2019 YTD Investment Performance Thread

I am quite happy with my 2019 result as reported earlier. I came close to the S&P return, while not being 100% in stock.

Is it the best I ever had? I don't think so, but I only have definite numbers going back to 2011, because that was when I started tracking in/outflow to do an accurate return calculation. And the 2019 number is the best of the last 9 years.

But here's something that I found. In 2013, the S&P returned more than 32%. Wowza! My return was a bit less than 1/2 of that, although I was usually about 70% in stock. I was trailing badly.

How did I miss that? Thinking back, it was the year I was having a bad health problem, and when your days on earth might be numbered, you don't spend too much time watching your stocks.
 
And in looking back at past records, I rediscovered something too. Going back to 2013, I saw that I had an account then at a brokerage, which I do not have now. I thought I closed it much earlier than that. It held $600K in early 2013. That money is gone!

I guess when you are sick, you don't think too much about the money you have to spend either, and are just grateful that you are not destitute. Being sick is already bad, but sick and broke is something I have been spared.
 
NW-Bound >>> ^ just to clarify. So you had that account and kind of forgot about it and now the money has dried up at that account? Did you lose that money or just moved that money someplace else?
Interesting discovery.
 
Best year ever!

1:1:2020.jpg

Here is my yearly performance since I FIREd. This is "financial net worth" - taking out house and college set-asides (all kids are out of college now!).
 
street said:
NW-Bound >>> ^ just to clarify. So you had that account and kind of forgot about it and now the money has dried up at that account? Did you lose that money or just moved that money someplace else?
Interesting discovery.
Click to expand...

I managed to spend it down and close it, and forgot about it. Then, I was not at the age of 59-1/2 to draw from 401k and IRA, so had to spend after-tax savings first.
 
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13.6%. Lighter than I would have liked given the year we had, but still a great year. What brought me down is that I started the year too conservative with a 40/60 portfolio. Throughout the year I moved to 60/40 so at least I didn’t leave it all on the table. And no, I didn’t market time. Sat down after the first quarter and thought it through, 40/60 is just too conservative for me. I feel pretty comfortable at 60/40 but of course the test will be the year we have a significant downturn. I’d be okay with not being tested :)
 
NW-Bound >>> Interesting and thanks.
 
YTD (December 31, 2019) returns for a collection of 'close-to' 60/40 funds (from Morningstar.com):

19.37% VSMGX Vg LifeStrategy Moderate Growth (60/40)
21.79% VBIAX Vg Balanced Index (60/40), no foreign
18.17% DGSIX DFA Global 60/40 I, small-cap & value tilted
19.63% VTTVX Vg Target Retirement 2025 (62/38)
19.69% FQIFX Fidelity Freedom Index 2025 (59/41)

17.63% VTWNX Vg Target Retirement 2020 (53/47)*
22.61% VWENX Vg Wellington (67/33)*

Some others
02.23% VMMXX Vg Prime Money Market
08.71% VBTLX Vg Total US Bond Index
06.84% VSCSX Vg Short-term corporate bond index
30.80% VTSAX Vg Total US Stock Market
21.51% VTIAX Vg Total Int'l Stock Market
28.94% VGSLX Vg REIT Index
22.76% VSIAX Vg Small Cap Value Index
27.25% MTUM IShares USA Momentum Factor ETF

*These 2 funds VTWNX and VWENX are outliers because they are not that close to a 60/40 asset allocation this year.
 
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I went all cash in our taxable account for most of November and all of December to stay under the ACA cliff so I missed out on that last little run there. I still managed to get an overall return of a tad over 29% so am very happy.

Now for 2020. New shooter new direction.
 
25.6% return for the year after I add back our monthly living expense withdrawal and Roth conversion taxes paid. I'm pretty happy with that.
 
Very pleased with 20.7. Good to see I’m in the ballpark for approx 60/40.
 
NW-Bound said:
Is it the best I ever had? I don't think so, but I only have definite numbers going back to 2011, because that was when I started tracking in/outflow to do an accurate return calculation. And the 2019 number is the best of the last 9 years.

