How's your YTD

[unclemick]

Hmmm

I believe during one quarter during the darker days of 2000-2003, I was down 150 -200k out of a peak 1 mil portfolio.

Took a little grit to follow Bogle -'Do Something, Just stand there.'

Made the Norwegian widow happy - improved current yield somewhat.

heh heh heh heh

 

[laurence]

Lost 50% of my portfolio when the dot-com bubble burst. O.K., my portfolio was only 10k, but at the time 5k hurt like a mother!

 

[Toejam]

In response to Unclemick's questions regarding worst YTD returns:

My YTD return for the period 1/1/00 to 12/31/00 was -41%:
Balance on 1/1/00: $1,883,040 Balance on 12/31/00: $1,101,949 OUCH!
(Balance on 3/31/00 was $1,953,762 at the height of the tech bubble - if only I had the smarts to sell at that time.)

Yes, that is how crazy it was. Rather, that is how crazy I was to buy all these promising tech stocks that disintegrated that same year. I gradually sold off all my loser tech stocks, but kept the blue-chip ones like MSFT, INTC, and CSCO, which I already had for a number of years prior to 2000. Unfortunately, even these stocks are nowhere near their values in early 2000, but at least they are still worth more than when I bought them years ago.

After this fiasco, I have added large dividend paying stocks, large cap mutual funds, small cap funds, and international funds. No Google for me, even though some of the analysts say it will reach 600; it may well, but I don't want to chance it. Especially since I ER'd as of early 2004. I can't afford to make a big mistake like that again. But I don't mind putting a small portion of my account in Emerging Market ETF's and a Small Cap International Fund. I want to keep up with inflation by owning equities, but I am sure the time will come when I start diversifying into TIPS, bonds, and other more appropriate investments as I get older.

Lesson learned: Don't get overconfident, don't take big risks, and stay diversified. And, as Jim Cramer says: "Bull make money, Bears make money, but Pigs (Hogs) get slaughtered." (Not that I am a fan of Cramer . . . : )

 

[haha]

In response to Unclemick's questions regarding worst YTD returns:

My YTD return for the period 1/1/00 to 12/31/00 was -41%: 
Balance on 1/1/00:  $1,883,040    Balance on 12/31/00:  $1,101,949   OUCH!
(Balance on 3/31/00 was $1,953,762 at the height of the tech bubble - if only I had the smarts to sell at that time.)

One thing for sure Toejam- you got the "right stuff."

Ha

 

[preben]

I moved from saving to investing (on a bigger scale) in 1998.

Biggest loss was in 2000 where I lost about 30% holding way too many silly tech stocks.
(proud holder of Yahoo bought at $250/share..... ).

My current portfolio(back tested with a few substitutes) would have walked through it with a gain of 5% :. in 2001 and 2002 I progressed into my current portfolio so took some of the grunt of the losses compared to 2000.

Since I am talking back-testing then my current base portfolio would have LOST 2% (Asian crises and commodities) in 1998 while the SP500 hammered along with a 28% GAIN. Also in 1999 the SP500 beat me with 2% (18% vs 20%). So if some of the US large cap growth profecies come true this year I might be sitting here posting a loss in a years time compared to most others gains.

Cheers!

 

[Spanky]

During the tech boom, many small startup companies offered generous stock options. The caveat was that options can only be exercised after a year. Many people started to join these startups in hopes that they too can become rich. They were excited when the stock prices skyrocketed. Many became millionaires in paper and dreamed about early retirement. Then their dreams were dashed as their options became worthless after the tech sector crash. It's too bad for new employees, but it was great for those who were able to exercise the options and did before the bust. I wonder if they are still working?

 

[justin]

BTW, I've been thinking I need to apologize to the poster (I've forgotten who it was, Justin, maybe?) who several months ago talked about how they updated their spreadsheet every day at the close of trading.

My reply was, "That sounds like way too much work."

Well, now I'M doing it.

