I took a look at the current breakdown of my stocks and I have to admit, I’m kind of proud of myself! I recognized early on that all my investments were leaning towards Computers, IT, AI, and all related type of things like semiconductors, and such. I realize that the reason was simple. That was my world. I understand computers and databases, and all that kind of stuff. Since 1980 I have been involved in some tech related to computers. That means that I can remember loading a program using cards and then paper tape (which was so much nicer!). I couldn’t help myself from finding a fascination in all the computer things going on now with the AI rush.
I even went so far as to review the entire supply chain for the AI build out. Including things like Computers made up of CPUs, GPUs, Memory, Hard Drives, Power Supplies, but also the need for buildings with excellent air conditioning (who ever thought that HVAC would be a part of AI?) as well as racks and stands to hold all the servers, (companies like Vertiv) and then the energy requirements from power companies. AI touches so much.
I kept telling myself that I had to diversify more and get away from all the computer type stocks. I tried to make an effort in that direction, but I have to admit that I didn’t really have a plan. I spent a good bit of time yesterday looking at where I stand and I am really happy to report that I did better than I thought.
My concentration of Computer related stocks sits at about 40%. I was really afraid that it was going to be much higher than that. Now some of the other stocks might play in a little bit, but not entirely into AI. I’m thinking about my commercial REITs and my Oil and Gas stocks. When I bought them, I was thinking that this was a part of the AI industry, but they also are in other residential and household needs. But I did move into things like pharmaceuticals, other healthcare stocks, as well as some Retail Stores and Food and Beverages.
Then I took a look at where I stood with dividend stocks verses growth stocks. I had a small issue there because Intel had been a dividend stock when I bought them but they stopped paying dividends in the fall of last year (2025) and I decided not to count Nvidia as a dividend stock because they just started paying it and it’s only 1 cent per share per quarter. With all that in mind, my non-dividend stocks are at about 17% with the other 83% paying some sort of dividend. Now some of them are only about 25 cents per share per quarter, but some are more than that, and of course I have more than one share of each so my dividends are really not all that bad on a quarter by quarter basis.
All in all, I think I did pretty well, and I think this would have been close to my plan if I had had one! I am thinking that 20% growth to 80% dividend would be about where I want to be. And being at 40% in computer related stocks with 60% other stocks makes for a good mix.
While I didn’t pick all the winners, and I definitely picked some losers, I am still running at about 35% up on my investment. I have been disappointed in HP Enterprise. I thought they would have been doing a lot better, and some of my other losers are pretty big. My one chemicals stock is down so low, that it doesn’t make sense for me to sell it now unless I need to take a loss for tax purposes. I’m just going to hang on. I keep thinking I should buy more at this low price to lower my cost basis, so it doesn’t have so far to climb to get into even money. But I’m not sure if I would just be putting good money after bad. We’ll see.
Anyway, I am now going to try to plan a little better and try to keep to the plan that I have now. We’ll see what happens.
