I'm curious about how people here have fared through the past year?? Just in general or percentage terms. Any notable successes or tragic losses? Any direct impacts of the financial mess? Impacts on others you know?
- George
Financial - 2nd worst of the modern era of my life (since getting out of college the 2nd time).
Personal - one of the best on of the modern era (by being put on lay off 4 times, I had more time than usual to work on personal projects). I was very productive and got a lot of exposure for my pet projects.
Health - one major setback made this one of the worst.
Family - don't ask. All I can figure is that they just don't have a concept of reality any more.
-john-
I am down about 2.5% year to date. Lot's of money market funds. I considered buying and holding ultra shourt funds for 2008 but decided on cash. I never get these things exactly right.
With everything included (home, stocks, currency) I lost appx. 12% of my net worth. Family relations have improved. Converted our server farm at work from Windows to Linux. Gained 1 lb.
Sorry to hear about financial, health, and family's realities. Interesting how you and Igor included personal interests and events outside of the financial realm.
Financially, I'm still computing, but it looks like down 14%. I'm disappointed in the weakness of my portfolio (down 28%). I don't own a house, so falling prices may help there (how should I account for that?) On the personal plus side, I learned a lot in '08 - even read extensively in philosophy. Still just relatives for family, after divorce.
Wishing everyone a better 2009 :-)
-George
I look at it as "time travel" - back to mid-2006. Lost a 1.5 years of gains and not any for 2008.
In my "25 year plan" I had gotten ahead of plan in 2006 & 2007 after being being 2001-2004. Now its behind plan again. Starting to look like a 30 year plan now :-)
Happy New Year To All!
I?m going with the mattress bank for next year :) Any of you good looking, intelligent, articulate people want to speculate on the best investment for 2009?
Mattress manufacturers.
i
I'm sticking with cash, an intermediate treasuries fund, and a GNMA fund for probably the first and second quarter. I do have 1% invested in Royce Focused, FUND. Been considering a long term treasuries fund.
At current interest rates? What's your goal with that choice? You certainly can't expect rates to go down any further significant amount, so cap-gains can't be the point. If it's a fund, it's not like you'll be holding to maturity, either. All that leaves is current yield, which, well, is at historic lows.
Do you believe that there's a big deflation of some sort coming?
(noting that 20 yr TIPS are yielding (real) about 2.2%, while 20 yr t-bonds are around 2.9% - implying a combined inflation protection premium plus expected inflation rate of only 0.7%. That seems more than a bit off kilter - again - unless there's a big, long deflation coming.)
Yes, I expect rates to come down some more.
The last 4 month show declines in CPI. You can check it at
I assume you mean from a financial prespective so here goes...
My 60 year old father is getting frail early in life and may not keep his house: Financially I might have to give him a stipend but I will limit it to 5% of my pay per month. 2008 events forced me to realise this.
27% investment loss between Jan 1 to Dec 30 2008, not including purchases made during 2008.Net worth increased because of ridgid savings plan despite investment losses.
First time in 7 or 8 years no pay raise.
My gf's new 2008 contract could have her making $100 000 per year in the next 3 or 4 years. Should we become parents this offically means I become the stay-at-home parent which means I have to maximise savings in 2009 and
2010 to prepare for this new world of me not working full time. (I'm presently 32).Investigated critical illiness insurance.
Several of my friends have lost jobs or on rotating layoffs.
Is two out of three OK?
I'm not sure it's the best, but I think long term municipals are a steal. According to Bloomberg, AAA rated 30 year munis are yielding 5.36% tax free vs.
2.05% taxable for 30 year treasuries. Usually, the muni yield will be 85-90% of treasuries, not 250%.I'm not buying individual issues, just Vanguard's long term muni fund.
-- Doug
Net worth increased 1.88%
On Dec 30, 10:52 pm, "The Henchman"
An increase in NW over 2007 is excellent.
Rick - Yes, the longer term view is not as bad as just one year. The average returns include some down years as well. Thanks for your reminder, there :-)
I see the S&P is down about 33% since January 1 of 2008. With dividends let's say about 31%. I draw around 3% of dividends and interest from my own portfolio of stocks, CDs, and cash. Taking this into account I estimate my portfolio is down around 26%. My net worth is doing better, because I got lucky and happened to buy a house that has appreciated and held. Can't complain because I own the house outright.
Lesson learned: WaMu, bubbles in general, and banks.
Lucky buy: BUD in February. 50% gain at the time of its acquisition by InBev in November. I do not even like beer exept when there is nothing else to drink after tennis.
Lucky sell: Oil stocks darn near their peaks this past summer. These stocks' gains had mightily fattened my fraction in oil. Influenced by the near failure of the whole banking industry, I wanted more diversity and so sold about half of my oil stocks, replacing them with still more large cap, nuts and bolts type stocks. Which have of course dove but nothing like banks.
I am also lucky that the house, nearly paid for, hasn't moved more than a few percent. Other assets dropped 39% a bit worse than S&P. Former employer stock dropped nearly 75%, and that hurt, thought I was doing well keeping it below 8 or so % of assets, but for a crash like that, there was some impact on total number.
I find the "lost decade' concept interesting.
10 years ago, 1998 ended at S&P 1229.Through aggressive savings, paying down the mortgage, and internet bubble success, our non-house (i.e. subtract full value of house from bottom line on balance sheet, so this equals the amount of investments we have if the mortgage were paid off from savings plus a fully paid house) assets are three times what they were a decade ago.
Joe
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