How far from your all-time high are you?

[rescueme]

I'm still down 10% from 12/31/07; my wife less than 2% (her portfolio is much more conservative).

However, being retired and having my "cash buckets" fully funded, I didn't need to sell anything during the period.

Funny how a plan sometimes works out.

Been here before in the past, but of course I was still wo*king. This has not been bad at all.

The rubber band stretched but did not break.

 

[roger r]

I distinctly recall my all time high in Nov. 2007 because that is when I retired and had used that number to project my withdrawals and earnings. I'm conservatively invested in about 35/65 stock to fixed income and bond. I did manage to get the courage to rebalance some but not totally when things were down. I'm probably just about breaking even from the all time high.

 

[FIREd]

Pre-crisis high: May 2008
Crisis bottom: November 2008 (down almost 18% from the pre-crisis high)
Back to pre-crisis high: May 2009
Currently: all time high, 82% higher than pre-crisis high.

Still working, and still adding money to our portfolio.

Net worth since March 2001:

 

[ESRwannabe]

I am almost back to even on my investment return. As of yesterday my 5 year investment return was down -.3%.

Today was a big up day for my portfolio, so I may have a positive return now.
​

 

[RunningBum]

My high was March of 2000, almost exactly 10 years ago. 10 years of maxing out my 401K, putting aside 10% ESPP, and until I went part-time 2 years ago, saving another 10+% on the side, and I'm within about 15% of where I was. The tech bubble burst hurt me badly because I had a lot of stock options, and my company's stock is still only about 1/3 of what it was at the top.

 

[ejman]

Retired 12/31/2002 NW at that time 1.1. NW now 1.5 took out about 0.5 of living expenses since then. Math too difficult

 

[LOL!]

High Nov 2007
Low Mar 2009 Down 35%
Now Apr 2010 Down 8%

There was that 10% run-up in the fall of 2007, so we are above where we were in Oct 2007 and also Oct 2008.

 

[youbet]

I'm down 8.3% from my all time high in Oct, 2007. I am retired and have been withdrawing funds from the portfolio since July, 2006.

 

[clifp]

Peak June 1999
Low March 2008
Currently off just under 10% from 1999. Of course there haven't been contributions since May of 1999.

 

[NW-Bound]

All time high in Oct 07, which was 50% above Mar 2000 high.

Low in Mar 09. Down 37% from Oct 07!

Currently at 6.5% down from Oct 07.

 

[lhamo]

Our pre-recession networth high was in July 2008.

Using monthly tracking figures (which is what I have going back that far), we hit our recession era networth low in December 2008 -- down about 8% at that point. Investments were down WAAAY more than that. Our overall paper losses were a comparatively small part of our networth because we had a amount of money in liquid accounts as we were preparing to buy a home. In fact our real low was in March 2009 -- I had started tracking networth figures daily at that point, but I don't have similar figures to look back at for the earlier period, so easier to compare the monthly wrapup data (which I have for several years running).

Our current net worth is 47% above the old peak, and 60% above the low.

Networth calculation includes the estimated current value of our home, which we bought a the absolute low in the local market at a fire-sale price. Sales prices are now close to double what we paid.

 

[NW-Bound]

It just occurred to me that the OP asked about NW. As I do not really care about RE values, I quoted only my liquid portfolio, both before and after-tax accounts. I suspect many other posters did the same.

Had I included RE, I would be several percents lower than the number that I quoted earlier.

 

[donheff]

It just occurred to me that the OP asked about NW. As I do not really care about RE values, I quoted only my liquid portfolio, both before and after-tax accounts. I suspect many other posters did the same.

Had I included RE, I would be several percents lower than the number that I quoted earlier.

Yes, with two houses the same is true for me - not sure the real value of our weekend place. If I decided to sell I would wait but I have no idea how long.

 

[audreyh1]

Retirement Portfolio - down about 7% from all-time high in Oct 2007.
Total Net Worth - still down about 10%.

But this is all a huge improvement. End of Fed 2008, net worth had been down 40% from peak! and down a little even from when I retired in 1999.

At this point, NW is up about 40% from my 1999 retirement.

