Bobbi’s Down 2.57%

This portfolio includes all of my investments and cash. I am 59, my husband is 62. We are entering our 8^th year of retirement with no pension however Jay will get his first Social Security check in February. This changes our need for income from this portfolio. His SS plus interest on the MM fund (if it stays above 3%) and the mortgage payment we receive each month will cover our basic income needs. We will still use income from this portfolio for travel, special projects and gifts.

Equity 55%*  
Mutual Funds: DODBX, DODFX, DODGX, FLPSX,  MAPIX
 * 37% of  equity is foreign
Reit Fund:  FRESX
Stocks: BAC, CVX, GGB, LYG, RRD, UL, WOR  
ETFs: DVY, DIA

 Bonds  & Cash 45%:
Active Bond Funds: DODBX, DODIX
Farm Mortgage, Treasury Bills (6 months) and Money Market

Portfolio expenses = 0.49%
YTD cumulative withdrawal = .56% (Uncle Sam got his share)  

I continue to be ahead of my bogey, DODBX (down 3.11% ytd). Who would have guessed?....Bank of America was my best performer (up 7%)
Bobbi

psst.....Ben you need to edit your title to 2008

Gotcha Bobbi, living in the past.

Ben

My overall portfolio is doing OK considering we have suffered roughly half the loss of the indices, thanks to cash & bonds in the portfolio. They have performed their job of reducing volatility. I also happen to have been a little lucky on timing. I had to roll over a former employer 401K, and seeing that there was no Santa rally in Dec, I figured it was a good time to roll it over : 

     

	Portfolio		Relative P/B
	P/B	S&P500	(Port vs S&P)
Portfolio	2.29	2.68	85.4%
FAIRX	1.64		61.2%
Exp Ratio	0.70%
Divvy Yld=	1.9%
M-Star Style box		%
		End07	4Jan08
Total		100.0	100.0
Cash:		20.9	32.2
U.S. Stocks:		35.4	30.3
Foreign Stocks:		28.8	24.7
Bonds:		13.1	11.2
Other:		1.8	1.5
		Port %	S&P500
LCValue		36.3	45.1
LCGrowth		28.0	43.8
Sm/Mid CapValue		20.8	6.3
Sm/Mid CapGrowth		14.9	4.8
Not Classified		0.0	0.0

I initiated the process by liquidating all holdings in that 401K, and started the rollover process on Jan 4. As a result, I had about 33% in cash (vs 21% cash before starting rollover) which did help, but not as much as I thought :-((

I am not sure when I will get that added cash back into the market. I guess I will be watching for a few low entry points (however, it is quite possible I may have missed that opportunity)...... Best wishes ..... Anil

YTD Portfolio performance 1/31/2008

Overall –2.69%
Individual stocks –5.04%
Bond Funds +1.34%

Equity Funds –4.18%

Asset Allocation
Bond Funds 34.71%
Stock Funds 24.97%
Individual Stocks 38.04%
Tradable Cash 2.28%

Style box:

LV 22 LC 31 LG 32
MV 4 MC 5 MG 3

SV 1 MC 2 SG 0

 

Individual Fund Performance YTD
PRWCX  -2.26% TRP Capital Appreciation Fund

RPMGX –8.57% TRP Mid Cap Growth Fund
RPSIX +0.20% TRP Spectrum Income Fund
TRMCX –3.07% TRP Mid Cap Value Fund
VBIIX +2.10 % Vanguard Intermediate Bond Index Fund
VFIIX +1.38% Vanguard GNMA Fund
VFSTX +1.53%Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Bond Fund
VWNFX –5.76% Vanguard Windsor II Fund

Stocks that have moved up at all or down more than 5% YTD

CSCO –9.86% (+2.77 since I added some shares this week)

MMM –5.54%

MSFT –8.43%

NOC +1.22%

ORCL –9.26

PFE +3.07%

RFMD –43.43%

RIG –15.11%

XOM –8.84%

YHOO –17.54%

ZMH +17.40%

 

Comments: Added some shares of CSCO earlier this week. CNBC just announced that MSFT has made an offer to buy YHOO. Since I have shares of each it may get interesting. Mergers can be signs of a bottom.

