How are your portfolios YTD?

[laurence]

So I rebalanced my 401k and my wife's 401k to capture the whole market with a bias towards equities since we are young (sort of a bastardized coffee house). Did this at the end of December, and since then the markets, as near as I can tell (S&P 500, Wilshire 5000 etc.) when averaged are pretty much flat. I'm up a whopping .1%. So I guess I succeeded in my desired goal

How are others doing this year? Has this been a good start to '05 or do you wish you could forget it?

 

[Patrick]

Well, according to the calculator on my investment account website, I'm down 1.41%. I was 100% in a small cap value fund. I'm not ERd yet, so I can afford a little risk and volatility. I was up 24.84% YTD at the end of last year, so I'm not complaining.

 

[Spanky]

I was up 2% last week. I am not so sure now since my REIT funds (10% of the portfolio) has taken a big hit lately.

I normally update my return on a weekly basis.

Spanky

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Up about 1.2%; I'll be seeing about $7k in dividends at the end of the month to spruce that up a little bit.

 

[Berkshire_Bull]

I'm up roughly 19%, or $30,000... TH I get almost $150 per quarter in dividends! Does anyone else get addicted to dividends? They're just so real and tangible, I love em'.

 

[ak4195]

3.24% for me,and 3.03% for mums.Once again the near passive account(moms,1to 2 trades/yr and decently balanced with an income bias)easily trots along in a tight second place to the more aggressive account,more work,more monitoring(that would be me).
If my figures are correct,approx 2/3's of moms yearly disbursement comes from income/divvy's.

Enjoy the year,dont sweat the small stuff-ak

 

[laurence]

Wow, congrats BB! What went so right for you? TH, your post makes me feel like a minnow swimming with great whites! Your dividends are 10% of my portfolio! I enrolled in my first DRIP this year, I too find dividends rather addicting.

 

[Nords]

Does anyone else get addicted to dividends?  They're just so real and tangible, I love em'.

Although they're a small part of our portfolio, I like the part where they're deposited to our Fidelity account a week before it pays the credit-card bill.

Berkshire Hathaway had zero pop on the annual report. This holding is looking more like bear insurance than a hot growth prospect. Maybe it'll drop 10-20% so that we can buy more.

Tweedy, Browne Global Value (TBGVX) is up over 5% in 2+ months. Unsustainable but quite encouraging. Apparently Europe, small-cap, & value's demises are all prematurely predicted.

Stopped out of Las Vegas Sands (LVS) at a small profit but wish I'd stayed in. Maybe there'll be a buying opportunity again soon.

Build-a-Bear Workshops (BBW) is imploding quite nicely, and Greenfield Online (SRVY) is also headed for disaster.

We had a Peter Lynch moment this year-- spouse saw a TV ad for "Splenda", an artificial sweetener that maintains its flavor at high temps (baking or hot drinks). Did some research, found out that we were late to the party but not too late for dessert, and bought ADRs on 16 Dec 04 @ $36.50. Up over 4% today to $41.35. I sure hope this isn't a play on a declining dollar.

I'm intrigued by Dolby Labs (DLB), Given Imaging (GIVN), & Genzyme Corp (GENZ). And does anyone believe that Herbalife (HLF) has a future?!?

Now if the market would only acknowledge my prescience with Nortel & Sun...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

TH, your post makes me feel like a minnow swimming with great whites! Your dividends are 10% of my portfolio!

I like to think of myself as more of a basking shark.

I need those dividends, they're what I had to live on before I nabbed a Nurse With A Purse!

 

[haha]

I'm up 9%. Everything has been going up- my US stocks, my  foreign stocks, my energy, my gold.

Keeping my fingers crossed- I don't remember ever having this much good luck before.

Mikey

 

[REWahoo]

I'm up 9%. Everything has been going up- my US stocks, my foreign stocks, my energy...

Wow, Mikey. If my portfolio grew 9% my energy would be up too! Congratulations.

REW

 

[ESRBob]

Slicer's Dream portfolio is up 2.25% YTD as of tonight.

 

[Nords]

I don't remember ever having this much good luck before. Mikey

Not luck, Mikey. Thorough research, a well-thought-out plan, and lots of investor discipline.

Luck would be Vegas!

 

[Mr._johngalt]

Hello TH. "Nurse with a purse". I like that. I had a
similar experience, except at my age I was lucky to find a
nurse with a pulse

JG

 

[Rich]

When I first started my 457 plan (1992) all I saw was negative numbers for a couple of years. I was buying "Growth" shares, which, at that time, were going for around $7 bucks a share. Kept at it. Low and behold, the shares (not the only shares or sectors I hold, just an example) went slowly up, to $40 bucks a share. Then the crash, down to $19, now up to around $27. The point? Investing is a long term proposition. When prices are down, you're buying low (a good thing). Don't despair.

