April 2026 FIRE Portfolio Update: The Mother Of All Buy The Dip

April 2026 completely reversed anything that happened in the previous month. While the war in Iran dominated headlines and crashed markets in March, the mother of all reversals took place in April as Trump once again TACO’d on his own war. Markets recovered the losses from the end of March and skyrocketed to new highs as everyone seemingly forgot about the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and conflict.

If you haven’t already read my posts before, I achieved Financial independence back in late 2020 early 2021 with a portfolio of roughly $1.3m invested in mainly ETFs. This ballooned to $1.7m during the peak of the markets in early 2022 before coming back down to Earth later in 2022. The portfolio has since regained new all time highs as markets rally beyond the previous highs.

This post will be part of a monthly series of portfolio updates that summarizes how my portfolio performed, what trades I executed, what my monthly expenses were, and my general outlook on the economy/markets. This is by no means financial advice so do not look look at me for sage advice. I make stupid trades and make even worse losses quite frequently.

This is simply the performance of my portfolio and how it has performed on a month to month basis.

Monthly Highlights – April 2026

• Net worth is at $3.1m as of April 2026 Month end
• +$300k for the month
• In April, we migrated to Spain and will be here for the next 5 months

Market Moves

What is in my portfolio?

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My portfolio is quite simple and straight forward. I have my holdings primarily spread out between a few ETFs, fixed income, and various single name stocks.

ETFs

Again, my primary holdings are in a few ETFs. My primary holdings are in VTI, VGT, and VCR. I’ve always been a big proponent of big tech and have been heavily invested in the Nasdaq for over a decade. This has paid off very well for me given the massive bull market of the 2010s and is essentially what allowed me to FIRE so quickly.

I used to hold more dividend generating stocks as I was really into this type of investing at a period of time. I currently do not have many dividend specific ETFs as I prefer growth more than income. This kind of goes against the ethos of financial independence but I have enough money coming in from other sources that I don’t need to focus so much on consistent income from my investments.

As markets rallied again to all time highs, I didn’t add much to my position like I did in May 2025. I’m comfortable holding a bit more cash than normal and will wait for more opportunities to arise.

Single name stocks

Some of the single name stocks I own are the following

• RDDT
• ANET
• GOOG
• META
• NBIS
• RITM

These single name stocks make up less than 5% of my total portfolio. I tend to not buy much single name stocks anymore as there’s no point to take on unnecessary risks when I’m already so diversified with my ETFs.

Real Estate

I own real estate in Bali, Indonesia. While I’m not a big fan of real estate investment as an asset class, this is my personal home for my family. It’s hard to put a price tag on an amazing place to live that you can’t replicate in the rental market. As a home that my kids will make memories and grow up in, it’s no longer an asset that I need to profit from.

It’s hard to Mark to market the value of our home in Bali as the data is not so transparent. However, I believe that with the deal I was able to obtain, and the location of our villa, the value will at the very least hold on to what we paid for it. In addition, I took a margin loan against my portfolio to pay for the purchase. This means I didn’t sell any stock or incur any capital gains tax. I took a loan against my portfolio for the full amount of the purchase and pay an interest rate of 4.5% to Robinhood (my broker).

Fixed Income

I also purchased I-Bonds in 2022 at the height of inflation peak when I-Bonds were paying 9.5%. The rates have come down significantly since then as inflation itself has come down and I no longer bother with I-Bonds.

In the recent high interest rate environment, I had allocated a small portion of my portfolio to fixed income products, specifically purchasing treasury bills with 3-6 month expiry. These were paying out 5.5% which was a great guaranteed income generator. In recent months on the back of anticipated FED rate cuts, this rate was always going to come down which meant stocks should increase.

Well the FED cut rates for the first time since COVID in Sep 2024 which means treasury bill returns will be decreasing for the foreseeable future. My last treasury bill expired in July 2024 and that cash was used to buy the market. I suspect I will not buy any fixed income products for the foreseeable future.

Market Commentary – April 2026

April was one of those months where the market looked at a genuinely messy geopolitical situation, blinked twice, and then decided it had seen enough. The big theme was the TACO reversal around the Iran war. There was plenty of drama, plenty of tough talk, plenty of reasons to think risk assets might stay under pressure, and then stocks ripped back to all time highs in what felt like a matter of minutes with the Nasdaq gaining almost 15% in a month!

Even with the Strait of Hormuz still closed and the conflict still volatile enough to make anyone pretending to be calm on financial television look slightly ridiculous, the market traded like it had already skipped ahead to the part where everyone calms down and goes back to making money.

That kind of move only sticks if earnings show up, and in April they absolutely did. This was not just a relief rally built on headlines and hope. Strong results and upward revisions gave investors something real to grab onto. Companies kept beating expectations, guidance held up, and the tone around profits was better than anyone would have guessed if you had only been reading the news flow. So while oil stayed jumpy and the geopolitical backdrop remained one bad headline away from another panic attack, stocks focused on the part that matters most in the end, which is whether earnings are still moving higher. In April, they were, and the market wasted no time rewarding that.

The other big reminder was that the AI trade is still the main game in town, no matter how many people tried to bury it in March. A month ago there was just enough hand wringing to make it seem like investors were finally going to get serious about asking whether all this AI spending had gone too far. Then April arrived and basically laughed at that idea.

As soon as it became clear that the big spending plans were still intact and the demand story was still very real, anything tied to AI capex started flying again. Between Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Amazon alone, CAPEX spending will rise to something crazy like $700bn. Chips, memory, storage, networking, power, cooling, basically every company selling the machinery of the AI buildout suddenly became cool again, which in this market is usually another word for expensive.

