After reading all the board I have to say I mostly agree with Saul. While knowing your total return for the year is useful, if you have different categories of investing, you should calculate your return based on each category. I own 50% of an apartment building in Seattle that I bought 5 years ago. My $ 80,000 investment is worth a significant multiple of that. Is this relevant to my results investing in the market?
I don’t think so.
By the way, owning rental real estate, especially in Seattle is a pain in the XXX.
Hey Mauser96, I agree that my 5% account is not really increasing my retirement amount greatly. However that is not the point of the account. I am using this cash to learn how to invest money. You can’t really truly learn about investing without having real cash on the line, as you just will not make the same decisions. People will always take much bigger risks when it is just a hypothetical account (I started out like that and found it to be a waste of time just after a couple weeks).
I don’t think b&w is discounting Saul’s methodology but I do think it’s different if you invest most of the money the Saul’s way vs putting a small portion in it. The risky level can be very different and the way a person act/react can be very different too.
I never said anything in an attempt to discredit Saul and his portfolio numbers. I believe his numbers are valid.
All numbers I gave previously were “on an entire portfolio basis” for the entire time frame mentioned. I also mentioned that my portfolio is strictly geared for Income and has been for the 14 years 4 months and 26 days since I retired on July 1 2003. All my expenses including FED and STATE taxes come out of the portfolio and paid. The only other income I have is minimal SS that has been reduced due to increased Medicare deductions from the SS payment, due to higher reported income in the past few years.
So far in 2017 my portfolios are up 20.1%–The 2017 current income is 24.56% higher than 2016. Income in 2017 is currently projected to total 98% of my entire portfolio value on the date I retired in 2003. My current portfolio values are worth about 14 Times the value of July 1 2003 and that is after removing a sum totaling 4 Times original value over the 14+ years I’m retired.
I have always run a concentrated portfolio-No more than 10 or 12 securities at a time. Over the years I have had about 5 companies that were either bought out or taken private for cash. They were basically ripped out of the public’s(my) hands by greedy insiders that wanted it all for themselves (And got it) A number of securities that reduced distributions that I sold–One eventually went bankrupt a year later. Two mergers that turned into gold mines over the years
And that’s how you get 14 Times growth after deducting 4 Times expenses in 14+ years with a portfolio geared to income.
I firmly believe that the income portion of investing is much more stable than seeking capital gains
It also seems a bit silly to include 401(k) accounts (or other investments) where a person has no ability to choose individual stocks through their own initiative. That is as far outside the scope of this board as is real estate investing! Though again, I would also track the combined number for my own benefit.
I don’t believe it is silly. You do have control --Don’t put money in that 401k if you don’t think it represents what you want. It’s your money and if it doesn’t produce what you can do with the rest of your money --you are wasting the money in the 401k and you are wasting the time value of that money if it is not producing. Don’t sell yourself out for the x% that your employer is matching. There has to be other options for you. An IRA? A Roth? something that allows you to invest your own way.
I am 65 and will retire in the next couple of months and am up 85.41% as of Friday. I have some real estate holdings in Seattle that I don’t add into the numbers.
I didn’t start really investing in the market until I was 70. And I own no RE except my home. So you are way ahead of me
I agree that my 5% account is not really increasing my retirement amount greatly. However that is not the point of the account. I am using this cash to learn how to invest money.
As long as you realize that the market looks ahead and not at what has happened in the past. Times change-Events change- Sometimes the events remain the same but the forward results change. It’s not like going to school and you learn that 2 +2 =4 – The next time it comes up 2 + 2 might equal 3 or 5 or 6.
Since everyone is fessing up, I’ll chip in. I’m 65, retired for 18 months and have been a Saul fan since just about then. While most of my investments are still conservative, index funds, ETF’s and cash. They’re pretty boring so I spend most of my investment time watching the few Saul stocks I’ve picked up along the way. Currently SHOP and LGIH are neck and neck at the top of my stock portfolio, both at almost 4%, considering they started out at less than 2% it’s been a nice ride.
This board has been an amazing source of information. I wish I had known about it back when I had an income!
This year my port is up 31% only Vs if I had invested in the SPY, 8.63%. This includes the currency change of -6.38% from my port and -7.94% for an SPY port. Everything is invested in stocks. I’ve ditched a lot of the laggards this year though such as crto sbux infn skx bofi roof TTS.
Ive had shop since the beginning of the year and have let it grown to 25%. I have had exel and swks since the start which are 12.5% each approx. I’m happy when the my results but they’re absolutely dwarfed by people here. Which is way I became more ruthless with selling the laggards and buying the winners. Nevermind the fact I would have many more double or triple baggers…total returns are what matters.
I contribute to my pension straight out of my salary. This is before tax, and my employer matches it. Therefore straight off, I either get 80 in my pocket or 200 in my pension. I’ve always felt my money is not only better off invested in my pocket, but also safer (who knows what the government might do to my pension in 30 years time). But it’s hard to argue with a straight off over doubling of the money before you’ve even started!
I don’t include this in my total returns, but maybe I should do an exercise in my to see what I need to get every year to beat the pension. Having said that. It is a safety net. And adds some sort of diversification in investment that one needs not even think about.