2017 YTD investment performance thread

[OldShooter]

I think we agree on the second part... that is the reason that I compare my actual portfolio returns to a benchmark... to assess I am doing the thing right as you like to put it.

On the first part, I would expect that my 60/40 portfolio will be quite different from the Russell 3000 or whatever 100% equity benchmark that you want to use so I don't see where that comparison is useful at all... the 100% equity portfolio will have a lot more risk and volatility than my 60/40 portfolio too.

Well then we're pretty well in agreement across the board. I don't compare the static benchmarks to my whole portfolio, just to the equity portion. As I said, that comparison is to look at whether the AA in the equity portion looks like it is producing reasonable results. Agreed that for small differences it will take years to be sure of a variance not due to luck, but if my portfolio goes careening off to the South Pole vs the Russell or the ACWI then I will at least know it.

 

[OldShooter]

RNWGX is 80%
RLBGX is 20%

I'm curious about the 9.6% you reported in post #184. Is that with this AA? Just eyeballing the graphs at Schwab, it looks like RNGWX is up about 8% and RLBGX is up about 4%. Not trying to be argumentative but that gets me to about 7.2%, not 9.6%. Am I not understanding something?

 

[audreyh1]

Unless you adjusted for year-to-date spending, you might be able to report a little higher number than 3.77%. as your "all-in" return.

We've been calling it "money chimp" style spending adjustment if you do it this way:

=(CurrentAllInBalance+YtdSpend/2)/(StartYearBalance-YtdSpend/2)-1

It turns out to be quite a bit higher YTD return number as I do a lot of gifting early in the year when I start the new budget year.

OK - if I take into account my spending plus taxes paid year to date, to my total investable assets growth:

Using the Quicken Method for calculating ROI, which is (CurrentAllInBalance+YTDSpend)/(StartYearBalance+YTDAdditions)-1, I get

YTD = +4.33%

If I subtract my spending from the StartYearBalance (as if all the funds had been removed at midnight 12/31/16), I get

YTD = +4.36%

If I use your "money chimp" style formula, I get

YTD = +4.35%

So - yeah, that's an average between the two.

 

[NW-Bound]

I'm curious about the 9.6% you reported in post #184. Is that with this AA? Just eyeballing the graphs at Schwab, it looks like RNGWX is up about 8% and RLBGX is up about 4%. Not trying to be argumentative but that gets me to about 7.2%, not 9.6%. Am I not understanding something?

Judging from the screen name, I think target2019 is not yet retired. Perhaps he is still contributing to his 401k, and that creates an additional increase.

 

[sengsational]

It turns out to be quite a bit higher YTD return number as I do a lot of gifting early in the year when I start the new budget year.
...

There's value in both the with and without spend adjust...I like to adjust because it makes the number bigger, hehe!

The beginning, end, or average (money chimp), doesn't make much difference, does it? Oh well, I'll take whatever bit of increase in accuracy I can get if it only takes a one-time change of a formula in my spreadsheet. Actually, my number is kind of rough because it's just my 12 month spend projection linearly applied to the number of days so far in the year. And, as you do, I have lumpy expenditures. It would be a lot more accurate by using actual spending, but that sounds like too much effort for something I'm trying to push out of the spotlight rather than into it.

 

[audreyh1]

There's value in both the with and without spend adjust...I like to adjust because it makes the number bigger, hehe!

The beginning, end, or average (money chimp), doesn't make much difference, does it? Oh well, I'll take whatever bit of increase in accuracy I can get if it only takes a one-time change of a formula in my spreadsheet. Actually, my number is kind of rough because it's just my 12 month spend projection linearly applied to the number of days so far in the year. And, as you do, I have lumpy expenditures. It would be a lot more accurate by using actual spending, but that sounds like too much effort for something I'm trying to push out of the spotlight rather than into it.

Well, I adjust my retirement fund YTD performance because I remove the annual income at the very start of each year, so it makes sense to apply the same to total investable assets. I had forgotten about that.

In general, in tracking my net worth, I've looked at that in terms of growth in spite of my spending. If I went back and added all the funds I'd spent over the years, the growth would be huge! I'd also faint because I'd spent so much money!

 

[calmloki]

+2.42% Net Worth growth between 12/31/16 and now. That is everything - all real estate, homes, cash, stocks, loans and debts ... We haven't made the tax payments yet, but overpaid on some of the taxes and most of the rents haven't come in for the month, so that should balance out.

 

[NW-Bound]

...In general, in tracking my net worth, I've looked at that in terms of growth in spite of my spending. If I went back and added all the funds I'd spent over the years, the growth would be huge! I'd also faint because I'd spent so much money!

But of course.

My earned income only stopped 5 years ago, and I was working part-time and could cover my expenses but did not have extra to add to the stash. Still, when I look at what Quicken tallies up for expenses in the last 5 years, OMG! Imagine still having all that money, plus whatever cap gains and dividends out of that. If we were both working, and saving the max with children out of college, how much more money could we have?

Still, I want to account for the withdrawal to see the true investment return. Managing the expenses is another aspect of retirement planning, and I want it separate from the investment process.

PS. Growth in spite of spending is very desirable, and more so if it is after adjustment for inflation. The problem is we are not guaranteed that, and it is unlikely in the next decade or two, according to Bogle, Shiller, and other pundits. At least, it is the case for me, and not somebody who is drawing a minuscule 1.5 or 2%.

 

[target2019]

I'm curious about the 9.6% you reported in post #184. Is that with this AA? Just eyeballing the graphs at Schwab, it looks like RNGWX is up about 8% and RLBGX is up about 4%. Not trying to be argumentative but that gets me to about 7.2%, not 9.6%. Am I not understanding something?

What I reported here is what the 401k provider reported to me when I looked on April 1.

