Oct 2007

[73ss454]

I was just wondering how far down folks are sitting at this point from Oct of 2007. From what I can tell I'm still down about 20%.

 

[Moemg]

I'm down 14% which is amazing considering how low I was at one point .

 

[audreyh1]

Same as Moemg - down just under 14%.

Audrey

 

[ziggy29]

Looking at ONLY the accounts I haven't been adding to since October 2007: [-]-21%[/-] about -19% (fixing earlier inaccuracy)

Looking at ALL retirement accounts, including the 401K and Roths I've been steadily funding since then: -13%.

 

[CyclingInvestor]

-16.1% return Sept 30 2007 - Sept 18 2009, 100% stocks

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Dang. Did you have to ask that just when I was beginning to feel good again? Still down 11.5%.

I don't really expect to recoup all of that any time soon. Maybe I don't even want to: I think a good bit of that peak was bubble and I don't want to go there again. I'll rebalance on the way up, but all sorts of securities take a beating when panic hits and that is just too scary.

 

[ziggy29]

Dang. Did you have to ask that just when I was beginning to feel good again? Still down 11.5%.

Still feels good when one recalls being down 30-40% (or more) a little more than six months ago...

 

[LOL!]

Down about 15%, but remember that 2007 had a nice run-up to October, so our portfolio is up since January 2007.

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Still feels good when one recalls being down 30-40% (or more) a little more than six months ago...

I admit it. I stopped looking at my balance when the market tanked and didn't look again until May. I'm a wuss, what can I say?
I don't know what my balance was at the bottom (If Vanguard keeps history other than month end, I don't know how to find it), but at the end Feb I was down 23.3%. That is bad enough for me.
My hat is off to you folks who stuck it out with aggressive portfolio's. My risk aversion is part of why I am not IndependentlyRich.

 

[Moemg]

It was probably best to not have looked at the bottom .At that point jumping off my deck looked like a good idea !

 

[FIREd]

Portfolio return since 10/01/2007: +4.5% (cumulative internal rate of return)
Portfolio balance since 10/01/2007: +46.6%

At the worse point during the crisis (at least so far ):
Portfolio return: -48.3% (cumulative internal rate of return)
Portfolio balance: -26.8%

Take a peek at the roller coaster (Keep in mind, we are still working and actively adding to our portfolio which is "only" in the mid/high six figures):

 

[RonBoyd]

I thought this was gonna look a lot worse. I am down 2.1% from October 2007 and up 17.1% for the year (as of closing Friday). So it was turns out to be a good thing that I made absolutely no changes to our portfolio during that period -- took nothing out, put nothing in, and made no AA adjustments.

 

[haha]

I haven't done these figures in while. But I am also much better off than I was just a few short months ago.

I am down 12%; of that 6% is net expenses, and 2% is federal income tax paid.

Although it seems clear that the recession is lightening, I am not at all sure that we are safely home from the securities investing battlefield.

Ha

 

[73ss454]

I just took a better look and I'm down about 16%. I forgot to add in the Pen Fed stuff.

 

[Poundkey]

Down 11%. I was 51/49 at the time.

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

Portfolio return since 10/01/2007: +4.5% (cumulative internal rate of return)
Portfolio balance since 10/01/2007: +46.6%

At the worse point during the crisis (at least so far ):
Portfolio return: -48.3% (cumulative internal rate of return)
Portfolio balance: -26.8%

Take a peek at the roller coaster (Keep in mind, we are still working and actively adding to our portfolio which is "only" in the mid/high six figures):

WOW! All time high
How'dya do it?

 

[Alan]

Like FireDreamer I can't really give a % since I have made contributions of over $130K since 1/1/08 and my balance is higher than it was. (we live well below our means).

IRR in 2008 was -16.25%, IRR this year is +11.49%

$'s lost in 2008 was $210,242, $'s gained 2009 is $152,926 ytd, so we still have ~$60K to make up in gains to offset the losses.

 

[FIREd]

WOW! All time high
How'dya do it?

First we continued to add money to our accounts (not being retired can be a blessing sometimes!).

Second, we invested heavily in equities between 10/08 and 03/09, and particularly asset classes that had been beaten down the most, i.e. REITs, small caps, and international equities (I explained how I rebalance and change my AA based on market conditions here: http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/showpost.php?p=852997&postcount=12)

VGSIX is up more than 100% since March.
NAESX is up 87% since March.
Company stock is up 82% since March.
VEIEX is up 92% since March

I did the same with my bond funds and took advantage of dips in VWITX, VIPSX and PTRAX to load up. They have all returned about 10% since I bought them late last year.

 

[kumquat]

I'm up about 15% from Oct. 07 (after withdrawals) and 25% from ER in June 07.

Unfortunately, my personal all time high was in June of 2008. Still down about 25% from there.

You can probably infer from this that you might not approve of my AA.

 

[megacorp-firee]

Totally agree that retiring and having the market dive within 2 years IS a BAD THING to happen and could potentially change your plans. I was lucky and have a decent pension (boy does that help) and had over-engineered my FIRE portfolio. I am in the enviable position of not having to sell any of portfolio for withdrawals (just eating some of the interest).

down 17% from the low, with minimal withdrawals (less than 2%).

at the lowest, approximately down a bit more than 40%
AA was 60/40. Not done any rebalancing, now about 54/46
... this generates a question for another thread ....

I am still pleasantly surprised that it has recovered as quickly as it has. I had expected it to take two years or so to get to this point.
I know it's not over ... been expecting a retracement for weeks now.
hmmm time to take some 'profits'? (can one call it that? )

 

[ejman]

Down 15 % after withdrawals down 9 % if withdrawals are thrown back in.

 

[molly]

I just went back and did the math. We are still down 10%. Last 1 1/4 years, we put all of our 401k into Stable Value - instead of plowing it back into the market. We were unsure of the employment situation (fears proved correct) so we wanted to be able to bolster our bond allocation when we did a rollover.

Our investing instinct was to plow money back into the market when it was so beaten up, but in an abundance of caution, we just rode it out and took our licks. However, given that we are 62, almost 63, we definitely needed to consider the circumstances. We are in the process of doing a lot of adjusting. Of course - the big enigma for us now is the bond portion - and the controversy over looming interest rate hikes.

 

[Bimmerbill]

21sep07 192k
21sep08 179K
21sep09 175K

Not sure how much I contributed into the account during that time. Somewhere around 15% of my salary.

 

[simple girl]

Portfolio balance is up about 10% since Sept 2007. Keep in mind we have continued to actively contribute. So, in terms of actual return on investment, we are down - not sure how much. I don't know how to run those calculations, so I just keep it simple and look at the overall net worth.

We are almost back to the personal portfolio high reached in June 2008.

 

[freebird5825]

I forgot to capture a snapshot of my exact porfolio at year end 08, and I'm still DCAing in every month and reinvesting some nice 30 day dividends off my muni funds.
So don't make me think and do the exact math - I'm FIREd!
Actually, my overall PF value is getting pretty close to where I was Jan 08.
So that means I'm still in Lossland.