Good riddance, 2008.....

[ziggy29]

...so sayeth Fidelity in calculating my 401K's "return" in 2008:

Yuck. Of course, it was down about 36% at one point...

 

[Bikerdude]

...so sayeth Fidelity in calculating my 401K's "return" in 2008:

Yuck. Of course, it was down about 36% at one point...

I started the year with a 50/50 allocation and I'm down 20% as of the close 12/31/2008. Now, what does 2009 have in store.

 

[Alan]

My end of year performance was a return of -16.45%. My worst ever, Previous worst was -11% in 2002.

According to the VG portfolio analyzer, for my mix of 40/50/10, the worst ever year was -18.0% (1931) so a bit of a recovery in the last quarter I think.

My other figures are:

Last year -16.45%
Last 3 years -0.6%
Last 5 years 2.7%
Last 10 years 3.0%
Last 14 years 8.9%

I only started recording the details from 1994 but you can see how 2 bears in 10 years hammers the returns, and this current one possibly has a ways to run yet.

All the best in 2009.

 

[Moemg]

-30% .Let's hope this year is better !

 

[FIREd]

The XIRR for my overall portfolio was -29% in 2008.

 

[TromboneAl]

My rebalancing spreadsheet tells me that tomorrow I need to move $106,000 into stocks. That's a lot. The only question is whether I do it all at once, or in several.

 

[Dawg52]

My end of year performance was a return of -16.45%. My worst ever, Previous worst was -11% in 2002.

According to the VG portfolio analyzer, for my mix of 40/50/10, the worst ever year was -18.0% (1931) so a bit of a recovery in the last quarter I think.

My other figures are:

Last year -16.45%
Last 3 years -0.6%
Last 5 years 2.7%
Last 10 years 3.0%
Last 14 years 8.9%

I only started recording the details from 1994 but you can see how 2 bears in 10 years hammers the returns, and this current one possibly has a ways to run yet.

All the best in 2009.

You beat me. I was down just a little over 20% for 2008 with a 50/50 AA. But I'm moving forward. Even ditching my 'Born Loser' ID. Back to 'Full Time Golf Bum'. But if 2009 brings another 20% decline, back to 'Loser' status.

 

[NW-Bound]

For me, -26% in 2008. View another way, this sets me back to somewhere between 2004 and 2005, or something like 3.5 years.

Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that, since until this year, we still had some income from my part-time and freelance work, and were even able to have net savings sometimes.

Next year will be interesting for us. ER, here we come!

 

[unclemick]

-26% according to my Vanguard website - Target Retirement 2015 plus Norwegian widow stocks.

Hmmm - handgrenade and horsehoe wise about 4% SEC yield just eyeballing the dividends/interest.

Full auto - sometimes I have to sit on my hands when the urge to buy a few more dividend stocks hits.

heh heh heh - going into 16th yr of ER just going to 'force myself' to spend and not cut back 'too much' cause I'm not getting any younger. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to cheap.

 

[NW-Bound]

heh heh heh - going into 16th yr of ER just going to 'force myself' to spend and not cut back 'too much' cause I'm not getting any younger. I am my own worst enemy when it comes to cheap.

Buy, buy, buy.

Stocks AND bonds AND booze.

While keep cash? Truckloads will be dropped from helicopters.

Buy, buy, buy.

 

[Goonie]

In the neighborhood of -28% YTD on investments. Fortunately my pension increased just north of 7%.....and is set to do about the same in 2009! So overall, I'm still sittin' purty!

 

[NW-Bound]

Buy, buy, buy.

Actually, it's easier said than done. I have been buying very slowly. Bought some yesterday, and made a bit of money already. Instant gratification. Will see if the gain holds tomorrow.

Despite tough talks, I am a chicken. Had I have guts to move more to stocks in 2003, I would have enough now to get that house on Bainbridge Island, across the bay from Seattle, with the view of the Space Needle. Something I always wanted. Up until recently, there were none on the market. Now there are, but my pocket is light.

No guts, no glory. Yep, that's my non-glorious life.

PS. Well, I did have guts, which were all expended in failing startups that I joined.

 

[Corporateburnout]

Quicken says -27.89% on a 65/35 mix.

Back to 3/1/2006 levels including 35K annual contributions......

 

[Notmuchlonger]

-38.8 % Thank god for pensions

 

[REWahoo]

-21.2%. SS starts in 41 days and that should give my bruised and battered nest egg a little relief.

 

[Alan]

You beat me. I was down just a little over 20% for 2008 with a 50/50 AA. But I'm moving forward. Even ditching my 'Born Loser' ID. Back to 'Full Time Golf Bum'. But if 2009 brings another 20% decline, back to 'Loser' status.

I noticed your new avatar even before I read the e-mail. I like the positive approach to '09

 

[Alan]

My rebalancing spreadsheet tells me that tomorrow I need to move $106,000 into stocks. That's a lot. The only question is whether I do it all at once, or in several.

My recent personal Wellesley returns are very poor and when I look I see that last year I did some TLH in December, buying $108,000 of Wellesley at $52.48/share. Bad timing, share price is now $44.57. In retrospect I should have kept the money in a MMF and DCA'ed over the year. C'est la vie

 

[73ss454]

Alan, I think Wellesley is trading around 85 bucks. Where did you see it in the 40's?
Maybe I'm wrong but last I looked it was much higher.

 

[REWahoo]

Alan, I think Wellesley is trading around 85 bucks. Where did you see it in the 40's?
Maybe I'm wrong but last I looked it was much higher.

Must have been a while since you looked...

VANGUARD WELLESLEY INCOME ADMIRAL

Net Asset Value:44.57 Trade Time: Dec 31, 2008

 

[Alan]

Must have been a while since you looked...

VANGUARD WELLESLEY INCOME ADMIRAL

Net Asset Value:44.57 Trade Time: Dec 31, 2008

Thanks - yes, it is Admiral funds that I was talking about.

 

[CuppaJoe]

Can't look at the entire year. Most (but not all) of my losses happened before I retired on 8/29/08. Using Sept. 1 as a starting point, I'm somewhat ok.

Yes, I'm trying to buy, buy, buy. For some reason, Schwab wouldn't allow me to transfer all of my MM into equities last Monday, being too lazy to talk to a live person I moved a third of it. Will continue buying.

 

[73ss454]

Thanks - yes, it is Admiral funds that I was talking about.

My bad, just look and it's around 18, sorry. Admiral is for the rich folks.

 

[Alan]

My bad, just look and it's around 18, sorry. Admiral is for the rich folks.

Or those too lazy to own lots of funds. Apart from VG MMF's, I only own Wellesley and Wellington outside of my 401k.

 

[frayne]

Down 30% for 08.

 

[ziggy29]

Or those too lazy to own lots of funds. Apart from VG MMF's, I only own Wellesley and Wellington outside of my 401k.

My mom has a Vanguard IRA -- when my dad was diagnosed as terminal in 2005, he cashed everything out into Prime MMF to keep it simple for her. But I started doing her investing for her a year later, and I slowly started easing some of it into Wellington and Wellesley which, when combined in equal portions come close to a 50/50 mix.

Actually, now I have her IRA as about 30% Wellington, 30% Wellesley, 20% MMF and 20% TIPS (it was down about 8% in all of '08). That gives her about 30% equities as of now, and I'm DCAing the remainder of the MMF into a combination of Wellington and Wellesley and the net result (when finished) will be about 40/60.