Congrats to all those doing so well. Not surprised to see all those savers ahead of their Oct 2007 highs. Congrats!

Audrey

 

[ziggy29]

I'm there now at the all-time high, just barely, but that tells you that in some sense I'm still "down" from the top by nearly the amount of all the savings, 401K and Roth contributions over the last 2+ years. And by the fact that my emergency fund has doubled in size since 2007 due to my paranoia over the employment situation. Still have about 18 months of living expenses in it, even before unemployment or any other income from any time of w*rk. Hate watching it earning 1% or less, but oh well. I'd hate even more to not have it liquid and get a pink slip.

As mentioned above, I'm only looking at liquid savings and invested assets.

 

[ripper1]

ripper1

I was down about 25% in 3/09 and then took a gamble and moved about 20,000 from my fixed account into VTSMX. I just thought it was the buying opportunity of a lifetime. I was lucky. I am up substantially from then and have since then rebalanced to 50/50.

 

[ziggy29]

I was down about 25% in 3/09 and then took a gamble and moved about 20,000 from my fixed account into VTSMX. I just thought it was the buying opportunity of a lifetime.

Perhaps the final chapter isn't in, but perhaps in retrospect it was that opportunity, something like this generation's 1982. Time will tell.

I didn't get too brave. I did rebalance my equities up once during the crash, in January 2009, and that helped me recover a bit more.

 

[REWahoo]

It should come as no surprise those not yet retired, not living off their nest egg and usually still contribution to the pot are more likely to have recovered than those of us withdrawing from our stash...

 

[rescueme]

As I do not really care about RE values, I quoted only my liquid portfolio, both before and after-tax accounts. I suspect many other posters did the same.

Agreed. My portfolio is what I live on. My home is what I live in. Never confuse the two ...

 

[Moemg]

It should come as no surprise those not yet retired, not living off their nest egg and usually still contribution to the pot are more likely to have recovered than those of us withdrawing from our stash...

That was a sobering lesson for what can go wrong in retirement . I'm glad my portfolio recovered as well as it has .I'm not totally back but I'm a lot closer to the high than the lows .

 

[novaman]

I too made an aggressive move and bought more equities during the downturn. I promised myself that if I was able to get within 5% of my previous high I would adjust my allocation and get more conservative. I got antsy back in September and when I reached the 5% mark I went all cash....now I'm waiting for that double dip

 

[donheff]

I got antsy back in September and when I reached the 5% mark I went all cash....now I'm waiting for that double dip

What if it never comes (i.e. what if the next dip comes many years from now)?

 

[novaman]

What if it never comes (i.e. what if the next dip comes many years from now)?

err yeah- that could be a problem for me. I've thought about slowly getting back in but don't see any good reason for why the market is climbing right now......but hey, I know I know, its impossible to time the market

 

[youbet]

I too made an aggressive move and bought more equities during the downturn. I promised myself that if I was able to get within 5% of my previous high I would adjust my allocation and get more conservative. I got antsy back in September and when I reached the 5% mark I went all cash....now I'm waiting for that double dip

Timing is tough, ain't it? Believe me, I understand. You got in right but out early. Whenever I try to do a little timing, it seems like there is only one way to do it right and a seemingly infinite number of ways to do it wrong!

This time I chose to do nothing. Already retired, there was no source of new funds to invest so I would have had to rebalance towards equities to try to take advantage of the dip. I compromised and didn't rebalance but also didn't panic and sell, just held.

I'm still down from the peak in 10/07 (details above) but ahead of the level where I RE'd in 7/06 so no complaints at this point. I've enjoyed almost 4 great years of retirement, withdrawing from the portfolio each year, and still have a little more than the day I walked out of MegaCorp. But, I'm still below my peak.

Different ways of lookin' at it...... Just saying.....

 

[ikubak]

Prior to the crash, all-time high was May 2008. DW and I are still working, so we are still contributing the max to our retirement accounts and did so through out the recent bear market. Today we are about 14% above the 2008 high. Now we are discussing our exit strategy. She'll probably RE about this time next year with me following suit a few years later. We could RE now, but the last two years has us thinking we should have a larger margin of safety.