How was your January?

[HFWR]

Up 6.0% for moi...

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Outflows: about $70,000

Portfolio sent back to similar valuations as of last august.

 

[Andre1969]

I'm up around 4.0% for the month. I'm not complaining, since I also paid off all the Christmas bills in January!

 

[REWahoo]

I don't find this monthly "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" business very meaningful. Since I retired 8 months ago and began living off my portfolio, it has continued to grow even though I'm drawing down at a rate of almost 5.5% until SS cuts in three years from now. (I know, wait until you're 70..... ). I planned for the worst, assuming I would be eating into my nest egg to the tune of $150k or so before dropping my withdrawal rate to just under 4% when SS starts. That still may happen, but for now it is nice to be able to say "I have more money than I had when I was working."

 

[Dawg52]

I haven't checked my ytd numbers but my natural gas bill dropped by 38% as compared to December. 

 

[Shredder]

Up 4.06% if this keeps up all year , we'll be livin large!! shredder

 

[ex_CFO_now_RVer]

Up 5.19%


Dave

 

[JPatrick]

I lost count, but several times per week

 

[mickeyd]

+ 3.25%, however a very meaningless number for the long-term investor.

 

[Andre1969]

I know in the overall scheme of things, these month-to-month numbers are meaningless. Still, fun to throw around if you don't dwell on them too deeply. Oh, and for the first time in a long time, I'm actually seeing a REDUCTION in other things! Car insurance dropped this year, from around $2000 (1 full coverage car and 3 liability-only cars) per year to $1394. I think it's because I'm now in the 35-39 age bracket, and it must drop at that point. Haven't really been able to see how the oil bill will be this year. I'm paying a lot more per gallon, but it's also been pretty mild, so those two factors will probably cancel each other out. Last electric bill was around $103 though. Same time last year it was around $125.

 

[SamHouston]

Up 3.1% for the month and wishing there was a chance in hell that I could equal that 11 more times in 2006.

 

[Dawg52]

You guys must not own any cd's or bonds to be up 5% or more. 

 

[Andre1969]

My portfolio is split up like this:

74.7%: Mutual funds/individual stocks
17.7%: MMA with Emigrant Direct
3.4%: old E/EE bonds that are gradually starting to hit final maturity
2.8%: checking/savings account
1.4%: I-bond

So that whole thing went up around 4.0%.

Factor out everything but the mutuals/stocks, and I'm up around 5.3%

 

[Intuit]

Yep, once again right there in the middle at 4.4% for the month. I wish I could keep it up for the next 11 months. But that would be more than 48 hours and require medical assistance. Right?

 

[aimhigh]

6.95% - february may be like this

 

[ex_CFO_now_RVer]

Up 5.19%

Asset Allocation:

46% US Equities (including energy)
28% International
26% Fixed Income


Dave

 

[ladelfina]

4.98%  8)

lots of latin american stuff.

 

[Spanky]

up 4% -- keep our fingers crossed.

 

[HFWR]

I don't find this monthly "I'll show you mine if you show me yours" business very meaningful.

I figured it was better than my usual content-free posting...

Hey, and I changed my name for you... :

 

[REWahoo]

Hey, and I changed my name for you... :

Yes you did, and I found that very meaningful (to me, at least). But monthly portfolio fluctuations are just that. Take a look at the end of the year, then we will see if any of us have something you can hang your hat on.

 

[BUM]

Holy cow 4%

And how 'bout that 2/1! I wonder if my port. will see its shadow tomorrow?

 

[bosco]

up 4.6% if valued in $US
up 2.5% if valued in $Can

allocation is about 25% Canadian equities, 30% US money market, 25% international (non-Canadian) equities, 20% US equities.

Since most of my investments are in the US and I plan on retiring in Canada, I have heavily weighted US money to internationals in an effort to skirt the Bush deficit tax. We'll see how this works out.

 

[Rosalita]

This is no doubt a dum question. I'm just starting out on this board and tracking to FIRE. Plus I'm no math wizard.

How are you calculating your increases in assets? Do you track the percentages month to month?
And should you?

As a newbie, any guidance is appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[thefed]

5.11

 

[REWahoo]

How are you calculating your increases in assets?

Since almost all my assets are with Vanguard, they track it for me. You can do it manually by determining the amount of change in your asset value from the beginning of the month to the end of the month and dividing that amount by the beginning month value. That will give you the percent of increase or decrease.

The above will give you an accurate number unless you are adding to your assets (401k contributions, etc.). You should probably exclude those amounts to get a true percentage of the performance of your investments. But there are lots of different opinions on this particular subject.

Do you track the percentages month to month?

I don't, but you can tell by this thread that many do.

And should you?

Only if you are anal retentive.