2008 portfolio changes

[clifp]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet I've decided to load my portfolio up with winners for 2008. To heck with this tax loss harvesting crap! I'm gona try to actually make some money in '08.

Ya I am really tired of tax harvestING, I feel like a farmer this year. Luckily I had some winners also, and ridiculous large distribution from a stock "index" fund.

So my 2008 resolution is to only invest in stocks that end the year higher!
It is right up there with exercise 5 times a week lose 25 lbs, and be nice to people on internet discussion boards.

[sunshine]

add stock index funds and international funds. Increase equities to 80%.

[Dawg52]

Quote:

Originally Posted by retire@40 I expect to keep my asset allocations as they are with some minor tweaking.

Ditto.

[tightasadrum]

Gonna try again to figure out just exactly what my AA really is.:confused:

[bbbamI]

In 2008 move another 1/3 of co stock in 401k to other funds.

[AltaRed]

Maintain current AA, but gradually increase my exposure to index ETFs, buy a few beaten down stocks (financials) at the right time and gradually decrease my exposure to legacy managed (somewhat) high MER mutual funds.

[Surfdaddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FinanceDude Less international, dialing back REIT's to no more than 5% of the portfolio, reallocating to growth and small cap value

Isn't dialing back REITs just when they're down sort of like selling at the bottom of the market? Are you market timing?

[audreyh1]

It looks like I need to rebalance.

Gosh - I'm getting killed with distributions again! One fund paid out 7%! Another even more, I think. Taxes on the portfolio are going to be expensive again this year.

I took some steps earlier this year to increase the tax efficiency of my portfolio, but there is only so much you can do without changing the risk profile of your portfolio or incurring other tax consequences. Oh well.

No changes in basic investment strategy.

Audrey

[audreyh1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Surfdaddy Isn't dialing back REITs just when they're down sort of like selling at the bottom of the market? Are you market timing?

Yeah - better to hang to on what you already paid for.

I'll be adding to my REITs for the first time in many, many years since they've been beaten up so badly this past year.

Audrey

[BigBob]

I will be bumping up my bond exposure. I am headed down the 8 year home-stretch and will be tapering off my equity purchases.

[Retire Soon]

I'm presently 50%stock and 50%bonds/cash and plan no changes this year.

[growing_older]

My work is changing 401k providers in January, so I will probably need to rework the entire portfolio around whatever is the best (least-bad) option available there. Luckily I'm heavy on tax advantaged accounts, so can adjust most holdings without tax consequences. I'm going to be making lots of changes early 2008 but really trying to get AA back to what I wanted before the 401k switch. I'm thinking my goal is only rebalance every other year or so, but with all the fiddling, I may as well rebalance now. My AA was planned for long term investing, so I'll try to keep it the same.

[In-control]

Annual re-balancing of funds which have run up ~10% above my target allocation. I try to move $ as little as possible to reduce cap. gains tax's. I have all of the interest/div./cap gain distributions sent to my MM. I use that to build my budget 4 years from now - then create a 3 yr CD from it. This yearly harvesting not only locks in 4 years of living expenses but I get 5-6% interest on the $ - keeping the budget inline with inflation.

Since I am ER'ing on 12/31/07 I will be moving my 401k plan from Fidelity to Vanguard. The costs are significantly lower.

[walkinwood]

I plan to add REITs finally.

I've also been looking at adding international small cap to my portfolio, but haven't decided on it yet. I also don't have any emerging market targeted fund, so that's a possibility too. If I do this, I'll trim my international equity holding to to accommodate these additions.

Since we are ERing next year, and expecting significant inflow in early 08, I'll rebalance equity/bond to 65-35. We're in our mid-late 40s, so can go back to working if the market is too volatile.

I haven't changed my allocations for 5 years, but am convinced now that REITs have a place in my portfolio. Probably 5%.

Oh' and I've turned off automatic re-investment. That was the first preparing for ER step. Sent shivers down my spine.

