Investment Performance December 2013 (+2.20%)

December 2013 Investment Report:

December Highlights:

December was another subpar for us as our portfolio performed poorly compared to our benchmark (+2.20% vs +2.58%).
We made our regular monthly investments in our Roth IRAs, and some dividends & dividend reinvestments.
It was an active month as we sold off our position in Dryships, and made investments in Fairfax Financial, Blackberry, and some Dominion Resource debt.
You'll note that the dividend reinvestment & dividend payments are stacked in December -- after returning from our assignment I am catching up on dividend transactions I missed while away for the last 6 months.
Still need to let the dust settle a bit, but its far to say we have had one of our best years (if not THE best year) in terms of annual portfolio return.
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%, Sept +3.28%, Oct +5.09%, Nov +2.31%, Dec +2.20%.....

Note this is our monthly personal 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.

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