July 2026 FIRE Portfolio Update: Tech Disaster

July 2026 was a come to Jesus moment for the tech market. While it’s run up historical amounts in the three months prior, July was a reversion to the mean. The parabolic move in tech stocks is not healthy and we finally got the pullback that was needed, including an absolute destruction of Semis and memory stock names.

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 – July 2026

• Net worth is at $3.1m as of July 2026 Month end
• -$300k for the month
• In July, we stayed put in Spain and will be here until September
• I went to Bratislava for a quick weekend trip

Market Moves

`	7/31/2026	6/30/2026	% Change
Dow Jones	52,485	52,319	0.32%
S&P 500	7,490	7,499	-0.13%
Nasdaq	25,374	26,214	-3.31%
Russell 2000	2,931	3,024	-3.17%
DAX 30	45.8	44	3.64%

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.

Single name stocks

Some of the single name stocks I own are the following

• RDDT
• ANET
• GOOG
• NBIS
• RITM
• MU

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 – July 2026

July was one of those months where the headlines made it feel like the world was ending, yet the S&P 500 barely seemed to care.

The biggest story was the unwind in the AI trade. After a parabolic run following the start of the Iran war, many of the highest flying AI, semiconductor and memory names finally ran into gravity. What looked like a healthy pullback quickly turned into a full blown deleveraging event as crowded positioning met higher bond yields and forced selling. Some of the more speculative semiconductor and memory names were down 30 to 50% from their highs, while South Korea’s KOSPI briefly fell roughly 40% from its peak as leveraged investors were forced to unwind positions.

Towards the end of the month we found out what was really going on. Much of the selling was tied to the collapse of Situational Awareness, whose heavily leveraged AI portfolio was eventually taken over by Citadel. That revelation helped explain why so many unrelated AI names were moving together and why the bounce after the liquidation was so violent.

The macro backdrop also shifted. The July FOMC meeting left rates unchanged, but it felt like the beginning of a new era for the Fed. Rather than constantly trying to guide markets with forward guidance, the new Fed seems content to say less and let the data do the talking. Meanwhile, markets have continued to price in additional rate hikes this year, pushing the yield curve steeper and sending the 30 year Treasury yield to multi decade highs. Whether that’s ultimately bullish or bearish remains to be seen, but it almost certainly means macro data will matter more and volatility is likely to stay elevated.

Geopolitics continued to dominate the news cycle. Trump and the Iran conflict remained front and center, with seemingly daily swings between military escalation and declarations that the greatest deal ever was just around the corner. We got a few near TACO moments throughout the month, but never quite the full Mexico City style TACO. More Taco Bell than taqueria.

What’s interesting is that underneath all of this, the broader market barely blinked. The S&P 500 finished the month only a few percent below all time highs, while the VIX spent most of July below 20. That’s a pretty remarkable vote of confidence considering everything that was happening. Rather than a broad risk off move, July looked much more like a rotation. Money flowed out of the crowded AI winners and into healthcare, financials, consumer staples, energy and other parts of the market that had spent most of the year sitting on the sidelines.

That rotation is probably the biggest takeaway from July. The market didn’t stop believing in AI. It just stopped believing every AI stock deserved to trade at any price. The long term AI story is still very much intact, but after months of nearly vertical gains, investors finally started paying attention to positioning and valuation again.

Technically, QQQ had a proper correction. At one point it traded roughly 12% below its highs and spent time below its lower Bollinger Band before staging an impressive bounce into month end. It bounced off its weekly 20 SMA which is generally a good sign.

The question now is whether July was simply a healthy reset or the start of a larger correction. If Trump manages to avoid giving us a proper Mexico City style TACO in August and rates continue pushing higher, I could see QQQ making another run toward the 640 area, which looks like the next meaningful support level. That’s roughly another 6% below where it finished July.

Historically, if June and July were negative, the markets generally had a mediocre to bad August and September. BlueKurtic has a nice chart on the results of this

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 July 2026

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July was an extremely active month of trading for me. Memory and semis saw absolute destruction that I’ve not seen since the meme stock frenzy in 2021. Unfortunately, I was positioned on the wrong side of the trade. I had made about $60k on cash secured puts on SNDK and MU in the months leading up to the crash this month. I was finally assigned 100 shares of SNDK and 100 shares of MU. Safe to say, I held for way too long and all those gains were wiped out.

I never anticipated the destruction to be that fast considering how strong the fundamentals seemed. Markets don’t wait for anyone and I learned that the hard way. Stocks like SNDK crashed 50%+ from their peak. Although they had huge run ups in the last year, I was expecting something like a 30-40% correction but I didn’t anticipate something so much larger. My plan is to hold SNDK and MU through earnings and have already sold a few covered calls to reduce my cost basis.

I also used the correction in the Nasdaq to load up on my favorite Mag7 stock (Google) and more of my preferred ETF (VGT).

Markets staged a slight relief rally closing out the month but I suspect there will be more volatility in August as it is one of the more volatile months of the year, especially leading up to the Midterms.

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 July 2026, we spent the time in Barcelona like we have been for the previous 3 months. 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.

Anyone who says Spain is affordable is out of their mind. Barcelona is incredibly expensive and our budgets have been completely blown up. We barely go out to eat because of the meal times (and with two kids) but somehow our expenses are higher than they’ve ever been.

In July, I also made a trip to Bratislava which just happened to my 100th country. It was a quick solo trip away from Barcelona and it exceeded all my expectations. In August, we will go to Mallorca for a week before finally heading back to Bali and paradise in early September.

I’m very happy to not pay to rent an expensive apartment and the elevated expenses of life in Barcelona going forward.

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 July 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.

Food and dining out are quite expensive in Barcelona. The value for money is also weak. I find Spanish food to be over-rated. Small portions, high carbs, low protein, and high prices means I’m generally always hungry and unsatisfied. I cannot wait to be back in Bali.

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.

In July, we made a one time payment for our visas to live in Indonesia. We purchased 4 of the 2y residence D12 visas. In total, this cost about $2,100.

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 July 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 July, my traffic numbers stayed consistent and my Mediavine RPMs decreased as July is seasonally a very bad month. Overall, the RPMs were down about 25% which is an extreme decline. I’m still 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?

Here is a breakdown of my monthly earnings.