I don't think it was me. I love spreadsheets, but updating them once a day "sounds like way too much work". I keep my Yahoo Finance portfolio tracker pretty much up to date (correct number of shares), but Yahoo provides the price updates and totals and percent return, etc. I just click on my portfolios and see how they did for the day.

 

[HFWR]

The compute with my spreadsheet crashed, but I seem to remember going from $330k down to around $150k circa 2000-2002...

Back to $300k in three years!! 8)

 

[BUM]

Still putzin'

IRA 7%
Joint 4.something % (still cash heavy)

Townhouse-by-the-sea...priceless

 

[LOL!]

My YTD return for the period 1/1/00 to 12/31/00 was -41%: 
...
Yes, that is how crazy it was.  Rather, that is how crazy I was to buy all these promising tech stocks that disintegrated that same year.  I gradually sold off all my loser tech stocks, but kept the blue-chip ones like MSFT, INTC, and CSCO, which I already had for a number of years prior to 2000.  Unfortunately, even these stocks are nowhere near their values in early 2000, but at least they are still worth more than when I bought them years ago. 

As others have hinted at, the decline was not limited to just tech stocks. Take the venerable Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund. I remember buying this fund to do a tax-loss swap with the S&P500 index fund in 2001.

In Oct 2002 VTSMX was worth less than 60% of what it was in March 2000. Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

 

[SteveR]

As others have hinted at, the decline was not limited to just tech stocks.  Take the venerable Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund.  I remember buying this fund to do a tax-loss swap with the S&P500 index fund in 2001.

In Oct 2002 VTSMX was worth less than 60% of what it was in March 2000.  Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

Also some individual company stocks took hits for other reasons or were part of the general down draft during that time. My former company took such a hit and the stock price dropped by over 60%. Stock options granted before that were pretty much in the toilet since the stock price is still only 15 higher than the low of that period. Sucks to have been granted options for several years prior to 1999-2000. A few brief runs moved the stock price up right about the time the set the strike price and then the price plunged again so most options up to 2002 are still under water. Too bad. I could have ERd for good in 2003; now they will die by drowning while still on the table. Next time, just give me the cash... but that is a whole other thread.

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

That's what I tell myself when I second-guess my dot-com mania of investing in tech stocks in 1999-2000.  Put differently, I would have lost a significant chunk of change in any case.  However, the problem wasn't investing in tech stocks during that time, but rather not scooping up value stocks and other solid brick-and-mortar stocks that were out of fashion (and therefore really cheap).  I did buy some, but not nearly enough.

 

[justin]

In Oct 2002 VTSMX was worth less than 60% of what it was in March 2000. Diversification among equities didn't save your portfolio back then.

I'd take a 40% drop over what I got: the majority of my holdings went down 95-100%.

VTSMX was diversified, I was not.

 

[Intuit]

YTD for 401K #1 was 8.56% and #2 was 7.3%. All in all, I was happy with growth.

 

[preben]

Well microcaps and reits did eek out a small 4-5% gains in 2002 - so some equity did ok. (naturally gold equity and foreign bonds+commodities did great too as the USD weakened). CHeers!

 

[ak4195]

Im 6 months behind in paper work/software(argh!),but at first glance my SEP is up about 20%(wee!),and thats with only one trade that i can remember(still open position).My moms is a bit harder to discern since 2 IRA's were merged this year and the reconcile will be a smallish nightmare,but still respectable showing and should be around target which is SP500 +5%.Whats interesting is that total divvies spun off appear to yield ~5% of assets.A good portion of the early part of the yr was 30% cash which was moved into low yield short term CD's.REITS were/are about 16%(including REIT preferred CEF's)

Income Summary
Year to Date This Period Description
Money Funds Dividends $ 1,606.30 $ 391.78
Cash Dividends 37,983.03 7,612.79
Total Capital Gains 3,880.31 3,850.04
Partnership Distributions 2,050.26 249.77
Corporate Bond Interest 5,548.51 1,046.25
Certificate of Deposit Interest 2,326.27 145.85
Treasury Bond Interest 757.51
Total Income $ 54,152.19 $ 13,296.48

