You may have noticed that I haven’t published a lot lately. My youngest tested positive for COVID on Sunday night. That was an at-home test and I didn’t have full confidence in what I was doing. Monday we went to a real facility and got it confirmed.
It was a little sniffle, but it had been going around his grade at school. We had gotten four positive test emails from them from the start of the break and it felt like we were living at the testing facility. The good news is that those sniffles were as bad it got for him. Youth and double vaccination in November were on his side. Unfortunately, I felt bad on Wednesday, chills, some nausea, fatigue, so I thought that I was positive too. However, it turns out that I was not positive (unless the test was mistaken) and I feel much better today. My wife and the other kid have no symptoms of anything. The other one can even go to school, which he’s not too happy about. He’d rather stay home and distance learn like his brother. Sorry kid, throwing you back in the den of long division.
I didn’t have much ready to share on my personal finances today. I’ve been eying the markets a bit and the Vanguard Total Stock Index (VTI) is almost looking like it’s a point where I might cash out some bonds and buy. Right now bonds and foreign stocks are helping to diversify. Also, high-yield dividend ETFs like HDV, is doing well. Consumer staples look to be good in an inflationary environment. It would be interesting if this is finally a year where the US tech market doesn’t trounce everything else.
I did want to share this great YouTube video from the 1500 Days family brought to you by BiggerPockets, a real estate investing super-site. I met Carl and Mindy at a FinCon in like 2014 or so. They have a great playful banter that makes me laugh. They also have a great story of live-in flipping houses. They live in a big of a fixer-upper (think pink bathrooms) for a few years, renovate, and sell. It seems like a tremendous way to make a hundred thousand dollars tax free if you are handy.
In the video below, they cover how much they went over their spending for 2021. It’s not your typical story though. They also made nearly 1.5 million from stock market gains. Also, a lot of the spending went to renovating the current house they are in – so that’s more of an investment. Give it a watch:
So sorry Covid hit your family but happy to hear the visit has been a mild one.
Sorry to hear about the covid. However, many people are testing negative early on only to later test positive. Given your likely exposure with your child I would probably get a PCR test after at least a few days of feeling symptoms. Hope you feel better.
Thanks. That’s the plan. I think Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) recommended that for us and maybe it comes from the CDC.
Hope your son recovers completely soon. And hope the rest don’t catch Covid. Situation is okay in Thailand. Some Covid, but not really widespread.