Looking at your investment performance

[Sittinginthesun]

Currently 17% in cash so if the market plunges I will rebalance by adding cash to whatever gets hit hardest.

 

[ownyourfuture]

Right, but the problem is, they've BEEN yell'n. See the Cape10:

Shiller PE Ratio

What is certain to happen is that stocks will either go up, down or sideways. So I own some bonds, and my house, which will either go up, down or sideways. And I stay largely out of cash, which goes down.

Didn't realize the PE ratio was that high.
I've been putting a 'little bit of cash' to work buying silver, via 1964 Kennedy 1/2 dollars in circulated condition. I'm not a doomsday prepper, but I love the feel of silver in my hand

https://www.bullionvault.com/silver-price-chart.do

 

[hgm735]

Great feedback! I've learned a lot so far. Losses, particularly the $1500 gambling, hurt so much because I actively "caused" the loss. The odd thing is, not bothered at all by the losses in the rest of the portfolio which is not as liquid, because I have less immediate control over it. Human psychology is such an odd thing!

P.S. I have decided to not look at my investments at all (except to occasionally check how many shares I own of each fund to make sure account is ok) but am definitely someone who cannot look, otherwise I will make a decision impulsively!

 

[LOL!]

Most of my equity investments (funds and ETFs) are paying dividends this week. So I have to look at things in order to decide what equities I am going to buy with all this new cash that's coming in.

I don't see how anyone can "not look."

 

[samclem]

I don't see how anyone can "not look."

It's no problem for me at all, just as when I was accumulating it. I think the vast majority of investors would be much better off to set things up, contribute with automatic investments, and otherwise pay their investments very little attention. Fixating on the daily ups and downs serves no purpose unless it spurs action, and most people are very ill-served by the actions they take.

 

[RobLJ]

In '08-09 and '02 I didn't look at the portfolio very often (once or twice a month). When the market is pretty much even or going up I might look 4 times a week. Generally when there were losses of 10%, I looked to see if I needed to rebalance but I had increased my monthly paycheck stock allocation in late '08 when things went South to try to rebalance automatically--I had to make some further purchases though because the bottom dropped so fast. Usually I only rebalance in February.

Great feedback! I've learned a lot so far. Losses, particularly the $1500 gambling, hurt so much because I actively "caused" the loss. The odd thing is, not bothered at all by the losses in the rest of the portfolio which is not as liquid, because I have less immediate control over it. Human psychology is such an odd thing!

P.S. I have decided to not look at my investments at all (except to occasionally check how many shares I own of each fund to make sure account is ok) but am definitely someone who cannot look, otherwise I will make a decision impulsively!

 

[target2019]

I do have a weekly email that comes early Saturday morning. Tells me the IRR of a quickly-growing part of our portfolio (due to new contributions). Everything else is on auto pilot.

At the end of each month I record account balances. Then I look at how our AA has changed due to fluctuation in mutual funds. This past week I made two re-balancing moves.