Your 2013 Investment Return

[NW-Bound]

15.8% here. Yep, I've got quite a bit of EM which dragged down the whole portfolio, despite having very little bond. Oh, the big wad of cash returning a bit more than 2% also helps diluting out a few stock positions with gains exceeding S&P500. And I harvested some wonderful US stocks too early throughout the year.

Oh well, such is the "price" for being diversified. Besides, what would I do with 30% or 40% gains? Buy another house or two?

US stocks: 42%
Int stocks (lots of EM): 26%
Bonds: 6%
Cash: 26%

[NanoSour]

Retirement Accounts 13.75%
Taxable Accounts 11.8%

According to Financial Engines our overall AA is:

Cash 18%
Bonds 22%
Lg Cap 18%
Mid/Sm Cap 19%
Intl 23%

Very happy with 2013 for my first year of ER. The bigger metric is we only spent 64% of our ESPlanner Cautious spending level. The bad news is my DW overheard DD tell a friend she didn't have a cell phone yet because her dad is "too cheap"

[tmm99]

Probably around 12-13%.
Is there a place you can go to on Mint that does the calculation for all your investment accounts combined somehow? (That would make things easy for me...)

[SoReady]

16.4% on 65/27/9 allocation. This includes retirement and after tax funds.

[Hermit]

Quicken says 15.8%. 55/35/10 The 10 is in a stable value fund drawing a whopping 1.1%.

[Lsbcal]

A great year for most of us here. But 2014, who knows.

Ours:
portfolio 65/34/1 stocks/bonds/cash at start of 2013
portfolio return 17.6%
international varied from 0% to 26% during year (I move this between US and international based on momentum, no tax consequences for us)
now 6% above inflation adjusted starting ER portfolio (started 2003)

spending 3.5% of portfolio with plenty of discretionary money in this (DW was kept happy)

[truenorth418]

About 14% here. I'm satisfied but was expecting a little better.

My strong gain in small caps was offset by weakness in REIT and international positions, plus I held a fair amount in cash as "dry powder" for the correction that never came.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by truenorth418 ... I held a fair amount in cash as "dry powder" for the correction that never came.

Same here. We need more "Wh***".

[rodi]

12% on my big nest egg portfolio that didn't have any additions.

I rolled an old 401k out to an IRA - and was contributing to it till April - so that one is harder to figure out return vs contribution.

My overall net assets (less house value and 529 value) went up 20% - but that includes 401k contributions, other savings, and mortgage paydown. Considering I funded $12k into the 529's (reducing my net assets)... I'm pleased with this.

(I don't count the house value or 529 because those aren't spendable in *my* plan. I do count the mortgage - which is a tangible liability.)

Asset allocation is 60/25/15.

[John Galt III]

Pretty awful. Only 3%. Due to not setting a stop-loss point for my REIT and a commodities fund.

[scrabbler1]

My IRA which I contributed zero to this year and is 50/50 stock/bond grew at 15.4%.

My taxable portfolio which is about 65/35 in favor of bonds grew at 6.7% although I used most of its (monthly) dividends to pay my expenses.

The taxable portfolio is about 2/3 of my total portfolio so if you weight the two percentages you get 9.6% combined so I'll got with that as the final number.

[tulak]

16.8% on an 80/20 portfolio. I'm pretty happy. REITs/EM/BNDs were a drag this year, but who knows what next this year will bring.

[wingfooted]

45.1% - this is the time weighted return, net of dividends, commissions, margin debt interest and not including any deposits/withdrawals during the year.

Noteworthy events:

Second half surge - Apple finally kicking in after dragging down returns in the first half of the year

December swoon - Anadarko tanking after negative court ruling on Tronox



One of my goals for 2013 was to beat the market, adjusted for risk. I failed to achieve that goal, i.e. I took too many risks for the realized returns. Final Sharpe ratio was 2.14 versus 2.84 for the SPX benchmark.





The other downside is I now have a significant tax bill to pay as a lot of this is short term capital gains. And an even bigger tax bite as this will be subject to the new 'Obama Care' 3.8% tax on investment income. First world problems to be sure.

All in all, obviously I am a happy camper.

[Alan]

10.34%
AA at end of year 43/45/12 (most of the 12% cash is I-Bonds)

[Meadbh]

~18%

Portfolio is 43.5% equities (Canadian 19%, US 14.2% and International 10.3%); Fixed Income 22%, Real Estate 22%, Alternatives 6.5%, Precious Metals 1.5% and Cash 4.8%. (figures are rounded so do not add up to 100%).

I do not use leverage for investing except for except for real estate, and I am reducing that as fast as I can. Gains would have been a little higher if I had not recently realized the capital gains in a TFSA account to pay down some real estate debt. Let's call it rebalancing.

A very good year. Let us pray for more like this one!

[Bikerdude]

10.5% with 43/35/22 "bunker" portfolio.

[engprodigy]

My average return for all investments in 2013 was 14.8%.

[Lsbcal]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wingfooted 45.1% - this is the time weighted return, net of dividends, commissions, margin debt interest and not including any deposits/withdrawals during the year. ...

Whoa! A gunslinger in our midst.

Reminds me of some of my better years in the 1980's and 1990's. Before I got to retirement. Often 100% invested. When I was up big, I actually had dreams of flying.

I never tried margin.

[Danmar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Whoa! A gunslinger in our midst. Reminds me of some of my better years in the 1980's and 1990's. Before I got to retirement. Often 100% invested. When I was up big, I actually had dreams of flying. I never tried margin.

Used leverage when I was working. Can really juice returns when the market is up 30% and interest rates at 3%. Stopped borrowing when I retired.

[NW-Bound]

My best year ever was 2003, when I clocked 39.5% according to my notes. The S&P return was around 30% that year, due to the rebound from a crash. I was never more than 80% in equities, and definitely not leveraged. I needed to hold a lot of cash actually, as my consulting work always dried up during recessions and I needed money to live on through lean years. Boy, I picked good stocks (call it luck, I don't care), and made so much money up to 2008.

From the bottom in 2003 to the top in 2007, I was up more than 2.4X (S&P was up 1.7X in the same time frame) despite heavy expenses. Those were the good days.

PS. I never have more than 2 or 3% in any single stock. Even now, my largest position is Berkshire, and it is only 2.7% of portfolio despite being a conglomerate.