The only IRA I have is a one year non-deductable of $2K I made either in tax year ’98 or ’99. I put it into the clipper fund – a fund that M* was in love with at that time. I invested and forgot about it – literally. No other retirement accounts or deferred income and it was never important enough to bother with. Besides, by '02 the folks at clipper were geniuses. Everybody thought so, including themselves.
Well, I just got a statement in the mail. That $2K with reinvested distributions, minus yearly account management fees ($10 or $15) is now worth a whopping $1119. A loss of almost half after a decade (I think it was done 4/99)
A true, pitiful lesson on:
Buy and hold
Active management
Value stocks
Fees, even small ones,
M* and their [-]lust[/-] [-]obsession[/-] regard for certain active funds, especially deep value (Weitz, Dodge)
There is a moral to this story but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that you gotta stay on top of things - there's no such thing as a portfolio on autopilot. I'm just grateful it was only $2K (well, actually $4K 'cause I opened a spousal IRA as well.) At least my uncle (sam) is sharing the loss...
Of course, on a positive note, it sure makes it easier to convert to a Roth.
Well, I just got a statement in the mail. That $2K with reinvested distributions, minus yearly account management fees ($10 or $15) is now worth a whopping $1119. A loss of almost half after a decade (I think it was done 4/99)
A true, pitiful lesson on:
Buy and hold
Active management
Value stocks
Fees, even small ones,
M* and their [-]lust[/-] [-]obsession[/-] regard for certain active funds, especially deep value (Weitz, Dodge)
There is a moral to this story but I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it's that you gotta stay on top of things - there's no such thing as a portfolio on autopilot. I'm just grateful it was only $2K (well, actually $4K 'cause I opened a spousal IRA as well.) At least my uncle (sam) is sharing the loss...
Of course, on a positive note, it sure makes it easier to convert to a Roth.