How did your portfolio do in 2010 ?

[CalTex]

12.1%, 50/50.

 

[Avalon]

9.18%. 50/29/21

 

[Nords]

14%. Unbelievable.

93% equities, no bonds, 7% cash. A quarter of the equities is in an MSCI EAFE ETF (EVF).

I think we're going to go nuts this week or next and boost that cash stash back up to around 10% by selling off a bit of our small-cap value ETF (IJS). You've all been warned and can now place your trades accordingly...

 

[check6]

100% equities, primarily one stock that was heavily traded. No one would believe my returns so will not post but they wildly exceeded my expectations. No guts no glory they say but will take a more conservative approach for '11.

 

[NW-Bound]

100% equities, primarily one stock that was heavily traded. No one would believe my returns...

As a holder of individual stocks myself, I know everything is possible if one is heavily concentrated in a few stocks, particularly in high-beta ones.

Among my stocks, I usually have a few that triple or quadruple, but because I only have 1% in each such position, it just helps a little bit when everything is added up.

 

[obgyn65]

Hello FinanceDude - Yes I am but 1) my professional and volunteering activities do not leave me much time to study stocks 2) I am very risk averse.

Aren't you worried about inflation?

 

[NW-Bound]

You can buy some diversified MFs that are relatively safe. I do it the "hard" way because I enjoy it, but the truth is that return over time is not guaranteed to be any better than psstt Wellesley.

Too bad Uncle Mick has not been around lately, but search for that mutual fund name on this forum and you will see.

 

[kumquat]

100% equities, primarily one stock that was heavily traded. No one would believe my returns so will not post but they wildly exceeded my expectations. No guts no glory they say but will take a more conservative approach for '11.

While your approach is not the one generally advocated here, including by me, I have admitted to having too large a portion of my NW in former mega-corp options. While I had to get rid of a bunch this year, before they expired, they still make up 20% of our investment portfolio.

I wouldn't recommend your method to anyone, but when you get lucky, you get lucky. Now, I'm going to exercise the rest of my options, head for Vegas and pick RED, er Black, er Even, er.........

 

[kyounge1956]

I don't know how to figure out my portfolio returns for last year, because I had a big single contribution to my Roth IRA when I cashed in an Ameriprise VA, rolled it into my other IRA and closed the Ameriprise account. I'm not sure I could figure out the performance on my 457 either, because the amount of my contributions changed during the year. That may happen again this year and I don't know how to take it into account. I have a program in my trusty ol' HP41s that does financial calculations, but it will only take equal payments, and I don't know how to set up a spreadsheet to track this. What do I need to do this year so next January I'll be able to answer the question?

 

[NW-Bound]

Being the perennial pessimist that I am, I am wondering if this time next year, we will be so willing to share our negative return numbers.

 

[FIREd]

100% equities, primarily one stock that was heavily traded. No one would believe my returns so will not post but they wildly exceeded my expectations. No guts no glory they say but will take a more conservative approach for '11.

At one point in 2010, up to 40% of our equity portfolio was invested in a single stock. The stock is a high beta, small cap biotech. It has gone up 400% over the past 2 years. But our position was also quite leveraged (stock options) so our returns over the past 2 years have been truly remarkable. We mostly cashed out in the past few months though and redeployed the money in more traditional investments.

 

[kumquat]

Being the perennial pessimist that I am, I am wondering if this time next year, we will be so willing to share our negative return numbers.

Well, this year I replied as follows.

It did just fine.

I had a long post readied to post when I decided it just doesn't matter.

Next year, I'll just say "it sucked, but it just doesn't matter".

 

[NW-Bound]

It does not matter?

Spoken like a man in a country with free health care, and perhaps with a nice pension to boot.

 

[kumquat]

It does not matter?

Spoken like a man in a country with free health care, and perhaps with a nice pension to boot.

Health care is not free. I pay a lot of tax to pay for it. If the potion of my income tax since I was 21 that went to health care was returned to me and I had to pay for all of my families health care, my NW would be about 50% higher.

Sorry, just a [-]DB[/-] DC pension (that is 60% my money) worth about 17% of NW.

You could check this post. If you PM me, I'll tell you what X is.

Edit to correct DB to DC.

 

[FUEGO]

I think we're going to go nuts this week or next and boost that cash stash back up to around 10% by selling off a bit of our small-cap value ETF (IJS). You've all been warned and can now place your trades accordingly...

I think I bought some of your IJS last time you sold, so maybe I'll log in to fidelity and pick up some more quality Nords IJS. Worked pretty well for me last time..

 

[FinanceDude]

Hello FinanceDude - Yes I am but 1) my professional and volunteering activities do not leave me much time to study stocks 2) I am very risk averse.

Understood, but I would look at putting 15-20% in a conservative balanced fund or something...maybe VWINX or something?