But here's something that I found. In 2013, the S&P returned more than 32%. Wowza! My return was a bit less than 1/2 of that, although I was usually about 70% in stock. I was trailing badly.

How did I miss that? Thinking back, it was the year I was having a bad health problem, and when your days on earth might be numbered, you don't spend too much time watching your stocks.
Click to expand...

My own personal best years were 2009 (+44.7%) and 1999 (+44.9%). In 2009, we were recovering from the Great Recession, so that was part of it. Back in 1999, I didn't have much invested, so each additional investment made some difference. Overall the SP500 for those years was +19.53% in 1999 and +23.45%, respectively, so I don't know how I managed to beat them by so much. (source: https://www.macrotrends.net/2526/sp-500-historical-annual-returns) Anyway, my guess is that, barring extraordinary circumstances, if those were great years for me, they were for you, too.

I under-performed the SP500 in 2013 as well. That year my return was 23.1%, versus 29.6% (according to that link, above, although it's a bit different from your number). In my case though, I started cashing out some gains, to ramp up paying down the mortgage, so that most likely hurt me a bit. If I'd left that money invested, it would have gone on to make more.
 
Was there nobody who just had all Apple stock and made 95% or whatever this year? lol. Maybe they are on their yacht and out of internet range, too cheap to use their helicopter or sat phone.
 
street said:
NW-Bound >>> Interesting and thanks.
Click to expand...

I made another mistake. The account still had good money left when I transferred it to another brokerage account. But that account now has only a measly balance, so I did manage to spend that, plus the IRA/401k withdrawals in the last few years.

Yes, ER is not for the faint of heart. Your money slips right through your fingers, and you are not bringing in any. You are at the mercy of the market god, who is known to be alternating between generosity and brutality.


Andre1969 said:
My own personal best years were 2009 (+44.7%) and 1999 (+44.9%). In 2009, we were recovering from the Great Recession, so that was part of it. Back in 1999, I didn't have much invested, so each additional investment made some difference. Overall the SP500 for those years was +19.53% in 1999 and +23.45%, respectively, so I don't know how I managed to beat them by so much. (source: https://www.macrotrends.net/2526/sp-500-historical-annual-returns) Anyway, my guess is that, barring extraordinary circumstances, if those were great years for me, they were for you, too.

I under-performed the SP500 in 2013 as well. That year my return was 23.1%, versus 29.6% (according to that link, above, although it's a bit different from your number). In my case though, I started cashing out some gains, to ramp up paying down the mortgage, so that most likely hurt me a bit. If I'd left that money invested, it would have gone on to make more.
Click to expand...

As mentioned, without good record keeping of in/outflow, it is very difficult to back track my investment results prior to 2011. However, I doubt that I ever had better than 30% even in the tech-bubble years of 1998/1999, simply because I was never 100% invested.

I however do keep track of the daily total portfolio value, which is just a single number logged for each day. And it shows that from the top on 2000/03/24 to 2002/10/09, I had 56 cents on the dollar. And this happened at a time when I was closing down the local office of our start-up, being the last guy to turn the light off before closing the door.

At that point, I thought that life could not be gloomier. And just 3 years later, I was back riding high, and felt confident enough to buy my 2nd home.

How exciting life is! You never know what is around the corner. Exhilaration or imminent death?
 
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Well, Happy New Year to y'all. I should not be on the forum too much today. I am hosting the family party at noon, and need to go help my wife.

My brother is bringing a whole Spanish ham! Will wait to see what grade of ham it is.
 
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+19.55% on 63/37 AA. +16.93% increase in NW.
 
Ended at 17.5% for the year.

AA: about 55/45

The best part is, after 4 years of retirement and all spending coming from these accounts, we have 32% more money than the day I retired.:dance:
 
An amazing year:

ROI 24.5%
Inheritance 20.1%
Spending -3.16%
Overall Increase 41.5%

In dollar amounts it blows my mind.
 
Around +18.72%. Quite pleased.
 
14% on a 40/60 AA. I am more than happy with that.

We ended up spending half of what we anticipated from our cash, and that was with a comfortable and generous lifestyle for us.

After 18 months and my first full year of retirement, the above 2 items has our dollar amounts well ahead of what they were at retirement.
 
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