The second month of 2025 is already over. Time is flying by again at breakneck speed and one event or statement follows the next this year. It's crazy what's going on at the moment and at the same time the market is somehow saying "I don't care".

Up down, up down, the markets are becoming more volatile and yet, or precisely because of this, my February was almost at +/-0.

But one thing at a time.

In February I achieved a plus of 0.8%. With my portfolio size, this corresponds to a value of almost €900. Not particularly good compared to the Dax (+3.77%), but still very respectable compared to the HSBC MSCI World (-2.49%).

Unfortunately, things do not look any better over the year (YTD).

The Dax is running away with 13.3%, while the MSCI World is bobbing along at 1.6%. Here, too, I was at least able to beat the World, but I still lag miles behind the DAX.

Overall, however, I am still very satisfied. As I don't have a lot of tech in my portfolio and my stocks are (mostly) rather stable, there is often no outperformance of the stocks and if there is, it is only marginal.

My high and low performers in February were (top 3):

$HSY (+0.83%) Hershey +15.63%

$T (-1.83%) AT&T +14.07%

$NESN (-1.37%) Nestle +13.10%

$ADM (-6.5%) Archer Daniels -8.57%

$UNH (+1.39%) United Health -13.16%

$TSLA (-7.23%) Tesla -27.59%

Dividends:

In February, I received a net €123.62 from a total of 10 distributions.

Compared to February 2024 (€99.26), this was an increase of 24.54%

Investments:

Due to the construction work on the house last year, the focus continues to be on building up the nest egg and saving up a "leisure account" again, as everything was really used up completely last year and only the custody account remained.

The savings plans will of course continue unabated, but individual investments are probably not possible for the time being.

Purchases and sales:

I have parted with Mercedes ( $MBG (-4.94%) ) and Medical Properties ( $MPW (-7.7%) ).

I then added to Lockheed Martin ( $LMT (-0.98%) ), Hershey ( $HSY (+0.83%) ) and Petroleo Brasileiro ( $PETR4 (-8.41%) ).

My savings plans remain unchanged, but it is quite possible that I will stop them for the time being in order to build up investment cash again.

Savings plans (350€ in total):

• Realty ($O (-0.09%) )
• STAG Industrial ($STAG (-2.91%) )
• Gladstone Invest ($GAIN (-3.48%) )
• Hercules Capital ($HTGC (-6.09%) )
• Cintas ($CTAS (-2.36%) )
• LVMH ($MC (-3.57%) )
• Monster Beverage ($MNST (+0.17%) )
• Microsoft ($MSFT (+0.48%) )

Goals 2025:

My goal is to have €130,000 in my portfolio at the end of the year. The goal is to be achieved by reinvesting the dividend, making payments and, of course, increasing the share price. The share price increase is of course impossible to predict in any way, so the motto is: if the share price falls or does not rise enough, more cash is needed.

This comes from selling useless stuff on eBay, additional income from e.g. "neighborhood help" etc. The worse the share price, the more additional cash has to be raised.

Target achievement at the end of February 2025: 37.41%

So I'm on the right track (so far). I'm curious to see what else will happen in 2025 and hope that the crash, which seems to be getting closer and closer, will take a little longer (so that I can continue to accumulate cash).

How was your February? Are you happy so far? I think that, due to the volatility, the portfolios in February are far more spread out than they were in January or even at the end of last year.

Portfolio feedback requested

I (early 50s, so still a good 15 years to work on the portfolio) would like to hear your opinion. I've been with Trade Republic since January, mainly because of the 4%. But then I started saving a few ETFs, then buying and selling a few shares. So I played around. At the moment my portfolio has three or rather four different parts. Let's put it this way, the family treasury has given me around €10k to play with. The rest remains in call money.

Of this 10K I would like to have a part to play, individual stocks, §IWDA, other ETFs that are close to me because of my work, XRP.

But that's not my topic here.

I want to build a dividend portfolio. Reduce working hours or improve pension, we'll see where the journey takes me. For now, I would reinvest all payouts.

The composition from December would look like this:

$MCD (-1.43%) 15%

$EXSH (-5.55%) 9%

$MAIN (-6.91%) 9%

$ARCC (-5.13%) 9%

$HTGC (-6.09%) 9%

$O (-0.09%) 9%

$CSWC (-6.43%) 5%

$PFE (-3.48%) 5%

$KAP (-2.75%) 5%

$JEGP (-2.42%) 5%

$TGT (-2.12%) 3,5%

$GAIN (-3.48%) 5%

$QYLE (-3.53%) 5%

$VHYL (-4.07%) 1%

What do you think about the composition? Should something go in/out?

My aim would be to distribute the monthly distributions evenly. I'll have to play around with the ratios a bit.

My problem is that the months of January, February, April and May look too poor. What would you suggest that pays out in these months?

Roast me!

High Yield Income Portfolio

Disclaimer: I know that this is not an optimal strategy (I also have a real portfolio). I also know that very few people are interested in this type of portfolio, so feel free to skip the post, you won't miss anything.

I started building this HY Income portfolio about three months ago.

The first position was $QYLE (-3.53%) and now I've gradually added more stocks.

$QYLE (-3.53%) is pretty much the classic when it comes to covered call ETFs and is in my opinion a must have for every portfolio of this type.

$ACRE (-5.34%) I have great confidence in the management of Ares and the company is one of the few MREITs that I trust with my money. ACRE's portfolio is currently being restructured to be more defensive.

$GAIN (-3.48%) Solid monthly dividend payer with some growth. The management seems pretty solid to me.

$OBDC (-7.69%) Since the company has changed its strategy a bit and is now investing more in equity to increase NAV, it is my favorite BDC.

$STHE (-1.26%) PIMCO specializes in high yield funds, in my opinion it is especially important in the high field area that you trust the management, which is why I chose this product.

$DIV (-3.06%) I like the portfolio of royalties and it offers further opportunities for diversification.

$JEGP (-2.42%) I really like the JP Morgan Covered Call ETF strategy, but will possibly exchange it for $JEPI as soon as it is tradable at TR.

$RITM (-6.26%) I like the vision of the CEO and the dividend is double covered.

$SEDY (-5.4%) was recommended to me by a friend.

QYLE is now being saved less, the focus is on the other stocks.

What are your favorite high yield stocks?

$GAIN (-3.48%)

Gladstone Investment has announced a special dividend of $0.70

The ex-dividend date is October 4 and it will be paid out on October 14.

It is the first special dividend in 2024

In 2023 there were a total of 5 special dividends (1.43$)

My 2nd monthly payer from the Gladstone family