Index Your Way To Retirement

Happy 4th of July!  

I'm continuing my journey to financial freedom despite this depressing market. I thought I'd share a portfolio update as we go into the second half of the year. 








July 2018 YTD Portfolio Performance: Dec 31, 2017 Balance: $234,975.18July 4, 2018 Balance: $265,376.22Total 2017 Contributions (including employer): $26,294.89Allocation: 8-10% bonds depending on the month, delta stocks2018 July YTD Total Return: 1.75%Old Target Date Fund Return including fees: 0.71%FUSVX S&P 500 Index Fund YTD Return: 2.94%
Ugh 2018 Market Returns!  Technically, because of all the volatility this year-I've been able to pick up shares on the cheap...but they keep giving back gains a few months later.  Not that this year's returns matter because I am investing for the long term. At least I’m beating my crappy old target date fund-but I still underperformed the S&P 500. Basically my contributions have made up most of my portfolio gains so far this year.  These are the …

Towards the end of January I decided to rid myself of my REIT index fund, FSRVX, and exchange half of it for an Emerging Market Fund, FPMIX, and a Total International Market Fund, FSGDX.  At the time I rationalized that I had very little international exposure in my portfolio and I was tired of my REIT fund’s under performance-I believe it was down around 6% at the time I sold.  If I’m honest, I was probably chasing last year’s outstanding returns for international funds. The financial news media’s chatter about Amazon being the death of the American Mall, and thus Retail REITs, finally caused me to give in.  And of course, six months later my Emerging Market fund is down -7.7% YTD, my Total International Fund is down -4.8%, and the REIT I sold is up 1.2%.  So you see-I sold my REIT when it was down, locking in losses, and bought two international funds just as they were about to lose value.  


Learn from my mistake-buying high and selling low is always a losing proposition.  Thankful…