the job by discussing the lesser status qualitative aspect: your thinking and your emotions surrounding money. Both aspects make valid contributions for the eventual, sometimes elusive goal of financial independence, and to be happy at your job and giving back to the greater good.

September 30 3rdQ, 2016 Portfolio YTD Returns

The Stock and Bond Markets are up again in the third quarter of 2016. Read how my portfolio has returned 6.7% after nine months. It’s really not complicated because my portfolio is straightforward. It’s constructed to gain when the core asset classes increase and loses value when the market goes down.
Losing is an important part of investing process, if not the most important part. The majority of people don’t understand it because they sell when their investment declines. Never sell, unless it is part of your plan, not because of bear market conditions. Have a plan and stick with it during ups and downs.

2nd Quarter 2016 Portfolio Returns

It’s that time of the year, the Quarterly Reports. I really hope you find these reports helpful for a number of reasons:
1. Show you how a portfolio of diversified stocks, bonds, and cash looks like.

2. Show how this diversified portfolio performs in coordination with the stock and bond markets.

3. The individual holdings are not selected at random, but for the purpose of doing a specific and important job in the portfolio. It’s always about the portfolio as a whole performing package, not about the individual holdings.

4. Each holding reflects a specific part of the domestic and international stock and bond markets.

5. While some of the stock asset classes have high correlations, stock and bond allocations are not. Including bonds in my portfolio helps preserve my money against a major and lengthy stock market crash. This is known as the stock bond split. My portfolio is 30% stocks and 70% bonds. My 30% exposure to stocks provides enough risk that my portfolio should keep up with inflation (This is not a guarantee, it is part of my diversification and asset allocation plan).

6. This portfolio is an example of a conservative portfolio for a 69-year-old retiree.

Rebalancing My Life and My Portfolio

Is been over eight months since Dan died and while the hours and days are getting easier, I miss Dan every day. The single life remains an unfamiliar challenge. I am still thinking and feeling as a part of a couple—similar to losing a limb, the phantom pain is real. I am functioning just fine and carrying on with life as if nothing happened. But my grief is alive and painful just below the surface, 24/7. I am slowly “rebalancing” back to a single life, a life that I have not experienced since my 20s.

Investment Workshop Evaluation Results

Every time we offer one of these rare investment workshops, the workshop participants always comment that they want “more of the same.” Only two per year can be provided because of costs. UTLA and LAUSD do not fund these workshops. To their benefit, UTLA does provide the room, and Eva for paperwork and logistical support, and we thank UTLA for that support. On the other hand, LAUSD has rejected support for these workshops for years. We need to inform the Board of Education that financial literacy education is a significant benefit for their employees. If more employees knew of the district’s Award Winning 457(b) plan, more educators would save money for retirement and in the long term would save the district money.

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