I’m really liking finishing barrels right now!
Posted on December 21, 2018

I look at my imagined wine barrels and large vat every December 15, but it’s good for me to take a snapshot of what has happened since my sale of securities on December 3 for our 2019 Safe Spending Amount. (That has turned out to be THE DAY in December to have sold. Lucky me.)

You can see the volume change in the finishing barrels from December 4 through yesterday. A decline of -1.5% is not good, but it doesn’t look horrible.

The large vat is uncomfortable to look at. It’s 100% stocks, but I won’t touch any of that for a decade. That vat is out back, down a bit of steep path that is difficult to walk this time of year. I want to avoid going out and measuring its volume.

Conclusion. When it gets a bit uncomfortable, go out and look at your finishing barrels. Don’t look at the large vat or all of your nest egg as one big lump.

(Data from December 4: my Bonds +0.8% and my Stocks -10.4%.)