My husbands & my results for our retirement portfolio YTD  -3.96%  Our retirement portfolio is entirely in 3 Vanguard balanced active funds. Have been in Wellesley & Wellington for over 30 years. And in Star for over 10 years. The 1st quarter has been a rough one. Value has had a tough time and Wellington's & Wellesley's equity holdings are in value.  As are much of Star's. As I said last month really appreciate those bonds in the 3 portfolio's.Our drawdown of about 3&3/4th percent yearly to suppliment SS comes entirely from the distributions so we are not selling any of the fund shares to live on. At any rate we are going on a 17 day cruise on April 13th. So hope things will be better wwhen I post the YTD results for April.

Year to date results. Vanguard Star  -6.23%      32.91% of portfolio

                               Vanguard Wellesley -1.74%   33.03% of portfolio

                               Vanguard Wellington -3.92%  34.06% of portfolio

                               Portfolio YTD -3.96%

toni

A cruise eh? Well I am heading to Oregon tomorrow, so look for me along the coast taking pictures as you sail past. Have a nice cruise.

 

Ben

 

 

Hi Toni : We admire your true persistence & patience you & your husband have shown. That is something can all learn from. For many investors in including yours truly, this is has been a rough quarter. It would have been rougher had it not been for one pure lucky timing move of rolling over an old employer 401K into an IRA. This necessitated redeeming all equities (except the employer stock, half of which I still sold & the other half kept).

Thus, my cash allocation jumped from 21% to 38% in Jan08. Other AA pieces were 12% bonds, 26% US stocks, 21% foreign equities and rest 2% other. 60/40 on LC vs small & midcaps, and all still with a strong value tilt (value has not been helping returns much lately). The 401K move and a few other defesive measures in the portfolio helped cushion the blow by cutting the loss from a possible 8+% down to (only!) 5.6%.

Many planners and M* do not encourage such timing. While it could have worked against me, it should be recognized as a legitimate way to avoid the potential nastiness of a market downturn. Alas, portfolio tracker at M* does not track it. I keep up with it by building my own worksheet. I like this kind of tracking error. Best wishes .... Anil

This portfolio includes all of my investments and cash. I am 59, my husband is 62. We are in our 8^th year of retirement with no pension; however, Jay received 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 income needs. We will still use some distributions 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 
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 = 1.1%

*I forgot to mention that I sold WOR in Feb and bought more UL.

I continue to be ahead of my bogey, DODBX (-8.02% ytd). I attribute the difference entirely to my large position in cash.
Bobbi

Overall, my portfolio stayed remarkably steady in March.  The interest being earned on cash is going down, so I’ll probably make some adjustments soon.

Portfolio %’s and YTD % Gain using XIRR.

Asset        %YTD        Mar08%      Adj%

Cash           0.9%          19.7%
Fixed          1.4%           31.7%
Bonds        -1.1%          11.7%      19.3%
Equity        -7.9%          36.9%      29.2%

Total          -2.6%         100.0%

The adjusted allocation percentages reflect the bond component of the balanced funds.  In March, I purchased additional USVAX, VEIPX, VASVX and PTRAX.  Foreign stocks total 7% of portfolio, 18% of equity.

Current M* Stylebox:
26     26    21
  8      7      6
  3      2      2

Equity and bond funds (w/YTD) are:
USVAX   10.6%     USAA Virginia Bond Fund (-1.51%)
VGSTX     6.3%     Vanguard STAR (-6.23%)
VWELX    5.4%     Vanguard Wellington (-3.92%)
DODBX    4.8%     Dodge & Cox Balanced (-8.02%)
FBALX     3.5%     Fidelity Balanced (-7.29%)
VEIPX      3.3%     Vanguard Equity Income (-7.45%)
VHCOX    2.7%     Vanguard Capital Opportunity (-8.17%)
VWNFX    2.4%     Vanguard Windsor II (-11.20%)
DODFX     2.3%     Dodge & Cox International (-10.78%)
VMRGX    1.9%     Vanguard Morgan Growth (-11.11%)
FIGRX      1.4%     Fidelity International Discovery (-11.47%)
VASVX    1.4%     Vanguard Selected Value (-11.68%)
NAESX    1.3%     Vanguard Small Cap Index (-9.17%)
PTRAX     1.1%     PIMCO Total Return Admin (3.17%)

Neil

 

YTD Portfolio performance 3/31/08

Overall -3.28%
Individual stocks -6.03%
Bond Funds +1.45%

Equity Funds -8.26%

Asset Allocation
Bond Funds 35.00%
Stock Funds 24.05%
Individual Stocks 38.47%
Tradable Cash 2.48%

Style box:

LV 48 LC 16 LG 21
MV 4 MC 5 MG 3

SV 1 MC 2 SG 0

 

Individual Fund Performance YTD
PRWCX  -3.87% TRP Capital Appreciation Fund

RPMGX -10.72% TRP Mid Cap Growth Fund
RPSIX +0.13% TRP Spectrum Income Fund
TRMCX -6.50% TRP Mid Cap Value Fund
VBIIX +2.79 % Vanguard Intermediate Bond Index Fund
VFIIX +2.25% Vanguard GNMA Fund
VFSTX +1.21%Vanguard Short Term Investment Grade Bond Fund
VWNFX -11.20% Vanguard Windsor II Fund

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

CAT +8.52%

CL +0.41%

CSCO -11.01% (+1.05% since I added some shares in Jan, 2008)

GE +0.76%

MMM -5.54%

MSFT -19.97%

ORCL -13.37%

PFE -6.61%

RFMD -53.42%

RIG -5.55%

XOM -9.34%

YHOO +24.38%

ZMH +17.71%

 

Comments:  I'm seeing a lot of Style Drift.

Here is last months Style box:

Style box:

LV 14 LC 31 LG 32
MV 4 MC 5 MG 3

SV 1 MC 2 SG 0

The funny thing is that I haven't done any trading.

 

Best to all,

Herb

Anil,  Good timing. You got a break that time.

Ben, Have a good time on the west coast. We are leaving from Ft Lauderdale going to Savona, Italy on a Costa repositioning cruise so will not be on the west coast.

toni

PS; Posted this post on the 2/29/08 thread by mistake.

First, though, I have a correction to report for last month's returns...

Instead of being up +2.09% YTD for Feb 2008, my 401k was DOWN -5.19%.

For my March data, I have again triple-checked my numbers...