YTD Performance Poll

[frayne]

+.99% after yesterday but like Midpack not too concerned about the short term. IMHO we didn't do anything more than kick the can a little further down the road. I do like the idea of the debt ceiling raises being linked to reductions in spending though, so not all bad. I think bopth parties blew it by not going after the higher hanging fruit of $4 trillion in debt reductions through cuts and revenue increases.

 

[Koolau]

If you counted company matching funds inside the 401k then the return would look better. Not sure how most calculate?[/QUOTE]

FWIW I always counted co. match as a gain. No longer employed, so I envy you. Wait! Forget I said that.

 

[easysurfer]

Went to Vanguard where most of my money is at. Didn't see where there was a YTD performance. But did see that my total balance is pretty much at the start of the year.

I'm at about

US Equities 30%
Intl Equities 20%
Bonds 37%
Cash 13%

 

[FIREd]

+4.7%. My AA has shifted quite a bit since the beginning of the year, but I currently have only 30% in equities.

 

[rescueme]

Not sure how most calculate?

XIRR function on Excel; anything else does not account for contributions/withdrawls during the period.

But again, that's only my opinion ...

 

[sailor]

YTD 2.5%
25% large caps
25% small caps (with REIT, microcap and value tilt)
25% international
10% global bonds
5% bonds
5% other ( mostly commodity futures)
5% cash

 

[LOL!]

YTD return is not the same as annualized YTD. For example, if I make 3% from Jan thru June, then YTD return is 3%, but annualized YTD return is 6%.

I think with XIRR() one has to put 12/31/2011 as the last date as well, otherwise you get the wrong YTD as well.

Last week, both bonds and equities had returned 3% to 4%, so it didn't matter much what your asset allocation was: You had about a 3% to 4% return for the most part.

This week, with equities down and bonds up, bond-heavy asset allocations have done much better than equity-heavy allocations.

If one looks at some Vanguard Target Retirement fund YTD returns, then one can see for the stock:bond ratio in those funds what an index fund YTD return would be. For example, Vanguard 2030 has a reported 18.5% bond allocation and YTD of 1.34% while Vanguard 2010 has a reported 52.2% fixed income allocation and YTD of 3.59% (thru August 2).

That Vanguard 2030 YTD return of 1.34% would be about 1.34% * 12/7 = 2.3% annualized YTD return.

 

[DblDoc]

So for all of you who calculate this what do you do with the information?

I don't a) because I'm to cheap to buy Exel b) to lazy to input all the information and c) there is nothing I would do with the information

DD

 

[W2R]

So for all of you who calculate this what do you do with the information?

I don't a) because I'm to cheap to buy Exel b) to lazy to input all the information and c) there is nothing I would do with the information

DD

I can't help you with b) and c), but for a) try OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite . It's free and essentially identical to Excel.

 

[calmloki]

stocks and Wellesly 2.46%, loans ~10%, Cds 4%, rentals 3-6% without figuring appreciation or depreciation and depending on whether I use value of the property after cost of sale and paying taxes or whatever made up number I put on the properties. I do admire the precision with which you can all calculate what you're making - I'm more in the "do I still have checks?" realm.

 

[braumeister]

2.89% in the retirement accounts, but if I include all the accounts it goes up over 7%.

 

[Brat]

Medicare costs.. I struggle with how to manage end of life care costs paid by Medicare. At some point I think the family and physician needs to put his/her skin in their decisions. Don't know how this could be done but when I hear of aggressive treatment with little possibility of restoring health to an older adult I am troubled. I have no issue with palliative care. I heard that in ancient China the physician was paid only if he cured the patient.

I remember the days before Medicare when families would gather to ponder the value of medical treatment for an elderly relative. Often the elderly relative refused treatment, other than palliative care, because s/he did not want to burden the family financially. Now, because no one is paying for the treatment many will go for broke because they won't go broke.

FYI, I am an older adult.

 

[Moemg]

4.5 % I calculated it this morning . 60% stocks , 30% bonds , 10% cash

 

[ziggy29]

+2.8% as of the most recent "refresh" of securities prices.

 

[FinanceDude]

I have been 100% in GLD since 2007, just kidding...........

 

[LOL!]

So for all of you who calculate this what do you do with the information?

I use the information to determine whether all the market timing that I do harms my returns vis-à-vis a passively-managed index benchmark with a similar stock/bond and small/value asset allocation. If market timing beats the benchmarks, then I keep doing it.

So far I don't have to consider what would happen if I'm not beating my benchmarks.

 

[Ally]

I took all of mine out of stocks and mutual funds a couple of months ago due to anxiety. At my workplace, we have a 3% general savings account available with Mutual of America for payroll contributions and 2.75% for other savings for plan participants. I parked everything there so I can sleep at night and increased my contributions.

 

[rescueme]

So for all of you who calculate this what do you do with the information?

I answer polls ...

 

[kevink]

Contrarian results from a contrarian approach that has beaten the odds for years and trounced every other portfolio during the '08 meltdown:

Portfolio Update: Summer of Chaos! | Crawling Road

Switched to this from a very "sophisticated" slice and dice DFA funds approach three years ago and have yet to look back.

 

[DblDoc]

I can't help you with b) and c), but for a) try OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite . It's free and essentially identical to Excel.

Thanks W2R. I use that. It didn't use to have XIRR. I think it does now but doesn't handle arrays which I would need. So given laziness and since I'm not doing anything based on the result I have no incentive...

DD

 

[powerplay]

YTD +2.6% on my retirement accounts. Not very exciting though I'm happy it is on the + side.

 

[HFWR]

Up 3.5% on the big kahuna; too lazy to look up the rest...

ASSET CLASS|ACTUAL|TARGET
CASH|10.17%|10.00%
BONDS|43.13%|42.50%
STOCKS|36.30%|37.50%
RE|5.50%|5.00%
COMM|4.91%|5.00%

Tables is hard...

 

[Rowdy]

2.71%; 90/10 Equity to Bonds. 35% of equities are international.

 

[obgyn65]

3.5% - with zero shares.

 

[ERD50]

I can't help you with b) and c), but for a) try OpenOffice.org - The Free and Open Productivity Suite . It's free and essentially identical to Excel.

There's a new version out, future updates have moved over to the LibreOffice group. V3.4.2 just came out and it is rated as the version to use for businesses, apparently some bug fixes and more stable.

Seems to me I had to open and close it a few times with various docs before it started running fast, it might have had to initialize some things, or maybe my imagination. But it is available for all platforms, Win, OSX and Linux.

LibreOffice Productivity Suite Download » LibreOffice

LibreOffice 3.4.2 Final (2011-08-01)
Safe for production use by most users and enterprises.

-ERD50