Author Topic: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?  (Read 11298 times)

dude

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2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« on: January 13, 2016, 10:35:38 AM »
Received an e-mail from Openfolio, which tracks people's (50,000+) real portfolios.  According to them, in 2015, the average investor was down 3.09%.  Younger investors suffered bigger losses than older investors "due to lack of sector diversification and over-concentration on individual stocks."  Women did better than men. Teachers performed the best (for the second year in row).

https://insights.openfolio.com

I checked my account (401k only) and found that I had a +1.81% return for the year.  Not terrible all things considered, and it sure beats a negative return.

Of course, 2016 is another matter altogether so far!

So how'd you do in 2015?

celticmyst08

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2016, 11:18:46 AM »
My 401k, which is entirely in the S&P 500 index, had a 1.31% return.

Our IRAs are in VFFVX and VFFIX and had a -3.1% return.

Koreth

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #2 on: January 13, 2016, 11:52:55 AM »
My 401(k) didn't do so well, with a loss of -3.38% for 2015.  My IRA did even worse, -3.9% for 2015. Ouch.

The timing of it all didn't t help. I have been financially clueless for years, and only discovered MMM and Mr. Collins' Stock series around mid July. Devouring the advice offered, I moved the IRA containing old 401(k) funds from a previous employer to Vanguard. That roll-over completed at the end of July, just in time for the correction in August. Had I not read and understood the Stock Series, I may well have panicked and pulled out my funds, thereby locking in my losses.

The market continues to go down, but now I am not as worried. I remind myself that investing is by definition playing the long game -- on the order of decades.  If the Dow today ends in the red, all that means is I get the shares in my IRA and 401(k) at a discount.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2016, 10:44:26 AM by Koreth »

runningthroughFIRE

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #3 on: January 13, 2016, 11:54:33 AM »
My 401(k) is currently the only major investment I have, and is down 1.94%.  I picked a bad time to start working after college lol (401(k) eligible last July)

ToeInTheWater

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2016, 11:58:40 AM »
up ever so slightly (don't have the exact %, but appr 1%)

almost all our gain in net worth was from additional deposits

Altons Bobs

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #5 on: January 13, 2016, 12:13:20 PM »
+2.8% only for 2015, but we are already down more than 5% YTD in 2016. That's in one account, I'm afraid to look in our other accounts. :-D

Bolshevik Artizan

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #6 on: January 13, 2016, 12:15:23 PM »
off 2.5% thanks only to one bond fund I was heavily invested in which grew 20% otherwise it would have been a lot, lot worse - like 10-15% off. But then that is the point of bond and equity splits.

CmFtns

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #7 on: January 13, 2016, 12:26:35 PM »
+0.7% for 2015 in 401k

sunday

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #8 on: January 13, 2016, 12:40:11 PM »
-2.5% in the retirement accounts (401k/ira) and -5.5% in non-retirement. Not a great year, but we just keep on trucking.

Cougar

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #9 on: January 13, 2016, 12:40:35 PM »
 I was up about 7.5% last year because i knew the bull market was ending. you read enough and you can see it, declining oil, goods transports and corporate profits all declined greatly last year; so i shorted and did okay.

 unfortunately, i have given much of that back so far this year; but no one saw the start of this year being so bad; even a guy i know that all he does is look for shorting opportunities missed 1/2 of it; but i'll make it back; I'm shorting this whole year and the market is going to drop 10% easily.

dude

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #10 on: January 13, 2016, 12:57:34 PM »
Non-401k account (primarily a GNMA Fund) was up 1.6%.  DW's IRA was -0.50%, haven't checked her 401k yet, but it's 100% in an S&P 500 index, so I suspect it was up just over 1% (though her rapist fund manager takes 0.99% off the top, fuckers, the actual return will be offset by that amount, so probably a wash for last year).

Market is taking a big dump today, and approaching 10% correction territory.  Anyone waiting to pull the trigger on a buying opportunity?

runningthroughFIRE

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #11 on: January 13, 2016, 01:27:54 PM »
Definitely looking for a buy opportunity here.  I've got enough cash to front-load my IRA for 2016 that would otherwise have gone towards student loans if the market wasn't dipping.  My coworkers are freaking out about the market drop, and I'm sitting here hoping for a bigger discount.

Cougar

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #12 on: January 13, 2016, 01:41:22 PM »
Definitely looking for a buy opportunity here.  I've got enough cash to front-load my IRA for 2016 that would otherwise have gone towards student loans if the market wasn't dipping.  My coworkers are freaking out about the market drop, and I'm sitting here hoping for a bigger discount.

too soon.

if this is January, chances are most likely the whole year will be red.

I might try and go long feb to april but rest of this year I'm looking to be short, at least until QE4 comes.

redcedar

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2016, 01:43:01 PM »
1.71% on the positive side here for mutual funds in 2015. I was not thrilled with that but, on the bright side, it beat the pants off of the current 2016 path. Also, paying under 12bps in fees gave me something to smile about.

