Investment Performance August 2013 (-3.67%)

This is our monthly investment portfolio report. I view our ability to invest with above average rates of return as the most important factor in reaching our financial freedom goals. This investment report covers our taxable portfolio and IRA retirement accounts. My 401k (which is roughly 1/2 our portfolio) is not included as the index funds it includes are not publicly traded and difficult to incorporate in this report.

August Highlights:

After a outside paper gain in our portfolio in July (+6.45%), August eliminated the majority of those gains (-3.67%) as we under-performed compared to our VTI benchmark (-.3.03%). Still overall we have had significant paper gains for the 1st 8 months of 2013!
We also made our regular monthly investments in our Roth IRAs, and had some dividend & dividend reinvestments.
We eliminated our very small remaining position in LRAD, selling while it had some upward momentum. I wasn't able to follow this company closely and had lost interest in it as an investment.
I also reduced our Roth IRA contributions a bit for the remainder of the year as its not clear if the work assignment package will disqualify us from contributing the maximum to our Roth IRAs this year. I won't really know if this is the case, but our experience on our previous assignment suggests its a strong possibility.
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%, Oct 2.47%, Nov -0.96%, Dec +8.01%, Jan 2011 +2.06%, Feb 2.57%, Mar +0.15%, Apr +3.04%, May -1.56%, June -1.63%, July -2.71%, Aug -5.42%, Sept -7.06%, Oct +9.88%, Nov -0.39%, Dec +2.10%, Jan '12 +4.03%, Feb +4.68%, Mar +2.35%, Apr -1.74%, Sept +3.47%, Oct 0.10%, Nov -0.20%, Dec +3.09%, Jan '13 +6.72%, Feb +0.49%, Mar +4.52%, Apr +1.30%, May +2.87%, June -0.97%, Jul +6.45%, Aug -3.67%.....

August 2013 Investment Report:

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Comments (1)

You have picked some great stocks there, so why the trackers??
I always think that trackers contain 20 to 30% dross. Pick the best stocks from the index and drop the dogs

Posted by GetRichWithMe | September 14, 2013 3:37 PM