What Survived the 2022–2023 Crash? My Portfolio Breakdown

If you were investing in 2022 or 2023, you remember what it felt like:

• Rising interest rates

• Inflation panic

• Tech selloffs

• “Recession warnings” every other day

I watched my portfolio drop by over 17% in the span of 3 months. Every asset I held was in the red — except one.

And yet… I didn’t panic sell.

Instead, I tracked every position. Every month. And at the end of 12 months, I looked back and asked:

“What actually held up? And what exposed the weak points in my plan?”

Here’s exactly what I held, how I tracked it, and what I’ll never invest in again.

🟥 The Original Portfolio (Before the Crash Started)

Here’s what my portfolio looked like in January 2022:

At the time, I felt like this portfolio was bulletproof:

• Broad coverage

• Tech + income balance

• One or two speculative “moonshots”

Turns out, it wasn’t as resilient as I thought.

📉 What the Crash Did to My Holdings (Month-by-Month)

I tracked my portfolio performance monthly using Google Sheets and StockEducation.com’s tracker.

Here’s the snapshot from Month 1 to Month 6:

By Month 6:

• QQQ had dropped over 21%

• PLTR and SOFI were down almost 30%

• SCHD was holding strong, down just 5.6%

• KO was still up 2.3%

This experience taught me two things:

1. Hype stocks have no floor

2. Dividend ETFs are boring for a reason — they don’t drop as fast

🧠 My Emotional Journey (and Mistakes)

Even though I didn’t sell, I wasn’t calm.

Each week I told myself:

“Should I cut my losses now and buy back lower?”

I didn’t know how to read market sentiment. I didn’t know what “support levels” were. I was reacting to pain, not evaluating based on fundamentals.

The only reason I didn’t sell was because I had written a rule in my notes app:

“Don’t sell any core holdings unless the underlying business breaks.”

Without that, I would’ve dumped everything by April.

📊 The Asset That Surprised Me the Most

KO (Coca-Cola) not only stayed positive — it kept paying dividends.

That small 10% allocation became the emotional anchor of my portfolio.

Every time I checked and saw “+2.3%” next to KO while the rest of my portfolio was red, it reminded me:

“Not everything moves together. Diversification is working.”

And the $0.44 dividend each quarter? It gave me a win when everything else felt like a loss.

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📈 Month 7 to 12: Recovery, Rebalancing, and Reinforcement

After 6 months of red, the market began to show signs of life.

Inflation cooled slightly. Fed rate hikes slowed. Earnings stabilized.

So did my portfolio.

Here’s how my positions evolved from Month 7 to 12:

📊 Final Portfolio Performance After 12 Months

🧠 What I Learned From Every Holding

✅ KO and SCHD Gave Me Confidence

They weren’t flashy, but they:

• Held steady during panic

• Paid income like clockwork

• Made me feel like I wasn’t helpless

✅ VTI Recovered — Because It Always Does

Even with a 12% drawdown mid-year, VTI bounced back by December. It reminded me that the broad market always moves in cycles, not straight lines.

❌ PLTR and SOFI Were Costly Distractions

These were my speculative bets. They:

• Added stress

• Tanked the portfolio’s average return

• Never recovered in the timeframe

I won’t repeat those mistakes again — at least not without better risk controls.

✅ O Paid Me Monthly — Even in the Red

It dropped in price. But those monthly dividend payments gave me consistency.

It wasn’t exciting. But it made the portfolio feel active, even in downturns.

🔄 What I Did Midway That Helped

Around Month 7, I made some key adjustments:

• Increased my allocation to SCHD and KO

• Sold 50% of PLTR and SOFI (to tax-loss harvest)

• Used the cash to add VTI and XLV

• Started using StockEducation’s crash simulator to test new allocation stress

The result? I ended the year down only 2.1% overall — with nearly $170 collected in dividends.

That felt like a win.

💬 Emotional Closure: What Survived Wasn’t Just the Assets

Here’s what really held up:

• My confidence

• My discipline

• My belief in the system

I stopped guessing. I stopped chasing trends. And I started using real data, structure, and support.

What survived the 2022–2023 crash wasn’t just KO and SCHD. It was my ability to stay invested — and stay rational.

🔵 Want to Build a Crash-Resistant Portfolio?

Here’s how I got through it — and how you can prepare for the next dip.

✅ Step 1: Take the Free Quiz

👉 Go toStockEducation.com

You’ll get a beginner portfolio strategy based on:

• Your risk comfort

• Time horizon

• Income vs growth goals

It builds a foundation designed to weather downturns — not just chase growth.

✅ Step 2: Simulate Before You Invest

I used the platform to:

• Run worst-case market scenarios

• Backtest different allocations

• Check ETF overlap (so I didn’t accidentally double up on tech)

This let me fix problems before they became painful.

✅ Step 3: Add Assets That Keep You Anchored

For me, that was:

• SCHD for income and tax efficiency

• KO for emotional stability

• O for monthly income

They didn’t beat the market. They made sure I stayed in the market.