2buttons

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #14 on: January 13, 2016, 01:43:47 PM »
3.49%

teacherwithamustache

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #15 on: January 13, 2016, 02:18:35 PM »
down 3.25

It was my 6th down year in 20 years of investing.

sunday

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #16 on: January 13, 2016, 02:59:26 PM »
Also just plunked another wad into the market as IRAs were funded, and 401k's are front loaded. I can't predict anything, if I did, I would know exactly when to short. So instead, I'll just buy on the way down.

opnfld

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #17 on: January 13, 2016, 05:16:28 PM »
Up about 1.1% in 2015.  Have been hoarding cash since mid-2015 for a down payment.  Way too much cash.  Rebalancing into equities now.  This sell-off is crazy. 

TheThirstyStag

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #18 on: January 13, 2016, 07:54:50 PM »
Down about 1.5%.  Still buying.  Here's to an optimistic 2016.

lostamonkey

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #19 on: January 13, 2016, 08:14:36 PM »
I did pretty well because I am Canadian and own many US equities so I really benefited from the change in exchange rate. The first few weeks of 2016 have been really rough though.

Fastfwd

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #20 on: January 14, 2016, 06:27:45 AM »
Up 10% thanks to the falling Canadian dollar and my 33% investment in US$ SPY. I just rebalanced now so the dollar can feel free to go back up anytime  :)

I'm a red panda

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #21 on: January 14, 2016, 06:37:11 AM »
The only gains I have are from me putting a ton of money in- my account values are up, but I'm actually down about 2%. I'd have done better to keep it in a savings account...

oatsmagoats

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #22 on: January 14, 2016, 07:23:18 AM »
My 401k was down 0.7% in 2015 and has lost 6.99% so far in 2016.  Last year I crossed a few milestone numbers, and now it looks like I'll get to do that again.

Clean Shaven

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #23 on: January 14, 2016, 07:37:50 AM »
The only gains I have are from me putting a ton of money in- my account values are up, but I'm actually down about 2%. I'd have done better to keep it in a savings account...
Me too. But I'm reminding myself to stay the course with investing, and the market will return upwards - otherwise, I'm just trying to time the market, and I need to resist the temptation to try that.

dude

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #24 on: January 14, 2016, 07:49:32 AM »
My 401k was down 0.7% in 2015 and has lost 6.99% so far in 2016.  Last year I crossed a few milestone numbers, and now it looks like I'll get to do that again.

HAHAHA!  Yeah, same here.   Crossed the $500k threshold in like Q1 2015, and got as high as $530k, before watching it tumble below $500k after yesterday!  Oh well.  I would rather we have a bear market now than when I retire in a few years.

I moved 5% out of bonds and into stocks back in August when the market dropped 12%, and that worked out pretty good for me in 2015.  Will likely do the same again soon if the market continues ifs downward movement.  Small caps are already down 10% for the year, and down nearly 12% over the past 12 months.  I might shift some money from large caps to small caps.

Jack

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #25 on: January 14, 2016, 08:00:23 AM »
My portfolio did however the US total stock market did. I have no idea what the actual number is, and don't really care.

Guses

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #26 on: January 14, 2016, 08:24:00 AM »
I am split in roughly 4 equal parts:

Return in 2015:
Bonds: 3.07%
Canadian stocks: -8.50%
US Stocks: 20.74%
International stocks:18.90%

Overall:8.55%

My early mortgage payoff netted an after tax return of 2.89% 
« Last Edit: January 14, 2016, 08:38:21 AM by Guses »

Melf

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #27 on: January 14, 2016, 08:33:06 AM »
Could have been worse I guess.  Fidelity 401K was down 1% after maxing my contribution for the first time. Vanguard Investment Acct was down 1.3% and Vanguard Roth IRA was up 1.46%.  I had high hopes of FIRE this year but 20K in dental expenses and this market correction are making me think otherwise. OMY I suppose.

frugalnacho

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2016, 08:57:41 AM »
Our 401k plan changed mid year, and I have been pumping money into our accounts throughout the year so I don't know my overall return.  I am 100% equities, 60/40 us/intl though and it appears I am getting killed in my 401k and our various vanguard IRA accounts.  MY 401k alone is down $10k from a month ago, even with me pumping about $3k into in that time.

I'm a red panda

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2016, 09:05:39 AM »
The only gains I have are from me putting a ton of money in- my account values are up, but I'm actually down about 2%. I'd have done better to keep it in a savings account...
Me too. But I'm reminding myself to stay the course with investing, and the market will return upwards - otherwise, I'm just trying to time the market, and I need to resist the temptation to try that.

Yep- buying shares. And hopefully one day those shares are worth more. That's how it is better than keeping it in a savings account; although in the short term, it hasn't been pretty.

The Guru

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #30 on: January 14, 2016, 11:20:26 AM »
Surprisingly up about 8% pretax, though I didn't get to keep all that thanks to replacing the roof :-(

Greenback Reproduction Specialist

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #31 on: January 14, 2016, 12:00:42 PM »
I took a good long term capital gain early this year on my financial stocks, but most of what I bought this year is down A LOT, but continuing to buy more as it goes down. I'm in it for the next 10-15 years, mostly in the energy sector and picking up about an average of 5% on the dividends.

Gevans17

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #32 on: January 14, 2016, 07:30:39 PM »
+3% for 2015.

arizonawildcats

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #33 on: January 14, 2016, 08:23:41 PM »
+5.6% in 2015

drudgep

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #34 on: January 14, 2016, 08:57:59 PM »
Up 3% for me in my 401k for 2015.

TheNick

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #35 on: January 14, 2016, 09:23:27 PM »
I was up about 12.5% in retirement accounts last year and about 3% with post tax investments.

I took a good long term capital gain early this year on my financial stocks, but most of what I bought this year is down A LOT, but continuing to buy more as it goes down. I'm in it for the next 10-15 years, mostly in the energy sector and picking up about an average of 5% on the dividends.

That's my plan as well...most of my money for the foreseeable future is going into big utilities...you can pick up some solid dividend yields now and they are about as safe an investment as stock can be.  I also plan on picking up a few thousand shares of KMI and AA over the next few months...both their stocks are hurting right now because the energy and materials sectors are both down, but I'm willing to bet both these companies have some better days ahead of them at this point.

Bertram

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #36 on: January 15, 2016, 02:25:03 AM »
I started my portfolio in Aug 2014, and now in January 2016 I have a total return of -9,08% p.a. (including transaction cost, dividends etc.).


TomTX

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #37 on: January 15, 2016, 08:27:57 AM »
My return was whatever the US market did, plus dividends. IRAs in VTSAX, 457 in VIIIX

Keep it simple. Don't worry about it.

bogart

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #38 on: January 15, 2016, 08:46:52 AM »
up 1% over 2015, not counting my contributions.  Most of mine's in US stocks, though there's some global, a small bit of a REIT, and some cash equivalents.  I didn't do anything to any of it except keep contributing (all new contributions are going into the stocks).  My and my employer's contributions added more than another 2% to the total value.

AZDude

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #39 on: January 15, 2016, 08:53:55 AM »
I'm up 4% for the year, but I have about 20% of my portfolio in a REIT and high yield bonds.

aspiringnomad

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #40 on: January 15, 2016, 09:44:40 AM »
I managed to under perform the poorly performing market in 2015 thanks to one energy-related stock tanking. I use broad market ETFs for approximately 90% of my portfolio, but that stock was enough to pull my performance down pretty substantially. Should be a good lesson to avoid individual stocks/sectors altogether, but I just plunked an additional 3k into VDE with the thought that oil/gas will eventually bounce back. We'll see...

BlueMR2

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #41 on: January 17, 2016, 05:40:59 AM »
SOY 2015 to EOY 2015 everything was down 3-4%.

Now, so far in January I'm down 9-10% since this point last January...  Buying on my regular schedule, not going hog wild buying any extra.  Given that it's just January, I wouldn't be surprised if it continues to drop for several months.  Of course, it could turn around quick too...  While energy is dragging it down and that probably won't change, China is also a big drag and they're so incredibly random that who knows...  :-)

soccerluvof4

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #42 on: January 17, 2016, 07:00:48 AM »
No clue, is what it is but DCA into this dip in 2016 as I see it as an opportunity to buy

PhysicianOnFIRE

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #43 on: January 18, 2016, 02:34:04 PM »
-2.03% according to Personal Capital's MyIndex.  I was actually beating the S&P 500 until about August.  Emerging Markets and Small Caps dragged me down.


Tabaxus

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #44 on: January 18, 2016, 02:41:49 PM »
-3% or so in 2015, but of course I have lost a ton already in 2016 (I'm 100% in index funds, so whatever that ends up being).  I've lost about $24k in my taxable accounts and about half that in my retirement accounts (because my retirements accounts are about 1/3 of my investments).

Of course I got my 2015 bonus on December 30 and funded all of it into the market that day.  Quick way to lose several thousand dollars, that.

As I tell my spouse, though, we'll "make it back" eventually--though having such terrible timing is super annoying, because I put about $120k into the market right before (literally, two days before) the market took its big dive in 2015, and then I put another 50k or so in... a few days before the 2016 chaos hit.  If we don't make it back, it's because the stock market literally never recovers from the 2015/2016 drop (including any further drop), which basically means the world will have ended, and we'll have much bigger problems than the performance of our investment portfolio.

That said, sure do wish I had put it all into a savings account instead.

vittelx

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #45 on: January 19, 2016, 06:54:14 AM »
Up 2.16% in 2015.

I have a 60%(stocks)/40%(bonds) split

fattest_foot

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Re: 2015 - How'd you fare in the market?
« Reply #46 on: January 19, 2016, 11:30:01 AM »
Not sure how to get Vanguard to tell me a yearly return (it keeps defaulting to the current date), but my TSP was 1.22%.