 

[Lusitan]

Just checked ... 18.5%

 

[DeborahB]

I don't know how to figure out my portfolio returns for last year, because I had a big single contribution to my Roth IRA when I cashed in an Ameriprise VA, rolled it into my other IRA and closed the Ameriprise account. I'm not sure I could figure out the performance on my 457 either, because the amount of my contributions changed during the year. That may happen again this year and I don't know how to take it into account. I have a program in my trusty ol' HP41s that does financial calculations, but it will only take equal payments, and I don't know how to set up a spreadsheet to track this. What do I need to do this year so next January I'll be able to answer the question?

One simple thing is to use a planning program like Quicken and if you're okay with it, download the transactions. I enter them manually (paranoid).

You can also add up all your investments right now to get a starting point. Then add them up Jan 1 of next year. See how much more you have. Take into account additions you made to your 401k or whatever. The rollover would have been included in the total anyhow.

This is the low tech, seat of the pants approach - no formula...

Personally I use Quicken (used to use MS Money but it went away so I converted the data into Quicken...). It gives good and easy stats.

I also have a massive spreadsheet giving the original price, dividends, yield on original price... I don't know what good it is, but at least I can see what the dividend was when I bought a stock.

 

[Nords]

I think I bought some of your IJS last time you sold, so maybe I'll log in to fidelity and pick up some more quality Nords IJS. Worked pretty well for me last time..

Are you the guy who bought the call from me, too? Good move!

Back in July, when it was trading at $57/share, I got greedy and sold a Feb '11 covered call with a $64 strike. I got a whole $2.72/share in premiums and was pretty happy at the time, but now of course I've given up another ~$6 in upside.

The good news is that I would've sold the shares to rebalance back then anyway at $57 so I got a total of over $9/share upside (and two dividends) by selling the call.

I sell covered calls when it seems to make sense, and I sell when shares get fully valued, but I think my shorting days are behind me.

 

[FUEGO]

Are you the guy who bought the call from me, too? Good move!

Nope, just the IJS. April 8, 2010 is what fidelity says. I thought it had done better than what I actually did, which is a little over 10% return. Not quite the 20%+ that SCV as a category did in 2010.

Still very happy with 10%.

 

[NW-Bound]

Health care is not free. I pay a lot of tax to pay for it. If the potion of my income tax since I was 21 that went to health care was returned to me and I had to pay for all of my families health care, my NW would be about 50% higher.

Sorry, just a [-]DB[/-] DC pension (that is 60% my money) worth about 17% of NW.

You could check this post. If you PM me, I'll tell you what X is.

Edit to correct DB to DC.

I should have put the word "free" in quotes. Yes, there is never a free lunch. But having a "prepaid" health plan should greatly ease one's concern about its future cost, which was my point.

I appreciate your offer to share your number, but I dunno. Is it going to help me towards my goal of a monkish life? Probably not.

PS. In case any of you wonder, it is not likely I can become an ascetic. Joking about becoming a monk is simply a way for me to remind myself to avoid a further slide into the philistine camp.

 

[obgyn65]

I apologize FinanceDude. I am financially illiterate. What is VWINKS and why do you recommend this product ? Is it FDIC insured like CDs ? Can I buy this product at Edward Jones or Vanguard where I have savings in money markets ?

Understood, but I would look at putting 15-20% in a conservative balanced fund or something...maybe VWINX or something?

 

[DblDoc]

I apologize FinanceDude. I am financially illiterate. What is VWINKS and why do you recommend this product ? Is it FDIC insured like CDs ? Can I buy this product at Edward Jones or Vanguard where I have savings in money markets ?

VWINX is Vanguard's Wellesley fund https://personal.vanguard.com/us/funds/snapshot?FundId=0027&FundIntExt=INT. It is an "income oriented balanced fund" and is one of a few actively managed funds at Vanguard and contains ~ 40% stocks, ~60% bonds and has done modestly well for a long period of time. Some here have varying amounts in their portfolio. It is frequently brought up when people don't want to spend time building a portfolio or rebalancing etc as the managers at Vanguard will take care of it for you.

You will also see it posted as "Psst... Wellesley" This was a frequent response by long time poster Uncle Mick when providing investment guidance.

DD

 

[Free To Canoe]

17.4%!

Free to canoe

 

[queeneev]

Yikes! I just did my math, go me!

Jan - Jul 12%
Aug - Dec 18%
Annualizes out to 31%.

I am quite heavy in commodities.
75/25; 25% of my 75% equities is in gold/silver/uranium

I split my returns into two pieces, pre and post retirement. Not that my allocations changed much, but I wanted to see the difference.

I had planned to buy my way into more bonds, but the last 2 months of the bond market have made my butt clench...