For my moms acct,going forward will be tougher since most "cash" cash has been drawn down over the past few years or deployed into assets.Looking to buy a slug of treasuries,cheapo coupons w/ discounts more than likely with 2-3 yrs of maturity left,a tad more preferreds CEF's and ~1.5 years of cash for emergencies.While my acct so far always outdoes my moms,its much more lopsided i.e, risk and more active which means work,but then i guess thats what sons are for.
Ive done her pretty well,just wish i would have bought more of everything when i did,but then last i saw it was the tortous that won the race.
Mums doesnt want to ride a rocket ship,she wants to ride a steady boat.Good luck all-ak

 

[Jay_Gatsby]

I recently checked one of my old 401(k) accounts (which I'm in the process of rolling over), and found that in the 8 1/2 months of it's existence, the total gain during time period comes out to 18.09%.

 

[renman]

Well, the 2005 YTD results for the federal TSP 401-k are in and, based on my peculiar particular investment mix, mine returned 10.07%  Pretty good, I'd say, although several posters have reported higher gains.

 

[LOL!]

I recently checked one of my old 401(k) accounts (which I'm in the process of rolling over), and found that in the 8 1/2 months of it's existence, the total gain during time period comes out to 18.09%.

This is the beauty of having multiple accounts.  You can usually find one that did well ... even if the combined result is mediocre.

My spouse has an IRA that returned more than 35% in 2005.   So what if it amounts to less than 1% of our invested assets. I'm not gonna tell you about her other account that went down 25% (because it amounts to less than 0.5% of our invested assets, not because it went down so much).

 

[justin]

My Vanguard account was up 20% last year (6% of total portfolio).

 

[retire@40]

I can't wait to see how everyone does in 2006 if the stock market actually goes up this year.

 

[Ol_Rancher]

11.3 % and I am very pleased with the results. I am now above the market value at the DOW's high. No new money, no withdrawals, but a bit of reallocation to funds that hold dividend yielding stocks (reinvested) and about 23% cash (one year CDs at Corus Bank).

 

[bpp]

I'm still waiting for a quarterly statement for one account, which should raise the numbers a bit, but so far it looks like my portfolio managed a total net gain of 20%, and an annualized IRR of 25%, over the course of 2005.

Of course, I do my accounting in yen, which made a big difference this year compared to most others' results. I also have a relatively large weighting in Japanese stocks compared to others here, which went gangbusters this year. I'm a passive investor, so I can't take any credit for boosting returns through any kind of cleverness.

And yes, I have reported dismal numbers in the past, albeit on other forums, so this is not a cherry-picked result. I started investing in 2000, had massively negative returns for the first two years, and didn't even break even until some time in 2003. Fortunately, I was dumb/trusting enough to keep cost-averaging through the big dip -- and I hope I remain so through the next big dip, when I will have a bit more riding on the roller coaster.

Bpp

 

[justin]

I also have a relatively large weighting in Japanese stocks compared to others here, which went gangbusters this year.

He he. My 20% Vanguard returns were primarily from Japanese stock via the VG pacific index fund. The gains have been so high, I'm tempted to sell. Bpp, what is the perception of the huge market gains in Japan? Does the grocery store clerk hand out stock tips?

 

[bpp]

The gains have been so high, I'm tempted to sell. Bpp, what is the perception of the huge market gains in Japan? Does the grocery store clerk hand out stock tips?

Not quite that bad...yet. But the performance of the market has certainly gotten people's attention lately. 2005's rise of ~40% was the second-highest ever, exceeded only by the 42% rise of 1989 (or was it 88?), during the bubble. Considering that the market hit 20-year lows just 3 years ago, it does feel a bit dizzying...

FWIW, Mikew and I exchanged some thoughts in the following thread:
http://early-retirement.org/forums/index.php?topic=4650

Bpp