How did your portfolio do in 2010 ?

[teejayevans]

pretax 19.1 95/5
posttax 15.6 60/40

401K is finally back to even from it's highs of 2007.
TJ

 

[Dawg52]

What do you have to worry about, my man? What's this 25% AA in equities? No one can fool me. I still have good memory, and I remember who says what.

How about refreshing my memory?

 

[veremchuka]

Well, let's not get too carried away with computing return to several digits.

I am now fretting that when the market opens again, it may just easily wipe out 1 percent of my stash in a single day. And then, like in the past, when an entire week's trading was down every single day, the pain was just unbearable. So much for my bragging here of my 2010 return.

it is really crazy when people report to the hundredth or thousandth of a per cent their numbers. i know someone that does this and it is maddening. on another forum he is constantly posting his returns for the month and year all the time and he'll post his return as 9.864% as if this is any more meaningful than 9.8%! even 10% is fairly accurate!

and you are right, one lousy day and 1/2 of the 2nd half of december's gains will be wiped out. you crawl up but free fall when going down, very frustrating. i have learned to look at my numbers at mid month and month end no more than that.

 

[veremchuka]

Oops! - sorry - I had the numerator and denominator inverted. I fixed it above. Thanks for catching it quickly while I could still edit.

NOTE: In a bad year you can get a negative result!

Audrey

thanks audrey, i wrote this down for future reference. this is great!

 

[RonBoyd]

It did just fine.

I had a long post readied to post when I decided it just doesn't matter.

Yeah, it all seems so futile.

The New Speed of Money, Reshaping Markets

In many of the world’s markets, nearly all stock trading is now conducted by computers talking to other computers at high speeds. As the machines have taken over, trading has been migrating from raucous, populated trading floors like those of the New York Stock Exchange to dozens of separate, rival electronic exchanges. They rely on data centers like this one, many in the suburbs of northern New Jersey.

While this “Tron” landscape is dominated by the titans of Wall Street, it affects nearly everyone who owns shares of stock or mutual funds, or who has a stake in a pension fund or works for a public company. For better or for worse, part of your wealth, your livelihood, is throbbing through these wires.

... some experts wonder whether the technology is getting dangerously out of control. Even apart from the huge amounts of energy the megacomputers consume, and the dangers of putting so much of the economy’s plumbing in one place, they wonder whether the new world is a fairer one — and whether traders with access to the fastest machines win at the expense of ordinary investors.

 

[RetirementColdHardTruth]

Hear is my 1,2 and 3 year returns.

Personal rate of return 12/31/2010
1 year 21.1%
3 years 11.0%
5 years 10.8%
Vanguard believes you should focus on long-term performance, not short-term market fluctuations. Time is on your side. Important information about personal rate of return »

Sorry my title is off.

 

[calmloki]

Sold my cunning BAC shares purchase and only lost about 50% on that stock adventure. OOooo! a tax writeoff! Adjusted property values to the tax assessor's new numbers. Used Quicken net worth value for 2009 and 2010 and it looks like we are up 7.3%.

That'll do pig, that'll do.

 

[FinanceDude]

22% total return, moderate trading in ETFs, bought and sold when they ran up, and then rebalanced gains to conservative old school mutual funds.........

 

[FUEGO]

+19% for the investment portfolio. 98% equities.

Looking at net worth, we are up 39% year over year, and 154% versus 2 years ago.

 

[NW-Bound]

it is really crazy when people report to the hundredth or thousandth of a per cent their numbers. i know someone that does this and it is maddening. on another forum he is constantly posting his returns for the month and year all the time and he'll post his return as 9.864% as if this is any more meaningful than 9.8%! even 10% is fairly accurate!

and you are right, one lousy day and 1/2 of the 2nd half of december's gains will be wiped out. you crawl up but free fall when going down, very frustrating. i have learned to look at my numbers at mid month and month end no more than that.

Eh! Earlier I bragged about my return to the 0.01%. And then, I forgot that I had not logged into my I-bond accounts to get the interest for December 2010. That brought up my bragging point a little bit.

