2018 YTD investment performance thread

[marko]

I never bother to project out where I might be in the future with my portfolio; that's up to the whims of the market. I figure there's no reason to fret over not hitting the projection or celebrate beating the projection since it was based on some arbitrary time span and mr. market's arbitrary mood at the time.

It's more of an idle curiosity for me. More like: "if the trend continues, I'll be at $X". I don't plan, expect or fret anything until 12/31.

Never count the money till the money's in the bank.

It's more of a carryover from my work days when I was doing probability studies for forecasting sales.

I just found it interesting to see an acceleration of performance (i.e. my balance growing faster) over the past month or two vs the first part of the year and see that as an encouraging sign.

 

[Andre1969]

I don't have the numbers for today's close, but I added everything up this morning, and had to do a double-take. Rate of return was showing at 6.66%. I'm not religious, but thought it was...interesting. But then I looked again...6.68%. Guess I need to stop getting my eyeglasses at Big Lots and go see an optometrist!

 

[chucmin]

I was at 9.14% this morning. 90/10

 

[NW-Bound]

... Never count the money till the money's in the bank...

Darn, then I can count only the money in my checking account, which is usually less than $10K. Not good.


Hey, am I allowed to count the cash in our I-bond and investment accounts? I run 20 to 30% cash there, you know?

 

[Souschef]

Ny biggest fund, which is the 3/4 of my IRA, is up13%

 

[HFWR]

I’ve paid for this year’s distribution, plus a fraction...

 

[VanWinkle]

My 50/50 allocation has swelled to 53.5/46.5 and has supplied me with enough to cover all withdrawals and still show growth above the Jan 1 2018 balance.
I do not worry about the % as this is almost exclusively in Index funds. I only sell in the taxable account to tax-loss harvest and have done so with bond funds this year. I am waiting to re-balance with new contributions coming for June 2019.

 

[gstillson]

YTD return is now well over 100%.

Huge short term gain though, so the tax man cometh. Still, not a bad problem to have I guess. I would rather pay 25% tax on 100% gains than 0% tax on 10% gains.

 

[NW-Bound]

I have been traveling the last 2 months, and just now get back home to update my account balances.

As of market close on 7/31, up 5.1%.

Expenses YTD: 1.6%.

What was that quotation from Dickens' character Micawber regarding expenditures relative to income?

AA: 66% equity, 2% bond, 32% cash.

A month goes by so quickly.

At market close on 8/31, up 5.2% YTD.

That's only 0.1% for August, while the S&P is up 3%. I blame it on international stocks, particularly EM.

AA is about 65% stock, with the rest mostly in cash.

 

[TwoByFour]

I really don't pay much attention to YTD performance. Today it might be through the roof and then next month it is in the toilet, so what's the point? Before I retired the only number I paid attention to was total assets - was I at my magic number for retirement yet? After retirement the only thing I pay attention to is again total assets since that determines how much I withdraw for living expenses every quarter. I buy-and-hold so there is not much different I am going to do with performance numbers anyway. It is what it is.

 

[Dtail]

Up 4.0% YTD. I will take it. More than covering expected 2018 yearly exp.

 

[pompanobeach]

A month goes by so quickly.



At market close on 8/31, up 5.2% YTD.



That's only 0.1% for August, while the S&P is up 3%. I blame it on international stocks, particularly EM.



AA is about 65% stock, with the rest mostly in cash.

I left the bonds and international stocks a long time ago. Last three years my portfolio is up average 15% per year. I know chuck wagon won’t continue for much longer so I will need to inject them back in.

 

[target2019]

5.73% Total Portfolio Value increase YTD
3.66% YTD Performance
52-43-05 (Stk-Bnd-Csh) AA

Expert Analysis: EM and Bonds, meet the headwinds!

 

[Andre1969]

Just added up the numbers, and it looks like 2018 is shaping up to be a pretty good year.

Rate of return, as of 8/31/18, is 7.14%. Using raw dollars as a metric, that makes 2018 my 4th best year ever, behind 2017, 2013, and 2009, so even if it holds flat for the remainder of the year, I should be happy. But, all it would take is maybe another 1% to knock 2009 off its perch for me.