 

Best to all,

Herb

US Stock         41.16%

Foreign Stock   52.69%

Cash                3.64%

Bonds              3.51%

Sold: JORNX, DODGX, UMBIX.

Bought: JAVLX, BRAIX, DBA(Agri.Index), VEU, ADRE and KO.

I'm an upgrader so I have more changes every month than the average bear

                                        Regards,Ron

I retired at the end of 2001 and I'm using this portfolio for growth and income. I intend to withdraw about 4.8% (valuation as of 12/31/07) during 2008. But lately we've been looking at new cars so you never know. We're looking for something small, like a VW bug, PT Cruiser, Smartcar, or MiniCooper.

This is predominately a large-cap growth portfolio, according to M*, comprised of 33 stocks. It's a good thing I'm retired because portfolio mangement takes a lot of my time. It's something I enjoy doing. I tried investing in mutual funds and I failed. I can't handle it. I'll always be a stock investor.

            9    9   23

            3   18  16

            8    7    5

I don't have a target allocation. Right now it's 77% U.S. stocks, 16% foreign stocks, 7% cash. Although we have some gold and silver bullion and coins, amounting to about 15%, I don't include that in my portfolio review or tracking. Aside from that the performance figures are for the whole enchilada.

Industry Groups

My five largest industry groups are:

• Oil & Gas, 14.4%
• Insurance, 13.8%
• Retail, 11.2%
• Health Care, 10.0%
• Banks, 7.5% 

Largest Holdings

1. American Eagle (AEO), Retail--Apparel
2. Buffalo Wild Wings (BWLD), Restaurants
3. Copart (CPRT), Services--Commercial & Prof.
4. Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/B), Insurance-Property & Casualty
5. Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), Retail--Homefurnishing
6. Allied Irish Banks (AIB), Banks--Foreign
7. Norsk Hydro (NHYDY), Aluminum
8. Helmerich & Payne (HP), Oil & Gas--Drilling
9. Coventry Health Care (CVH), Health Care-Managed Care
10. Strayer Education (STRA), Services--Education 

Performance

MFSFX is My Financial Success Fund. For HO tracking purposes I compare MFSFX with VFINX because the results are current. At home I use the S&P500 TR, the results of January won't be published by S&P for another week or so.
 

                        MFSFX           VFINX

• 1 mo        -3.7%             -6.0%
• 3 mo        -4.5%            -10.6%
• 1 yr         15.3%             -2.4%
• 3 yr         11.3%              7.2%
• 5 yr         14.0%             11.9%
• 12/01      11.7%               6.7%      Retirement date
• 10 yr*        8.8%              5.8%

*- as of 12/31/07

All figures over 1 yr are annualized.

 

My husbands & my retirement portfolio has been in Vanguard Star, Wellesley, & Wellington Funds for decades and remain there in our retirement, Rebalance every January 2nd back to 1/3rd in each. Make our yearly drawdown at that time putting the money in Vanguard MM fund. Draw on that through the year to suppliment SS. Dividends & interest earned by the funds are always enough to cover the drawdown. Principal left to grow.  Portfolio returns Year To Date

Vanguard Star   -3.69%     33.07% of portfolio.

Vanguard Wellesley   -0.82%     32.02% of portfolio.

Vanguard Wellington  -2.85%     33.96% of portfolio.

For portfolio as a whole:  -2.46% Year To Date.

Not pretty, but better than the S&P500. That portfolio as a whole is about 55% stock--45% bonds. It is months like January, 2008 that make one appreciate bonds. Humberto Cruse, a financial columist, wrote last week that a portfolio with no bonds is like the New York Giants going into the Super Bowl Sunday without any defensive team. Saying that a good offense is all that is needed to beat