What's been your 5 year average return?

[Trek]

So, excluding things like real estate and just going based on your stocks/funds/CD and other cash investments, what's been the average % returned on your money over the last 5 years? 5%, 8%, 12% or more?

Also, what would you consider to be the one (or two) best index / mutual fund(s) one could put their money in if they fear risk and volatility but want a decent return (whatever that means to you).

[cardude]

I've averaged about 11% over the last 5 years including all accounts.

My best defensive investment (and offensive actually) has been Berkshire Hathaway. Although there is some volatility, and over the next 5-10 years the stock could suffer for some time when WB passes, the risk of a large, permanent loss seems low.

[mathjak107]

15.6% including this year as the 5th year. all actively managed funds

[CyclingInvestor]

I have averaged 24% over 2003-2007, staying 100% in individual stocks. All have been
either large-cap domestic stocks (mostly GE, JNJ, PG, KO, ITW, SYY, EMR) or REITs
(mostly KIM, GGP, VNO, WRE, PLD, DRE, ARE). No really large single winner, but
the REITs as a group have provided most of the return.

[TromboneAl]

11.87 (12/29/2002 - today).

[retire@40]

2003: 3.85%
2004: 4.18%
2005: 3.42%
2006: 7.06%
2007: 11.27% (through 11/30/07)

Average ROI: 5.956%

I'm including all cash accounts in this calculation, otherwise I'd be considerably higher.

[LOL!]

The 5-year annualized return of a Merriman (FundAdvice.com - Home) slice-and-diced Vanguard portfolio with 75% equities and 25% bonds is around 16.6%. (Calculated by Morningstar portfolio manager). Ticker symbols in the portfolio: NAESX, VDMIX, VEIEX, VFINX, VFTSX, VFITX, VGSIX, VISVX, VIVAX, VTRIX.

The 1-, 3-, 5- returns are 8.7%, 12.7% and 16.6%.

[ziggy29]

2001: -1.8%
2002: -5.4%
2003: +27.3%
2004: +15.7%
2005: +8.0%
2006: +18.6%
2007 (so far): +5.6%

From '03 to '07 that's about 14.7% annualized. Of course, that includes an allocation of about 8-9% REITs, 3-4% gold stocks and about 22% short-term bonds. I'm too lazy to calculate the return without them.

[BOBOT]

17.45%, according to Quicken. I guess I believe it.

[Moemg]

13% as of today .

[Bikerdude]

8.8%. 50/50 allocation. I'm retired and living on my investments plus pension.

[Spanky]

You guys are doing well. My 5-yr 60/40 (equity/fixed income) return is about 9%.

[DallasGuy]

7.8% with 60-65% fixed income.

[Texas Proud]

Vanguard (half of what I got)... says 14.2 as of end of Nov.. .but had a bad month as it was 16.4 at the end of Oct...

Don't know about Dec, but the accounts are up...

My other half is in 401 and stock and I don't keep track, but would say it is just a bit better than Vanguard.. but that is a guess looking at it...

[Nords]

Our ER portfolio (90-95% equity) has returned 8.4% YTD and has averaged 17.5%/year for the last five years.

Thank you, Warren Buffett and those wild-eyed hard-partyin' stockpickers at Tweedy, Browne. It also didn't hurt to make a big bet on a small-cap value ETF in mid-2003.

But, hey, we're also cherry-picking from the pits of the bear market to the peak of the bull. I think the Gordon Equation is much more likely to revert the next few years to the mean...

[Ed_The_Gypsy]

My Vanguard IRA annualized return:
over last year: 15.4%
over last 3 years: 17.4%
over last 5 years: 19%
Most of it is in index funds.
It was a lot better earlier this year, but it goes up and it goes down. I expect it will go down now for several years. I have not contributed for about 10 years. Any cash I come up with goes towards paying off debt. Now that DD has graduated and will be married within the week, we can bail faster in 2008.

I have two 401ks that I have not checked on for several years but they are maybe 10% of my pot.

Equities still 50/50 US/foreign.

I'm happy.

[BOBOT]

Originally Posted by BOBOT

17.45%, according to Quicken. I guess I believe it.

I just rolled my 403b into my IRA. The original buys are not reflected in the IRA, so the return figures are bogus. I'll try to find a way around that.

[clifp]

My combined IRAs have a CAGR of 10.7% over the last 5 years. There have been so many withdrawal from my taxable account for houses and such that it is to hard to figure.

[Alan]

my 5yr avg - including all cash accounts is 8.75% (includes 2007 ytd)

the VG Portfolio analysis shows the historic avg return for my particular AA is 7.9% so pretty good against my target over the last 5 yrs, but the last 3 years has only been 6.75%

[Animorph]

18.18% according to Quicken (annualized, for the past 5 years ending today). I was switching from individual stocks to mostly actively managed funds, so not much allocation consistency through this period. Foriegn equity mutual funds in the 401k's probably helped a lot.

Dan