[AltaRed]

Quote:

Originally Posted by walkinwood Oh' and I've turned off automatic re-investment. That was the first preparing for ER step. Sent shivers down my spine.

I did that as well upon retirement and feel a lot better about it. I now control my cash flow decisions.... not some arbitrary reinvestment scheme. There was nothing more frustrating than having a big distribution get re-invested back into that stock fund which may have needed re-balancing anyway.

[mountaintosea]

Basically I'm selling some loser stocks. With the cash outs this year from left over vacation and holiday time, I'm going to be paying Uncle Sam and the state a little more this year.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AltaRed , buy a few beaten down stocks (financials) at the right time .

Please, please let us know when the right time is!! Not knowing what the right time is has cost me big bux over the past few decades!

[poyet]

I've sold off today 90% of my small & mid european caps, guess the ride which started in July 2003 is over. The CAC40 has also already started to take the dive, though still the first to do so as DAX30, FTSE 100 are not yet bear, so I'll wait a bit on large caps to see what's next...
I'll add some US REITs & REITs based income funds (e.g. RIT, IGR, JRS) when they'll turn bull (obviously not yet) and some US regional bank stocks and ETFs when they'll turn bull (obviously not yet) and will add some div paying ETFs as I think we will have in 2008 a good opportunity to add good beaten stocks with significant yields when all this subprime mess will be over.
We'll have to keep an eye on US small and mid caps as the RUT is a bit worrying right now but I have a different perspective as I buy with euros at a bargain !

Some ideas to share with you and wish the best to you.

[Nords]

Quote:

Originally Posted by poyet I've sold off today 90% of my small & mid european caps, guess the ride which started in July 2003 is over.

Good to hear from you, poyet, it's been a while!

But enough about your trading-- how's your software been doing?

[poyet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nords Good to hear from you, poyet, it's been a while! But enough about your trading-- how's your software been doing?

Everything's fine Nords, good to spend some time with you again. Things have been pretty hectic, my elder daughter has left France and works in DC after earning her MBA @ URI, I'm building a new 26 inches cassegrain scope, I've observed double stars and computed new orbits, thinking of another scope on top of the Oukaimeden (2750m) Marocco, soon will go skiing, etc...

Trading, and the software manages 10% of my portfolio (which itself is just 13-14% of my assets the remaining being RE). So, even if it is a project I'm very committed to its impact on my NAV is limited though ! The software has performed rather well, though we've missed a stronger trend. Did not succeed to get any "customer" to start a fund, frustrating...

The thread was more on global portfolio reallocation, i.e. investment, kind of positions you do not change very often. And that's what I'm focused on at the moment, as momentum is waining out of the market right now (at least in europe). Every month I run a Metastock explorer of mine to sort 187 ETFs in "Bull", "Bear", "Neutral" to get a feel of what's going on (it takes less than 5 minutes) and tend to maintain my cash level to the "bear" ratio, i.e. if 10% are bear I am 10% in cash. I'm currently raising my cash level to match the increase observed in the bear ratio which stands at 32% (e.g. european small & mid caps, Japan, US REITS, financials, banks, high yield & dividend stocks, consumer discretionary, small Value, Midcap Value, etc..).

Selling european small caps funds which I had in portfolio for more than 4 years and on which I doubled is not an easy decision. But that's done. Selling Japan was more frustrating as gains have been offset by the erosion of the Yen against the euro, so I'm not even sure to make gains on all positions in the end... etc.

I want to raise cash to buy REITs, US banks & financials & high yield dividend equity funds (as I'm getting older and want to secure more cash streams) when it will be time to do so, next year ? the year after ? we'll see but to keep things simple when the ROC(MM200) > 0 and Close > MM200 ! From what I see, it will not be next month for sure :-)

I like lurking a bit the boards as I get ideas from you. I was a bit annoyed to have missed the start of the shipping stuff, but I'll keep an eye on it.

So, here are some news. Hope everything was fine with you all.

Cheers