 

[target2019]

Judging from the screen name, I think target2019 is not yet retired. Perhaps he is still contributing to his 401k, and that creates an additional increase.

M* shows 10.68% total return YTD for RNWGX, a few days after.
So EM is still reaching for the sky.

I have bi-monthly contributions. You are an astute observer!

 

[NW-Bound]

RNWGX is up 11.14% now. For comparison, Vanguard VWO which I have is up 11.76% YTD.

Emerging markets have been trailing the S&P the last couple of years. They are having their revenge now. Here hoping it will last.

My star performer is a small-cap stock that is up more than 80% YTD. Of course I only have a little bit in it. Even after the growth, it is still less than 1% of portfolio. Still nice to have that gain, as it contributed almost 0.5% to the total portfolio gain of 5.5%. That happens inside MFs too, but one does not see unless he looks deeper into a MF's holdings.

 

[target2019]

RNWGX has an EM focus, but not really an EM index.

"The fund invests primarily in common stocks of companies with significant exposure to countries with developing economies and/or markets.*"

You will find exposure to developed markets as well as US companies in the portfolio. It will not go as extreme as EM ETF index. In 3, 5 yr periods it did better. Started in 2009.

EM index, we also hold. Altogether there is under 7.5% EM in our total port. Some in total int'l fund, EM fund, RNWGX, and so on.

 

[NW-Bound]

...You will find exposure to developed markets as well as US companies in the portfolio. It will not go as extreme as EM ETF index. In 3, 5 yr periods it did better...

RNWGX is better than VWO in 5 years, but not in 1 or 3 years. I just checked.

It definitely has lower volatility than VWO. Rated 5-star by Morningstar. Something worthwhile for people to look into, despite its 0.65% ER.

 

[target2019]

3 years is very close.
Instead I will take RNWGX for 5 and 10 years.

 

[robnplunder]

At +5.20% [edited], up 1.23% [edited] since the last month. Winners and losers stayed pretty much the same. From winners to losers: emerging market funds, US index funds, short term trades, and bond funds.

I am up 3.97%, trailing the market. My winners are DODFX, FSCHX, and FCNKX. The losers are my bond portfolio & short term trades.

 

[NW-Bound]

It's been a month already! Time to report month-end result, I guess.

So, I closed the first trimester of 2017 with a gain of 5.49%, calculated over every account, including the last penny in the checking account.

Reasonably happy with it, considering that I am only 66% in equities, with much of the rest in cash. The S&P is up 6.37% for the period, and I got 86% of that gain.

It may just evaporate next week, but so far so good.

I am now up to 6.35% YTD. Stock AA has crept up to 69% due to a bit of buying, with most of the rest in cash.

What added to the gain in April is a mixed bag of stocks, such as Caterpillar (up 10% in a month), Walmart (7%), and Home Depot (6%), biotechs, etc... Stocks that went down in April include mining, energy, chemical companies, AT&T, even Berkshire Hathaway, etc...

 

[Rickt]

+6.72% YTD, +1.52% in April 2017.
56% US Stocks/20% International Stocks/16% US Bonds/ 4% Foreign Bonds/ 4% REITS
Large Cap Stocks (32%) helped the performance this month.

 

[pb4uski]

5.58% YTD

4.63% YTD based on XIRR of beginning balance, withdrawals, cash dividends and ending balance using a 12/31/2017 date. AA of 60/35/5.

I have been rebalancing more often than normal into the rally to keep cash up giving upcoming wedding costs later this year.

 

[Johanson]

I'm at 8.05% YTD as of today in my 401K. My HSA and Roth are probably a little less but together they account for less than 5% of my retirement savings. AA is 100% equities.

 

[Johanson]

Judging from the screen name, I think target2019 is not yet retired. Perhaps he is still contributing to his 401k, and that creates an additional increase.

What I reported here is what the 401k provider reported to me when I looked on April 1.

M* shows 10.68% total return YTD for RNWGX, a few days after.
So EM is still reaching for the sky.

I have bi-monthly contributions. You are an astute observer!

My 401K does NOT count my contributions towards my rate of return. It will count the gain on the contributions but not the contributions themselves. It does count the contributions towards total increase/decrease in my portfolio but I can do that in my head because that page states what the starting balance was at the end of the year. Do you know how yours calculates your return?

 

[Fedup]

Up 6% YTD. If I include after tax account, it would be higher. The account is up 20-30%. So on the conservative side it's up 7%, could be higher. But this is fun posting. Not exact science.

 

[target2019]

My 401K does NOT count my contributions towards my rate of return. It will count the gain on the contributions but not the contributions themselves. It does count the contributions towards total increase/decrease in my portfolio but I can do that in my head because that page states what the starting balance was at the end of the year. Do you know how yours calculates your return?

I may be confused (as usual) but mine are using "personal performance YTD" to describe the performance number. As far as I know, it is XIRR. That includes contributions + gain, and when. Doesn't it? Perhaps my description was wrong.

Anyways, for overall portfolio (54/41/5 St/Bnd/Csh) through 4/28/2017:
YTD Balance Increase +6.98%
YTD Performance +4.83%

The 401(k) account receiving bi-monthly contributions shows performance YTD of +12.56%. It is the grey rows in picture below.

The other (much larger) part of my 401(k) pillar shows performance YTD of +6.65%.

See 401(k) pillar below for more explanation.

 

[CardsFan]

5.8% ytd (60/30/10)

 

[Andre1969]

I just ran my numbers this morning. Look like my rate of return so far is 8.6%. If you count additional investments, my total portfolio value is up about 9.8%. It would be nice if 2017 would continue at this rate, but I have a feeling that's a bit too much to hope for!

 

[Sittinginthesun]

7% on the nose after a 2.25% month.