When you factor in total asset rise, I'm actually up around 16.9% YTD, but that's inflated considerably because of an inheritance that finally cleared. And, it's not going to hold, because next week, I settle on a new house, and the down payment is going to wipe out a good amount of that. It's gonna suck to see the dollar value of my investible assets drop like that but then hey, that's what money is for, to spend, right? Well, within reason...

 

[SpartacusSchmartacus]

YTD return is now well over 100%.

Huge short term gain though, so the tax man cometh. Still, not a bad problem to have I guess. I would rather pay 25% tax on 100% gains than 0% tax on 10% gains.

Forget about what you have to pay the tax man. This is what we all want to see ... nice numbers! This is self managed ... if so nice work!


My own numbers: started with stocks that are high dividend payers in various industries. Bot same dollar amount of each stock, the cash value is down -1%. Dividend payout tho is roughly 7% of total value as of Aug 30. Since high div stocks can be volatile the plan was "as one stock gets in trouble, another finds it's legs". However have other trading accounts that are doing a bit better.

 

[LOL!]

Some big changes since I last posted this at the end of June.

YTD (August 31, 2018) returns for a collection of 'close-to' 60/40 funds (from Morningstar.com):

2.75% VSMGX Vg LifeStrategy Moderate Growth (60/40)
2.49% VTWNX Vg Target Retirement 2020 (54/46)*
5.83% VBIAX Vg Balanced Index (60/40), no foreign
2.98% DGSIX DFA Global 60/40 I, small-cap & value tilted
3.37% VWENX Vg Wellington (65/35)
2.86% VTTVX Vg Target Retirement 2025 (63/37)
0.87% VGSTX Vg STAR (63/37)

Some others
-1.08% VBTLX Vg Total US Bond Index
10.43% VTSAX Vg Total US Stock Market
-3.39% VTIAX Vg Total Int'l Stock Market
3.24% VGSLX Vg REIT Index

Notably, international equities have gone nowhere, while US equities have really done well. The funds with minimal international and mostly US have come on strong.

 

[Clone]

From last month-

7.2% YTD

AA: 99/1 I think I need a 12 step intervention... But if I twitch it would be called timing...

10% YTD

As I've said before- My asset allocation says I'm an idiot, my monthly statement says I'm a frickin' genius!

If somebody would let me know a few days before the music stops, I would greatly appreciate it!

 

[sengsational]

3.2% YTD, all-in, spend adjusted. It would have looked quite a bit better just one day earlier, but I've got to go with the official month-end.

 

[robnplunder]

Up 2.4%. Gee, if I didn't buy FBSOX (up 14.63%) early in the year, I'd be flat at this point. Dumped some international/EM bond funds recently as they were going nowhere.

Up 3.8% ... on a pace to spend more than 4% of my investment/asset this year due to several unplanned expenses (e.g, paying 50% of DS's graduate school expense). Oh, well.

 

[NYEXPAT]

YTD = +16.1%
This is down about a 1/4% since July 31st.

 

[pb4uski]

Aug 3.79%
Jul 3.04%
Jun 1.06%
May 1.24%
Apr 0.37%
Mar 0.12%
Feb 0.88%
Jan 3.53%

Even if values stay level for the rest of the year after remaining withdrawals I'll be on the plus side compared to the beginning of the year so no tears here. Still whooping my benchmark VSMGX which was 2.75% YTD.

3.04% YTD thru July 31 for me... up from 1.06% at the half year.

Disappointing compared to the last few years, but even after withdrawals for living expenses my nestegg is higher than at the beginning of the year and the increase exceeds my expected withdrawals for the rest of the year... so no complaints.

 

[Lawrencewendall]

Ytd (8/31/18) 5.83%
aa - 89/10/1

 

[Cpadave]

+5.94%
AA: Stocks 60%, Fixed Inc 31.5%, Reits 6.5%, Cash 2%.
Fixed income and Reits are self managed and stocks are mostly domestic index funds.

 

[gayl]

6.94% which is less than last year but I was 90/10 then, I'm now Stocks 85%, Bonds / CDs 14%, Cash 1%

 

[Rickt]

+5.82% as of 08/31/2018
77/20/3...stocks/bonds/cash
65% Domestic/35% Foreign split