Market Value of Portfolio

Here is a history of my portfolio value. As you can see, it’s moved in line with the markets as should be the case since most of my holdings are in ETFs that track the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

In Sep 2025, I added my partner’s portfolio to the mix. I’ve avoided doing this for some time as this blog was mainly for my personal purposes but as we are a family now, it’s time to just aggregate everything for the blog purposes.

Trades executed for the month of April 2026

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April was an active month of trading for me. The FOMO rally and market volatility was a great time for me to sell puts and swing trade on stocks that I’ve been watching. The greater rally also propelled my long term holdings to new highs that I’ve never seen before.

I purchased ARES stock as a private credit play over a year ago. It has done quite well over the year until the private credit collapse from q1 of this year. I guess high interest rates for a long time coupled with the surge in AI is not good for these stocks. Along with limiting redemptions on their funds, it seemed like a good time to get out.

I purchased shares of Trade Desk stock in April. I haven’t looked at this stock in years and remember its massive run up during the pandemic.

Sandisk

Sandisk has been the stock market darling for the past year and one of the best ways to play the AI trade. It’s returned something crazy like 3,000% over the last year and almost doubled in price in April. Crazy for a company that I only knew it to produce memory cards for my cameras not too long ago. I have been trading in and out of this stock since it was in the 500s but sadly, I did not buy and hold long enough.

I’ve sold many cash secured puts on this stock collecting huge premiums along the way. In April, I sold a near the money put at $900 before earnings as the IV was reaching 150% at certain times. I collected over $8,000 in premium for this option which is a 9% return in the course of a week. It sounds very impressive until you realize the underlying stock skyrocketed 20% in the same amount of time. I should have just bought and hold.

I sold covered calls on stocks that I own that ran up during the rally as well to lock in some profit.

Most of my portfolio is concentrated in big cap tech which was underperformed the market for the last half a year or so. I think it’s a matter of time before they have their day again.

Summary of stock and ETF purchases

Option Activity

Portfolio withdrawals and expenses

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Withdrawals from my portfolio is an important part of the financial independence ethos. The 4% withdrawal rate rule is one of the main concepts of the FIRE movement which I try to adhere to. Generally, I prefer to sell from my portfolio when markets are near or at all time highs to capture, and only when I actually need the cash.

For the month of April 2026, we spent the time in Barcelona. We are here for 5 months as we will have a 2nd child and have decided that giving birth in Europe makes more sense than giving birth in Bali. It’s a bit of a lifestyle shock having gotten so used to the amenities of Bali but that will be the case living anywhere else from now on. I like Spain as a country but the meal times are the real struggle! Nothing opens until 1pm for lunch or 7pm for dinner which is far later than I’ve become used to, and almost impossible to plan meals around with a toddler.

For the next few months, I won’t be traveling much and probably won’t have any cool photos or experiences to post here.

We made no withdrawals from the portfolio as we had enough cash coming in from my blog as well as leftover cash from other sources. My blog generates money every month to the tune of $5k or more and I cover exactly how I earn money from blogging in other posts.

Expenses for April 2026

In April, we temporarily re-located to Barcelona, Spain for a few months. Our villa in Bali is vacant during this time as we have some renovations taking place so we are not enjoying any rental income to offset expenses in Barcelona.

I’ve been to Barcelona a few times before but never more than a few days. We will stay here for the next 5 months or so. Barcelona is far more expensive than Bali in almost every aspect of life. Our expenses shot up significantly and we have to pay rent again. We are renting an apartment in the heart of Eixample and short term rental prices in Barcelona are a bit insane.

We did not have any travel expenses this month as we are stationery for a long time but this was more than offset by the high rental and dining prices. Settling into the city life with a baby meant a lot of one off “Start-up” costs that were also incurred. In total we pay €3,500 a month for our 3 bedroom apartment with utilities. This is a pretty insane price but remember that it is a short term price. A long term lease would probably be €1,000 less than this.

Gyms in Barcelona are cheaper than in Bali but offers little to none of the amenities. I miss my gym in Bali a lot but what can you do.

Historically, I was accrual accounting our expenses but I’ve decided going forward I will cash account all our expenses which is much more realistic as far actual financial management goes. A lot of our expenses in Bali are paid for upfront for multiple months. Things like rent are paid upfront as well as the gym (discount for paying multiple months upfront).

In total, our expenses for the month are as follows:

Earnings for the month

While the portfolio is the main source of financial security, we still have income coming from other sources. After all, if you can make money doing something you love, why not?

In our case, we have income coming from my blog which I will detail the numbers in the next section. My partner works part time at a travel related company and also brings in income to help with the monthly expenses.

My April 2026 Blog Earnings

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I always give a run down on my monthly blogging income on these monthly portfolio reports because this is about my blog after all. My blog generates quite a lot of money from many years of hard work that it is a huge supplement to my FIRE portfolio.

• Johnny Africa 2025 Blog earnings
• Johnny Africa 2024 Blog earnings
• Johnny Africa 2023 Blog earnings
• Johnny Africa 2022 Blog earnings

My full 2025 blog earnings report has finally been released via my post in the links above. I made a total of $75k from blogging in 2025 which was an absolute monstrous and record year.

I earn money from blogging primarily from ads and sponsorships. My ads are managed by Mediavine which I joined in May 2024. In addition to Mediavine advertisements, I also earn money from Affiliate programs, sponsorships, and travel planning. More details on these things in my how to make money blogging posts.

In April, my traffic numbers stayed consistent and my Mediavine RPMs increased as I earned closer to the $2k mark that I have been targeting. I’m debating moving from Mediavine to Raptive (another ad network) as they have been bombarding me with emails about how much who switch earn much higher RPMs. I don’t think it’s true but what do I have to lose?

My blog earnings have dropped in April and it feels like the overall trend will be down for the foreseeable future.

Here is a breakdown of my monthly earnings.