Should I ask a mod to update my post, as I could no longer edit it?

 

[clifp]

Eh! Earlier I bragged about my return to the 0.01%. And then, I forgot that I had not logged into my I-bond accounts to get the interest for December 2010. That brought up my bragging point a little bit.

Should I ask a mod to update my post, as I could no longer edit it?

You betcha the moderators are here to serve.

While you are at it you should update the info for today's market, oh and make sure you tweet the info also.

 

[RetirementColdHardTruth]

DW account returns.


Personal rate of return 12/31/2010
1 year 21.8%
3 years 8.1%
5 years 7.6%
Vanguard believes you should focus on long-term performance, not short-term market fluctuations. Time is on your side. Important information about personal rate of return »

 

[Westernskies]

Jan-01-2010Dec-31-2010+ 16.73%

 

[NW-Bound]

Well, after WS posted his number, argh, forget it. The I-bond interest for December merely added a few hundredths of a percent, and would not improve my ranking here at all.

Darn! Need to try harder in 2011. I knew I should not get out of these "hot" stocks so early.


PS. I just remember now that I "guessimated" that I overspent my part-time income, and drew perhaps 1.5% of my stash. But in reality, it may be more. So, in order to claim my prowess as an investor, I may have to join the spendthrift ranks. What should I do? Go figure out the real spending to update my return? Will see. I shall return.

 

[Milkman]

Up 14.3%, 65/35

Milkman

 

[Westernskies]

I just remember now that I "guessimated" that I overspent my part-time income, and drew perhaps 1.5% of my stash. But in reality, it may be more. So, in order to claim my prowess as an investor, I may have to join the spendthrift ranks. What should I do?

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/stop-using-toilet-paper-54005.html

 

[TromboneAl]

In many of the world’s markets, nearly all stock trading is now conducted by computers talking to other computers at high speeds.

I had a friend visit who writes software that does this trading in the currencies markets. It really is an issue of microseconds, and a fascinating topic.

 

[NW-Bound]

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/stop-using-toilet-paper-54005.html

Under consideration for 2011 budget.

But about the past 2010 expenses, I now think that my portfolio return was actually better than I reported. So many of my stocks went up good, but where did the money go?

OK, I know I spent some, but I now suspect DW also did her part. While I bought some vehicles, she wasted some on RE taxes, health insurance, roof repair, kids college tuition, things like that...

Just like Moemg said in the other thread, people may just be fooling themselves that they are not spendthrifts.

 

[pb4uski]

But that formula doesn't take the timing of the investments/withdrawals into account, right? That can be very important, yes?

Yes it is important. In the example that was provided, the actual return was 14.62% (using Excel's XIRR function) compared with the 13.89% using the simple formula, a 0.73% difference.

 

[NW-Bound]

How about refreshing my memory?

Oh, I was just trying to give you a hard time about using market fluctuations as a reason for "meds", while being only 25% in stocks. Your stomach is stronger than that.

 

[obgyn65]

Congratulations to all those who are up more than 5%. Being 100% in CDs, money markets I am at about 3.5% for 2010.

 

[Chester_A._Riley]

Up 12.8% (70/25/5)

 

[FinanceDude]

Congratulations to all those who are up more than 5%. Being 100% in CDs, money markets I am at about 3.5% for 2010.

Aren't you worried about inflation?

 

[dizzy]

We are up about 9.5%. 50/50 target, but ended year closer to 55/45. Bonds are mostly tax-free munis, so would probably be in 10-11% range with taxable bonds. Plan to rebalance to 50/50 by buying some taxable total bond index this month. Don't feel like adding more muni exposure this year, and tax advantage is not as big a deal now that there is no W2 income. Good news is that we managed to pay all the bills, and the portfolio is still up 7%! No complaints, Woo Hoo!

 

[Uncle Drew]

Our portfolio ended up 13.5% for 2010.

At the end of the year, asset allocation was

48% Domestic Stocks
31% Foreign Stocks
7% Bonds
14% Cash

We started the year with almost zero allocated to cash and more to stocks. I lightened the stock weighting throughout the year.