Are you up or down since Dec 2007

[youbet]

As of today's close, I'm down almost 15% vs. 12/2007. I'm retired and have been withdrawing that entire time. No major purchases or extraordinary expenses, but we're living fairly well. Even took the vacations we had considered postponing during the worse of the market doldrums.

 

[ejman]

In absolute numbers, I'm down 11% since 12/31/07. I've also been taking a distribution of about 3.5 % per year. I also bought a new car - does that count? The virtues of 60/40 more or less...

 

[bbbamI]

Yep, otherwise I'd still be tenting...

 

[Notmuchlonger]

Oh boy...

 

[Dawg52]

Already? Gee! If that was from your aunt's estate, it arrived with amazing speed and a tip of the hat to the executor.

Pretty clean actually. Her brokerage acct was styled as a TOD to me so no hassles. She never married and thus no kids. Before my brother died, he asked my aunt to have her estate willed to me since I have always been the one living near by to help her out. Plus he knew when I croak, his kids will get my estate so it will trickle down to them one day anyway. And my aunt did not have a huge estate. But I am most appreciative to receive it.

 

[NW-Bound]

Such imaginative mind.

 

[NW-Bound]

... Before my brother died, he asked my aunt to have her estate willed to me since I have always been the one living near by to help her out. Plus he knew when I croak, his kids will get my estate so it will trickle down to them one day anyway...

It's nice to know people's relatives still get along well when money matters are involved.

 

[freebird5825]

Yep, otherwise I'd still be tenting...

Now I know where that expression "the longest pole in the tent" comes from.

 

[bbbamI]

Such imaginative mind.

I didn't bring it up.

 

[kumquat]

Up about 20% after withdrawals. Down about 25% from all time high in June 08.

 

[W2R]

Pretty clean actually. Her brokerage acct was styled as a TOD to me so no hassles. She never married and thus no kids. Before my brother died, he asked my aunt to have her estate willed to me since I have always been the one living near by to help her out. Plus he knew when I croak, his kids will get my estate so it will trickle down to them one day anyway. And my aunt did not have a huge estate. But I am most appreciative to receive it.

That is wonderful and after all you did for her, I am sure it is the way she would have wanted things to turn out. It sure highlights the differences in time required to settle an inheritance based on trusts (as in my case) and a TOD brokerage account (as in your case). We didn't see the first nickel for almost 5 months, and distribution from all of the trusts took almost 10 months for the majority of it. My mother's estate was not huge either (nor tiny, and I have no complaints). There were a lot of expenses that arose due to her advancing age.

 

[MichaelB]

Our portfolio is still off by 10%, with no additions and 2 years worth of withdrawals to keep a few meager crumbs on the table.

My mother's portfolio, also no additions and only YE 08 RMD for the deferred income portion, is up around 3%. RMD are suspended for '09 so she will not take anything, although she is considering taking out a chunk of her (excessively large) cash reserve to spend on a cruise and the house - new carpeting, living room furniture, etc. No better time to buy and her pension income is still covers her budget needs. If only I could do so well...

 

[IndependentlyPoor]

A picture of the carnage

I have a new copy of Numbers (Apple's spreadsheet program) so I thought I would make a plot of this as I learned to use it. Here is the balance of our retirement accounts as a percentage of Dec. 2007. I included data in both nominal and real, constant 2007 dollars. (Like rubbing salt into the wounds.)

Ouchy.
Our portfolio was basically as 40/40/20 (stocks/bonds/cash) until we rebalanced in July to 40/55/5. We are retired and withdrawing about 3.5% per year.

 

[cardude]

Pardon, but is it not 20.17% per year, compounded over 10 years?

For 1.2017^10 = 1.2017*1.2017*...*1.2017 = 6.28.

Geeeze, I'm an idiot. WTH was I drinking when I figured that out? Doing it correctly (using an online calculator ), it actually comes out close to what you figured. That's not a portfolio return, but the growth of net worth over 10 years which includes a lot of savings obviously. That may be a little misleading I'm realizing before I wear out my hand patting myself on the back, because I started out with very little and it grew pretty quickly at first. The law of large numbers caught up with me however because the last 5 years the growth rate has only been 7%.

 

[NW-Bound]

That's not a portfolio return, but the growth of net worth over 10 years which includes a lot of savings obviously...

It doesn't matter how you get there as long as it is by legal means.
I am still envious of that portfolio growth. Of course I have had some individual stocks that grew that much, but we all know what can happen to a "one-position" portfolio.

 

[cardude]

It doesn't matter how you get there as long as it is by legal means.

Hey, I was in the car business, but we didn't do anything illegal. Seriously. I'm not kidding. I never retained much profit at all at the end of each year, but stripped it out and invested it in our retirement portfolio. This may be one of the reasons I don't have a business anymore, since I milked the cow until it died pretty much, but that's what I did, and that's why the growth in personal net worth looks pretty good.

Just trying to explain those numbers...........

 

[NW-Bound]

Just teasing again. I didn't imply anything by it.

 

[2soon2tell]

Down 3.25% excluding contributions. 75/25 AA

 

[Free To Canoe]

Down about 35% (including living expenses).

Free to canoe

 

[Midpack]

The first few posts threw me, but it got better (misery loves company). I'm down 13.6% from 12/31/07 to 7/31/09, so down a little less than that today. All in all, I have satisfied with my results...

 

[Achiever51]

Down 13.1% from 12/31/07; no additional contributions (except reinvestment of dividends & distributions); no withdrawals. 60/40 portfolio