My Portfolio Recovered $21,000 in One Month — Here’s What I Changed

As of August 31, my portfolio was worth just over $844,000, against approximately $750,000 of invested capital. That put my total profit around $93,000, or roughly 10% on invested capital.

My internal rate of return climbed to 12.42%, compared with about 9% in July. My passive-income yield remained around 20%, while projected annual income increased to approximately $175,000, up more than $8,000 from the previous month's projection.

My average monthly income also increased from roughly $13,900 to $14,050.

That's the part of the strategy I wanted to see during a market pullback: prices can move around dramatically, but the income engine can continue doing its job.

My first move was exiting XLUI and XLSI, two State Street sector income ETFs I had been dollar-cost averaging into.

Neither position was performing badly enough to create a major loss, but both were essentially flat while other parts of my portfolio were generating stronger results. I decided the capital could have a better job elsewhere.

That led to move number two: I bought back into AIPI.

Yes, I had exited AIPI in July and said I was done with it. I changed my mind.

My conviction in AI and technology hadn't changed, and AIPI's underlying exposure was still attractive to me. The covered-call structure also provided a significant distribution rate, while I already had other AI exposure through positions such as FEPY, QQQI, and CHPY.

For me, this wasn't about randomly chasing a higher yield. It was about taking capital from positions I had lower conviction in and reallocating it toward an area where I still saw stronger long-term potential.

My third move was simplifying my gold exposure.

I previously held KGLD and IAUI, with each position serving a slightly different purpose. KGLD gave me more direct gold-price exposure, while IAUI layered income through options.

Rather than maintaining two separate positions, I decided to consolidate the strategy into IGLD, the First Trust Cboe Vest Gold Target Income ETF.

At the time of the move, IGLD was generating a distribution rate of roughly 21.5%, and my position was just over $52,000, or about 6% of the portfolio.

The goal wasn't simply to chase the yield. I wanted one position with a clear purpose instead of multiple funds giving me overlapping exposure through different strategies.

That's an important part of portfolio management: every holding should have a job. If two investments are doing similar things, simplifying the portfolio can make it easier to understand and manage.

The fourth move was the one I previously said I wouldn't make: I bought GDXY again.

I lost a significant amount of money on the YieldMax Gold Miners Option Income Strategy ETF, and I had publicly said I wasn't going back.

This time, however, I'm treating it completely differently.

I started with only about $1,200, and I'm not planning to add more capital. I'm also not relying on the distributions for income. Instead, every distribution will be reinvested.

I'm essentially running a small experiment to see how GDXY behaves when its distributions are allowed to compound, particularly during an environment of elevated gold volatility. I'm interested in observing the strategy over the next 6, 12, and potentially 18 months.

The other addition was HACKY, the Amplify Cybersecurity Covered Call ETF. Cybersecurity remains an area where I have strong conviction because spending on digital infrastructure and security isn't going away—and AI could make cyber threats even more significant.

HACKY had a trailing yield around 7.6%, but because the ETF launched in January, I believe the forward distribution rate was more informative, at roughly 15.7% at the time.

I started with approximately $2,700 and, like GDXY, plan to reinvest the distributions while I watch the thesis develop.

August reminded me why I built this portfolio around income in the first place.

July brought a 4.71% decline, but the distributions continued. By the end of August, the portfolio had recovered to more than $844,000, while projected annual income reached approximately $175,000.

My largest positions remained QQQI at 17.8%, SPYI at 13.3%, and CHPY at 12.6%. Other meaningful positions included MLPI at 9%, FEPY at 7%, IWMI at 6.7%, and IGLD at 6%.

The bigger lesson isn't that every move I made will work. It's that I'm continually evaluating whether each position is earning its place in the portfolio.

I exited funds that weren't meeting my expectations, increased exposure where I had stronger conviction, simplified overlapping positions, and even allowed myself to run a very small experiment with an ETF I previously swore off.

That's what building an income snowball looks like for me. It's not set-it-and-forget-it investing. It's continuously refining the machine while keeping the bigger objective in sight: growing an income stream that can eventually support me without requiring active income.

Every dollar has a job. Sometimes the job changes.