 

[BigMoneyJim]

Looks like I'm up 1.92% including new contributions. I'm close to flat on earnings. Vanguard doesn't seem to break out just YTD earnings for me so I'm guestimating.

 

[JohnP]

I track our portfolio at the end of each week so this is as of March 4th. Our total portfolio is up 1.76% since Dec 31 - All other Friday closings in 2005 were in negative territory with a minimum on Jan 21 (-2.13%) and a slow improvement since with a big bounce last week: the portfolio was up 1.78% the week ending March 4th.

Gas is up a lot today - TH will do well on energy this week but I think we're in for some more turmoil.

JohnP

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Well we're right at the cusp of the nine-month economic slide ECRI's leading economic indicators predicts. If they're right, and so far their indicator has been a good one, we've got some fairly lousy times ahead, at least until november

http://www.businesscycle.com/

(Scroll to the bottom to see the chart)

 

[laurence]

Interesting Chart, I guess I should be glad I'm in the accumulation phase, the market is having a sale! Seriously, that's probably one of the most important things I've learned at this site, the difference in portolio dynamics as I go from accumulator to retiree/withdrawer.

 

[haha]

Well we're right at the cusp of the nine-month economic slide ECRI's leading economic indicators predicts.

There must be some leads or lags that I don't know about. At the top right of the page you linked I found this press release:

Reuters

Weekly Leading Index Rises
03/11/2005
NEW YORK, March 11 (Reuters) - A leading index of the U.S. economy rose in the latest week, with an increase in the growth component pointing to a general recovery in the U.S. economy, a report showed on Friday.

The Economic Cycle Research Institute, an independent forecasting group, said its weekly leading index rose to 135.2 in the week ended March 4 compared with 134.9 in the previous week.

The index's annualized growth rate, which smooths out weekly fluctuations, rose to 3.0 percent from 2.6 percent in the prior week, the highest in nine months.

"The steady improvement in the weekly leading index growth rate points to a slowly brightening economic outlook and based on that recovery it is clear that the U.S. economy will continue to support global growth," said Anirvan Banerji, director of research at ECRI.


It sounds like they are predicting growth to me, unless they don't disclose their lead times.

Mikey

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

The leading economic indicators is in fact...leading!

It showed steady firm growth up until this coming month, and its prediction is for ~9 months out. If you subscribe to the site they'll let you look at the past data.

They've predicted the past down times with pretty good accuracy.

I've seen the positive reports. Honestly I dont get them since their data says otherwise. The "growth rate" chart shown on the front page is straight economic growth; zero is zero growth...below that a recessionary posture...above that positive growth.

I dont know how there can be an interpretation of slowing growth to a zero growth scenario that malingers for 6+ months a sign of positive future economic growth. Especially considering the Fed appears nowhere near ready to stop raising rates and that has to continue applying braking pressure to the economy.

 

[eridanus]

down .7%
VTSMX mainly

down 4.4%. ouch
NAESX brought that account down

up 2.6%
have some Nikkei225 exposure there

 

[malakito]

Down about 1,000%, but I'll know more later tonight. Of course, that's not my YTD portfolio performance; I don't monitor that very closely. It's my withdrawal rate based on my annual spending (twice my last six months per Quicken, excluding mortgage interest) divided by my net retirement resources (retirement accounts minus the mortgage on my house). When it gets to 4%, I'm quitting.

malakito.

 

[Calgary_Girl]

We have a range of investments (mostly mutual funds) but they range from a low of 1.5% (YTD) to a high of 13.2% ( )

 

[Toejam]

My portfolio ytd: down 0.24%

But I have a volatile portfolio consisting mostly of individual stocks and mutual funds.

Last year, my return was 8.2%. The portfolio didn't do that well until the last quarter, when many of the stocks and mutual funds I held spiked up. I also had a sizeable one-time special dividend (courtesy of Bill Gates & Co.) received in December that added to the total return for the year. That dividend was equal to 69.8% of the salary I made prior to retiring. If only it was a yearly dividend . . . sigh. I think the dividend was mostly to placate shareholders who have seen the stock go sideways in a very narrow range for the last 5 to 7 years?

Hopefully, there will be some nice surprises to the upside as 2005 progresses. (Of course, it could go the other way, too, in a big way . . . ) I plan to diversify more into international equities via ETFs and additional international mutual funds and individual ADR foreign stocks that throw off qualified dividends. I don't have any bonds/treasuries now but may add some to the portfolio as interest rates go up.

Anyway, congratulations to those who are making great returns so far! And best of luck to the rest of us who are either sinking at the present time or just breaking even.