Over the past quarter century, I have bought and sold dozens of individual stocks in my brokerage account and through Dividend Reinvestment Plans.
Some of my trades have been big winners.
And some have been big losers.
But thinking back over a period of decades, even the biggest winners and the biggest losers tend to fade from my memory.
The trades I actually tend to remember the most are the ones I didn’t make.
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During the third quarter of 2018 we continued to make good progress in our pursuit of financial independence and early retirement!
Our efforts were helped by the strong stock market. The S&P 500 delivered its best quarterly returns in almost five years during Q3 18, climbing by more than 7% during July, August, and September! The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by 9% during the quarter, while the Nasdaq 100 rose by over 8%.
Those great returns from the market gave our finances a boost, and we made progress on the Net Worth, 529 Account Funding, and Passive Income goals we are tracking to measure our progress. We even hit one of our short-term financial goals a quarter early!
After relatively weak production from our rooftop solar panels in August, things didn’t get much better in the month of September.
While we did produce slightly more energy during September, which was a nice surprise, we also used more energy during the month.
The end result was a very small deposit into our bank of solar energy credits. Those credits will help offset our electric bill during the coming winter, when our energy production will drop precipitously, driven by the shorter days and rooftop solar panels that will likely spend a considerable amount of time buried under ice and snow!