WADR, you call this a dog?
1 Year 5.84%
3 Year 13.75%
5 Year 12.14%
10 Year 6.82%
What do you expect as a return for 3, 5 or 10 years?
I'm guessing that this dog beats the crap out of your actual returns for the last 3, 5 and 10 years given what you have relayed earlier in this thread.
Actually, VTIVX had a little different return than you stated;
1 year=3.29%, which is what I called sub par. Your data may be better than Morningstars report.
To answer your question, in the bull market of 2014, it should have done better, but longer term, I agree it performed OK. We managed to recover from losses in 2009, but not to the degree we should have. Were are up >25% from the peak prior to late 2008, which is about in pace with the S&P.
Despite everyone's effort to kill our investments, we still performed OK once we left our 12 year relationship with Brian's Madrona funds. The up market the past few years has been easy to capture some significant gains. We were with RBC in 2013 and other than the annuity loss, we were up 22.12%, 20.14%, 1.78% and 2.7% on other investments. A blended return of 12.8% for 2013.
With Sherwood, last year, we were up 12.4%, and YTD June 30, up another 5.2%. With about a 60/40 allocation, no foreign.
That is why I called VTIVX a dog, lagging return in 2014 at 5.84% and 3.38% YTD against our other investment accounts that were up 12.2% 2014 and 5.2% YTD. I am not by any means dumping it.
Depending on the allocation, the Boglehead 3 fund method seems a lot simpler for nearly equivalent returns and is essentially the fund mix used by the target date funds with one less level of fees.
Top 10 Holdings of VTIVX (99.95% of Total Assets)
Company Symbol % Assets YTD Return %
Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx Inv N/A 57.13 N/A
Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index Inv N/A 32.85 N/A
Vanguard Total Bond Market II Idx Inv N/A 6.98 N/A
Vanguard Total Intl Bd Idx Investor N/A 2.99 N/A