Welcome back to Building Wealth Over Time.
Firstly, thanks again for all the support on my previous posts. I really do appreciate it.
To be honest, I was actually considering quitting.
The main reason was that I felt like I wasn’t getting much traction in terms of views and engagement, particularly on my latest post.
Then I realised I’d accidentally put the post behind a paywall.
So that probably explains a lot.
Long story short, I haven’t quit, and I will keep going.
I actually enjoy doing these updates, and they’re helping me think through my own investing decisions. I was just feeling a little bit unmotivated.
So if you do enjoy these posts, I’d genuinely appreciate it if you subscribed and followed along. It really does help.
Portfolio Snapshot
Now onto this week’s update.
Unfortunately, it was another negative week for the portfolio.
The starting balance on 17 October was £53,810.00.
By 24 October, the portfolio had fallen to £52,422.58.
That’s a decline of £1,387.42, which works out at -2.58% for the week.
Not quite as painful as last week’s drop, but still not particularly pleasant to look at.
Portfolio Performance
Portfolio Value: £52,422.58
Weekly Change: -£1,387.42
Weekly Return: -2.58%
Dividends Received: £0
What Performed Well?
Honestly, apart from PepsiCo, not much.
PepsiCo managed a 2.91% gain, but pretty much everything else in the portfolio moved lower.
It was another one of those weeks where red seemed to be everywhere.
What Performed Poorly?
Some of the biggest falls came from my technology positions.
Meta dropped 9.71%.
Alphabet (Google) fell 6.3%.
Netflix dropped another 6.95%.
My First Trust Smart Grid ETF (FGRD) was also down just over 5%.
And my semiconductor ETF SMGB dropped 3.61%.
Interestingly, SMGB didn’t fall as much as some of the individual technology stocks this week, although it still wasn’t exactly a pleasant result.
What Happened In The News?
It feels like we’re talking about the same thing again.
AI.
The sentiment around AI at the moment just isn’t great.
Spending on AI isn’t slowing down.
Data centre spending isn’t stopping.
Companies are still investing.
The issue seems to be that investors are starting to question whether all of this spending is eventually going to generate the returns people are expecting.
There’s a lot of focus on the huge capital expenditure numbers being reported by the major technology companies.
It’s not necessarily that investors think these businesses are doing badly.
It’s more that they’re starting to ask whether we’re spending too much, too quickly.
That uncertainty is creating a lot of fear.
And when fear enters the market, people start selling.
To me, this still feels like more of a sentiment issue than a company performance issue.
A lot of these businesses are still generating huge revenues and investing heavily for future growth.
But right now, the market doesn’t seem to care.
The market is focused on risk.
And that’s creating quite a significant sell-off across technology and AI-related stocks.
What I’ve Learnt This Week
I think the biggest thing I’ve learnt this week is that I’m still trying to stay focused on the long term.
I haven’t panicked.
I haven’t sold anything.
But I am thinking about whether I need to make some adjustments.
When I say adjustments, I don’t mean selling positions and reshuffling the whole portfolio.
I’m talking more about changing where my new money goes.
I keep finding myself looking at VUSA, my S&P 500 ETF.
It’s only down around 1.06%, and again it highlights the benefit of being spread across a much wider group of companies.
It does make me question whether I’m a little bit too focused on technology and AI.
I’m also increasingly looking at some of my income-generating ETFs.
I’ve mentioned them in previous posts, but funds like JEQP and QQIS keep catching my attention.
The dividend income is appealing, especially during periods where growth stocks are struggling.
But if I’m honest, the biggest thing I’ve been thinking about isn’t actually investing.
It’s income.
I’m still going to invest for the long term.
That’s not changing.
But recently I’ve found myself thinking more about whether I should be building side hustles or side businesses alongside investing.
Instead of relying purely on the market, maybe I need to focus more attention on creating additional income streams that I can then invest.
That’s probably been my biggest takeaway this week.
I’m still investing.
I’m still thinking long term.
But I’m also starting to think about how I can increase the amount of money available to invest in the first place.
Final Thoughts
Another red week.
Another week where the portfolio moved lower.
I’m not going to pretend it’s enjoyable looking at the numbers.
But I’m also not panicking.
At the moment, I’m trying to stay patient, stay focused and think long term.
My biggest question isn’t whether I should stop investing.
It’s whether I should slightly change how I invest and put more effort into creating additional income outside of the market.
That’s something I’ll be thinking about over the coming weeks.
As always, thanks for reading.
And if you haven’t already subscribed, I’d really appreciate it.
See you in next week’s update.
Jason
Building Wealth Over Time