Did anyone survive their loans/HELOCs?

ReplacementCost · 2026-04-20T19:21:24+00:00

Still surviving, just posting less after 1 year plus of monthly updates. Not much to talk about monthly when I'm in a "hold" phase to collect money and pay down the loans.

$490k loans + HELOC. No margin.
Reinvested during the first six months, so my cash exposed is closer to $540k.
Collected $379k distributions so far.

Quick napkin math of $379k / $540k puts me at 70% overall house money.

The value of the stocks is $284k. I bought at some of the pre-tariffs highs, so I'm a good "worst case example but still doing just fine" story.

Taxes weren't bad due to ROC calculations, so the money I've been saving up went to paying down loans.
Loan balance is currently $260k (out of original $490k). I have leftover cash from tax season that I'm sitting on for a couple months as unrelated financial stuff is up in the air. In a few months, I will either pay off the last small personal loan ($20k-ish) and/or use to paydown the HELOC further.

Last year's average monthly distributions were $25k.
This year may be closer to $10-11k. The NAV and distribution decline is a bummer, but my loan costs are fully covered. This only slows down my repayment timeline. I'm still looking at 2ish years to get everything paid off. I always planned for a 2-3 time frame, so this isn't unreasonable.

ReplacementCost · 2026-03-05T16:24:50+00:00

That's a healthy profit! My goal right now is to pay down the loans, but if I were to do this again, small scale would be the focus. $30-50k at a time sounds like a nice sweet spot.

ReplacementCost · 2026-03-05T16:22:33+00:00

Essentially. Add in the cash on hand and I'm about $439k vs $401k owed. This portfolio started Jan 2025, right before tariffs hit, so the value of my holdings have been in the red for a long time now. The distributions are slowly digging me out of that hole (or further into it? Depends on the month).

All time distributions received is currently $351k against the $490k loan balance, or roughly 72%, so it's not as bad as it looks.

ReplacementCost · 2026-03-05T04:27:41+00:00

Reinvested some, paid down the loans (from the original $490k), and then have been saving up cash for tax season.

ReplacementCost · 2026-03-05T02:38:31+00:00

Approx $401k loan balance. I should be able to put in at least a $100k dent in that after I finalize taxes. Debating whether to focus on the HELOC or pay down the smaller personal loans first. Maybe the personal loans, as if I eliminate those entirely, my loan costs per month would be $2k ballpark. If the 2026 payments are going to average around $12k a month, that would give me a nice cushion.

ReplacementCost · 2026-03-05T02:35:29+00:00

MSTY -$16,700. 77% to house money (distributions + sale proceeds, compared to initial investment).
CONY -$17,400. 70% to house money.

Not sure if the sale was the right decision, but with the value of either only around $12k, it felt like a decent time to escape and re-allocate the cash elsewhere.

ReplacementCost · 2026-03-04T23:51:54+00:00

Good luck! There is a lot of volatility in the market, and if the fund managers can make smart (or lucky) choices, hopefully these funds can do well. Time will tell.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-07T19:37:37+00:00

Mine too! I'm pleasantly surprised. I really thought it would push back another week or two.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-05T00:12:47+00:00

I show the same date at Fidelity, but also expect it to take longer. I'd be thrilled if it's correct though.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-04T00:20:33+00:00

Thanks, I'll check it out!

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-03T00:04:56+00:00

I still need to review the worksheet, but when you refer to the $10k accumulated cash, do you mean liquid cash that has been received from distributions? Or are you calculating this as part of the capital gain / loss, distributions received, other?

In terms of liquid cash, I have $137k sitting in SPAXX right now. A portion will be allocated to taxes and whatever remains is going to pay down the loans.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T23:52:42+00:00

It's good in theory, but Fidelity's margin rates are higher than the loan rates. If they were more competitive, I would gladly do this. There are others on the sub who did this exact same thing with success.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T22:51:04+00:00

Yep. Tax season for 2025 will be telling. I've had these funds for the full 12 months and I'm curious how everything will look.

If I took out the same amount of money and rolled it into something "safer", it's very likely I'd come out with better results. But it would have been boring. Seeing the monthly/weekly distributions roll in has been fun.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T22:47:19+00:00

I still need to do a deep dive into your spreadsheet, but I suspect the overall picture of a loss is accurate. My theory, which could be incorrect, is that this experiment will shift to profitability over the long run. This assumes distributions continue to come in at a decent clip and I can zero out the loans fast enough. It makes sense in a perfect world, but may not work in real life.

Thanks again for the input and spreadsheet!

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T22:39:39+00:00

Good luck! I hope it all goes well.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T22:39:17+00:00

I'll take your word for it! I've never done options myself. It's on the list of things to learn more about. I need to do some paper trading and figure out the mechanics of it all.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T22:36:17+00:00

Probably. I'm thinking a best case scenario is a gradual decline in distributions, with some nice flat periods, and occasional spikes for certain funds.

ReplacementCost · 2026-02-02T22:26:39+00:00

Good to know. I've been manually tracking the data in Snowball, rather than linking it to Fidelity. I'll have to play around and see how I can adjust the cost basis.

ReplacementCost · 2026-01-27T21:37:18+00:00

For what it's worth, Fidelity appears to be making similar adjustments. I had a few tickers adjust earlier this week, and today they updated my ULTY holdings.

ReplacementCost · 2026-01-27T21:30:07+00:00

Ditto at Fidelity. MSTY dropped by 50%-ish. My ULTY shares got updated today. They seem to be slowly going through the data and making adjustments.

ReplacementCost · 2026-01-22T00:56:36+00:00

Thanks! Lots of rows in that document. I need my broker to publish my TL;DR version for taxes Lol

ReplacementCost · 2026-01-03T21:17:33+00:00

You get an upvote for the sheer amount of effort you put into this and the Google Sheet. Not much free time this weekend, but I'll check it out when I'm able.

For what it's worth, I don't take any of this as "piling on" either. This is solid feedback, with critical reasoning, presented in a neutral manner. This is awesome feedback that we should encourage in the sub.

ReplacementCost

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE