Investment Performance September 2010 (+8.48%)

This is an ongoing monthly update on how our equity investments are performing. Please see this background on the investment tool I developed and how I am using it to track our performance against a benchmark to measure our progress or lack thereof.

September Highlights:

Our monthly performance was slightly worse than our benchmark (8.90% vs 8.48%).
This marks 8 months in a row that our benchmark, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTI) has beat our portfolio. Not a good recent track record. Its becoming clear that we have gotten a bit off track from our index investment strategy. I guess the good news is that we have tracked very close to our benchmark otherwise.
September was otherwise a very quiet month on the investing front - the only purchases we made were out automatic ROTH IRA contributions and our monthly $25 DRIP investment in ConoccoPhilips.
Not captured in this tracker was our sale of some IBM stock options. I had been waiting for the stock to return to its multi-year high to lighten our exposure to it. At this point I plan to take the proceeds and use them to pay down our Rental #1 mortgage.
Our recent monthly returns were: Jan 09 -4.98%, Feb -9.94%, Mar +8.45%, Apr +10.88%, May +4.65%, Jun +0.89%, Jul +9.94%, Aug +4.36%, Sept 3.15%, Oct -2.34%, Nov +5.83%, Dec +1.85%, Jan '10 -2.34%, Feb +2.25%, Mar +5.88%, Apr +2.54%, May -8.13%, June -5.64%, July 6.17%. Aug -4.87%, Sept +8.48%.....

September 2010 Investment Report:

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Comments (2)

I just found your blog and went through a few archive posts. I am pretty close to where you are at this time and have some comments. My goal and timeline is less than yours though.

- 2M goal. Does this exclude tax liability? Basically, would you have 2M cash if you sell everything at the finish line. This is going to be a huge obstacle for me.

- real estate value. I saw some earlier post arguing about the value of your rentals. Have you checked zillow? They are not accurate, but it'll give you an idea.

good luck

Posted by joe | October 6, 2010 12:58 PM

I stumbled upon your Blog some time ago and subscribed to be notified of your new posts. I really enjoy seeing someone who has a similar savings mindset. Were you and your wife always both "savers"? My wife is not and this is a struggle between us. And definitely after kids, it is tough to stay the course.

Is there any way you could make your Excel Performance Spreadsheet available for download? Like you, I have discovered that the standard personal accounting software doesn't quite track things correctly, which makes the percentage numbers hard to trust.

Thanks

Posted by Brandon | October 7, 2010 10:54 AM