2023 Investment Performance Thread

[flyingaway]

Those (not me) 100% in QQQ or TQQQ would be happier.

I am also happy to spend down my portfolio.

 

[tominboise]

So my beginning balance to my ending balance minus spending for the year = 7.317%. I guess I am happy with that.

 

[LateToFIRE]

Strictly in 401k, I'm up 14.8% YTD 2023 (thru 12/7/2023). For 2022 was down -19.9%, yikes I always forget how challenging that year was. AA is about 90% equity, mostly U.S. large Cap.

 

[Katoslake]

Dec 2023 vs Dec 2021, with no withdrawals or spending are within ~1%. Virtually no difference in total balance.
With inflation and lost spending power, not exactly sure how much we’ve lost.

 

[marko]

"Higher, Longer"

I usually plan for/expect a 6% return and I'm hardly ever disappointed; this year is looking like just around 10% and just re-gained my year's high.

I'm usually 60/40 but between TBills and a Floating Bank Rate fund, a good portion of my "40" is punching out about 7% right now. Easy, predictable, relatively safe money. I know that it won't last forever, maybe for just the next year ahead, but I'm wondering if anyone else is silently rooting for continued low unemployment and the proverbial "higher for longer" Fed position?

 

[Surewhitey]

Too complicated to give a true annual performance, but including income and growth, we're up ~12% on NW. Been a good year all around.

Hoping next year is our last.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

"Higher, Longer"

I usually plan for/expect a 6% return and I'm hardly ever disappointed; this year is looking like just around 10% and just re-gained my year's high.

I'm usually 60/40 but between TBills and a Floating Bank Rate fund, a good portion of my "40" is punching out about 7% right now. Easy, predictable, relatively safe money. I know that it won't last forever, maybe for just the next year ahead, but I'm wondering if anyone else is silently rooting for continued low unemployment and the proverbial "higher for longer" Fed position?

With a 3.2% trailing annual inflation, a reasonable long term rate should be in the 2% (real) area, putting nomnal rates around 5%. The last decade of lower than normal real rates are the aboration, not the norm.

Now what the Fed does (in terms of easing), who knows. I've always been in the camp that they will quickly lower rates if they perceive economic conditions starting to fall apart. So far I've been "wrong" because I originally thought that the rate cuts would come before the end of 2023, mostly because I thought economic conditions would crater more than they have. In the meantime, I collect my coupons and hold onto my (likey overpriced but still going up) Apple, Microsoft, and some other equities.

 

[audreyh1]

"Higher, Longer"

I usually plan for/expect a 6% return and I'm hardly ever disappointed; this year is looking like just around 10% and just re-gained my year's high.

I'm usually 60/40 but between TBills and a Floating Bank Rate fund, a good portion of my "40" is punching out about 7% right now. Easy, predictable, relatively safe money. I know that it won't last forever, maybe for just the next year ahead, but I'm wondering if anyone else is silently rooting for continued low unemployment and the proverbial "higher for longer" Fed position?

Floating rate bank funds can turn on a dime. I’ve been bitten enough to no longer touch them. Just so you know - they often act like equities, happy in strong markets, nasty in poor markets. I just wouldn’t consider them relatively safe. TBills on the other hand are very safe.

 

[marko]

Floating rate bank funds can turn on a dime. I’ve been bitten enough to no longer touch them. Just so you know - they often act like equities, happy in strong markets, nasty in poor markets. I just wouldn’t consider them relatively safe. TBills on the other hand are very safe.

Good point. But I do monitor FBR very closely; daily. With the exception of a dip in 2020 -- and subsequent quick recovery-- the fund has pretty much held its price for over seven years.

As noted, I view this as a short term holding. Once the rate starts to cool, I'm moving on. It's only about 5% of the portfolio but should everything hold, it will deliver a nice return in dividends this coming year.

 

[Pointby2]

DW's Rollover IRA that she wants me to keep conservative.
39% Stock
61% MM and Bonds
Up 8.21% YTD
She has VPU, a utilities ETF that pulled the numbers down.

 

[Born2Fish]

Up 8.9% YTD with ~35% stocks, 65% CDs/Corp notes.

2023 has been a good year.

 

[marko]

Up 8.9% YTD with ~35% stocks, 65% CDs/Corp notes.

2023 has been a good year.

Didn't start out that way for me. Feb, March, April was looking kind of grim. Now, just at 10%.

 

[AZsniper]

Jan 1 2023 - 809,878

Dec 1 2023 1,079,744

Overall a 33% increase.

This includes 457, 401k, HSA, Brokerage, HYSA with contributions. Additionally, this was my highest earning year ever, and 2024 will be my last year of work before early retirement.

