Despite many challeneges like muni funds doing poorly and small caps regressing, my portfolio did OK : It was up 7.5% for the full year 2007. I would have liked to do better, but I am OK with this result as it has beaten many good funds like DODGX, PRWCX and FFNOX. FFNOX which I use as a benchmark for my ~60/40 equity/fixed income portfolio, returned +6.4%. I also check the valueiness via comparison against S&P500 P/B and FAIRX P/B. These additional details are as follows :

My portfolio's valueiness has probably held it back somewhat, though the overweight in energy has helped it. I hope 2008 will be as kind to us the last year was .... Anil

More distributions posted today from Vanguard.

YTD 9.29%

Cash     19.95%

U.S.      27.33%

Foreign  22.41%

Bonds   30.11% 

30  29  27

06  05  02

01  01  00

Both my wife and I are retired and receiving S.S.

Withdrawal time.

 All distributions added to MM fund.

 Syd

Year-to-date up 4.2%

                                        Actual     Target

Cash, Bills, Notes, Bonds                            34%

Cash & equivalents                        2.6%

Treasury inflation-protected securities  25.8%       24%

TFI                                       6.5%

Salon note                                2.1%

Global Real Estate; Commodities                      33%

VNQ                                       8.4%        9%

RWX                                       8.9%        9%

PCH + PCL + RYN                           4.0%        5%

PCRIX                                    10.3%       10%

Global Businesses & Infrastructure                   33%

DVY                                       8.8%        9%

PID                                       8.6%        9%

ACAS + ALD + MCGC                         4.0%        5%

GII                                      10.0%       10%

Sold 100% WPS, bought RWX, to complete tax loss harvest.

Added to PCH, PCL and RYN.

Took new positions in ALD and MCGC.

Trimmed GII to 10% of portfolio.

---------------

ACAS    American Capital Strategies Ltd

ALD     Allied Capital Corporation

DVY     iShares Dow Jones Select Dividend Index Fund

GII     SPDR FTSE/Macquarie Global Infrastructure 100 ETF

MCGC    MCG Capital Corporation

PCH     Potlatch Corp

PCL     Plum Creek Timber Co Inc

PCRIX   PIMCO CommodityRealReturn Strategy Fund

PID     PowerShares International Dividend Achievers ETF

RYN     Rayonier Inc

RWX     SPDR DJ Wilshire International Real Estate ETF

TFI     SPDR Lehman Municipal Bond ETF

VNQ     Vanguard REIT Index ETF

WPS     iShares World ex-US Property Index Fund

Everyone have a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Mike

Our retirement portfolio (IRA's) increased by 15.33% in the 2007 year. Up 111.31%, from 1/1/2000 to present (8 yrs), versus a +30.16% return for FFNOX over that time period. It was a another good year for international holdings. This is the eighth consecutive year that we've beat the S&P 500.

Like previous year ends (12/06, 12/05 & 12/04), I am listing long term returns. Again, I have excluded our recent IRA contributions from the long term return calculations to simplify, and provide accurate returns.

Time Period (years).....Total Ret......IRR........FFNOX*
1 yr 1/1/06-12/31/07.....15.33%.....15.3%..... 6.16%
5 yr 1/1/03-12/31/07...140.50%.....19.2%.....13.46%
8 yr 1/1/00-12/31/07...111.31%......9.8%..... 3.35%

*Annual returns for global tracker FFNOX (Fidelity Four in One) index fund, a fund of index funds, with an allocation of 15% bonds, 15% foreign stock, and the remaining 70% essentially mimicking VTSMX (US total stock market).

Current Asset Allocation:

U.S. Stock........37.60%
Foreign Stock..47.38
Cash................9.75
Bond................4.53
Other...............0.78
Not Classified......2.57 (FIGFX)

Large Cap Value..... 26%
Large Cap Growth.. 45
Mid/Small Value...... 11
Mid/Small Growth... 18
_________________________________

Top 10 (or significant positions):
% of Assets .........YTD(%)
Core (indexed):
4.13 .....FFNOX...... 6.16%
4.70 .....VQNPX...... 2.62%
Managed Domestic:
4.72 .....FAIRX...... 14.61%
5.26 .....ACFOX...... 2.66%* 
2.31 .....OAKLX.... -14.04%
2.83 .....FPACX....... 6.14%
2.00 .....TAVFX....... 5.76%
Managed Int'l:
6.75 .....DODFX..... 11.71%
6.73 .....MGLBX..... 21.02%* 
3.35 .....AEMGX.... 42.86%
2.86 .....JAOSX..... 27.76%
2.77 .....FIVLX....... 9.50%

* = return from initial purchase date.

Average Expense Ratio 0.96%
Expense Ratio of Similarly Weighted
Hypothetical Portfolio 1.41%

11/30/2007 Hands On Tracking

Hi Ben. For some reason, the link in your post to the prior month's results is not working correctly (at least from my computer).  The above should work.

Also, What has happened to SamBro?  He was a stalwart in these posts - a true example of managed funds outperforming index funds. I know his value funds have probably suffered this year, but I would guess that he is still ahead.

Anil, FYI, M* shows a 2007 return of 6.16% for FFNOX (not 6.4%), so that improves your comparisons.

SageNolos:

11/30/2007 Hands On Tracking

Hi Ben. For some reason, the link in your post to the prior month's results is not working correctly (at least from my computer).  The above should work.

Hmm, this is a mystery, how to embed links. I used the old standby, ctrl c to copy and control V to paste after I clicked on the link icon in the toolbar.

 

How do you do this?

SamBro is alive and well as of last month, but has a new computer and has not mastered this new fangled forum,and neither have I. And it is hardly worth the trouble any more.

Now to post this I have to first preview it because the post window does not display on my monitor. Fact is, this page does not display well period on a large high res monitor. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, What has happened to SamBro?  He was a stalwart in these posts - a true example of managed funds outperforming index funds. I know his value funds have probably suffered this year, but I would guess that he is still ahead.

Anil, FYI, M* shows a 2007 return of 6.16% for FFNOX (not 6.4%), so that improves your comparisons.

ben egbert:

Hmm, this is a mystery, how to embed links. I used the old standby, ctrl c to copy and control V to paste after I clicked on the link icon in the toolbar.

How do you do this?

Hi Ben,

I am happy to help, if I can.  To embed links: you first type the words that you want to appear as a link, then highlight them, then click the little chain icon above (9th icon in the toolbar that appears while composing a post), a window will pop up, then use Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V to copy and paste the address into the appropriate line in the pop up.

But the old standby method should also still work, to the best of my knowledge!  So I don't know what happened.  Altho imbedded links are easy too, and look better.

Also, you should be able to edit your above post (within the first 24 hrs), by