Hoping for at least another 33% overall balance increase in 2024 which will be 1,436,059.

 

[G-Man]

What is the remaining financial news in 2023 that could derail the S&P 500 performance so far this year? Only 20 more days left in 2023.

 

[audreyh1]

You never know! That’s the rub. It’s unexpected events that rock the market, not the expected ones.

 

[target2019]

That would make for interesting research. Hey Google Bard, what ya got?

https://g.co/bard/share/8740e002fff1

December 2018 was the worst December in modern times, the link goes on to list, fear of rising interest rates, trade war with China, and tightening credit.

 

[marko]

What is the remaining financial news in 2023 that could derail the S&P 500 performance so far this year? Only 20 more days left in 2023.

You never know! That’s the rub. It’s unexpected events that rock the market, not the expected ones.

Going by memory, but IIRC, 2017? 2018? we were having a great year only to have it all wiped out in the last week of year.

 

[audreyh1]

There was one year where there was a global oil price collapse 2015 that roiled the markets late in the year.

I’m not sure it wiped out that years gains, but the first two months in 2016 were strongly negative.

ETA: - yeah 2015 gains went slightly negative, but even bigger market drops had already happened during the year, most of which had recovered. And oil prices had been dropping since mid year.

 

[Andre1969]

Going by memory, but IIRC, 2017? 2018? we were having a great year only to have it all wiped out in the last week of year.

Off the top of my head, I can't remember a year where it was going good, only to have everything wiped out in the last week. However, 2018 was the last down year I had, until 2022. It was spread out over the last 3 months, though.

At least for me, I peaked in September. However, October was enough to wipe out my gains for the year. There was a slight recovery in November, but then it bottomed out on Christmas Eve. However, the final week was actually a nice little bounce-back.

I finished 2018 with a loss of around 6.9% for the overall year. However, from my September peak to the end of the year, it was around a 13% drop. From that peak, to December 24, was probably around a 16.5%.

I remember 2018 feeling worse than it was for me though, because I had just bought a house in September, and we got furloughed for five weeks (the last week of 2018 and first 4 of 2019), so there was a lot of uncertainty in the air.

 

[Andre1969]

There was one year where there was a global oil price collapse 2015 that roiled the markets late in the year.

I’m not sure it wiped out that years gains, but the first two months in 2016 were strongly negative.

ETA: - yeah 2015 gains went slightly negative, but big market drops had already happened during the year. And oil prices had been dropping since mid year.

I tend to think of roughly 6/30/2014 to 10/31/2016 as pretty much a wash. I was doing great for the first half of 2014, but then it stalled out. I actually was up about 12% during that timeframe, but that doesn't count additional investments. My spreadsheet only keeps the month-end numbers, which tends to smooth things out a bit, but I do seem to recall, at the time, there were one or two ~10% corrections during that time. I'm thinking one was late 2015, but it mostly came back pretty quick, but then there was another quick one in early 2016?

Overall, I finished 2015 with a gain of around 1.6%, which I'm sure inflation took care of. My high point for that year was back in May, though.

 

[marko]

Off the top of my head, I can't remember a year where it was going good, only to have everything wiped out in the last week. However, 2018 was the last down year I had, until 2022. It was spread out over the last 3 months, though.

At least for me, I peaked in September. However, October was enough to wipe out my gains for the year. There was a slight recovery in November, but then it bottomed out on Christmas Eve. However, the final week was actually a nice little bounce-back.

I finished 2018 with a loss of around 6.9% for the overall year. However, from my September peak to the end of the year, it was around a 13% drop. From that peak, to December 24, was probably around a 16.5%.

I remember 2018 feeling worse than it was for me though, because I had just bought a house in September, and we got furloughed for five weeks (the last week of 2018 and first 4 of 2019), so there was a lot of uncertainty in the air.

THIS is what I was thinking about. I remember Christmas Eve was the low point.

 

[copyright1997reloaded]

Since the market is doing so well lately, will we see weekly or even daily updates? :

oh no, I hope I didn't cause he top!

 

[FREE866]

This is turning into a great year for me..very grateful, but would rather just post numbers first of month esp now that you just killed the rally

 

[Ronstar]

I must not have much $ in the Dow 30. Dow is at an all time high. My portfolio is not.

Accounting for spending, my portfolio is down 1.5% from my all time high around end of year 2021.

Diving into this, NAS is still down 5.6% since end of year 2021, and S&P is down 1.0%.

So while it's nice to have a DOW at an all time high, we still have some catching up to do.

 

[tulak]

This year has been great. Heck, the last 5 years have been great, even with 2022 included.

If this keeps up, I might be able to retire someday!