Year-end portfolio review

[disneysteve]

I just finished updating our financial spreadsheet with the year-end numbers. Wow! The stock market rally sure helped a lot.

For 2013, our portfolio grew by 23% going from $578,000 to $713,000.

How did everyone else make out? I hope you all benefited from the strong performance of the market.

[creditcardfree]

I think ours was close to 40%. That includes new contributions as well.

[disneysteve]

I think ours was close to 40%. That includes new contributions as well.

That's great. Too bad we can't get returns like that every year.

[TheMom]

I just finished updating our financial spreadsheet with the year-end numbers. Wow! The stock market rally sure helped a lot.

For 2013, our portfolio grew by 23% going from $578,000 to $713,000.

How did everyone else make out? I hope you all benefited from the strong performance of the market.

Similar numbers here. $548,000 to $714,000, including about $16,000 in contributions. Quite happy about it!

[dczech09]

My Roth IRA is at $20,574.59. My Roth IRA is up 26.11% for the year 2013! I will have to look at my 401k tomorrow. I have to do a reallocation anyway.

[autoxer]

It was a great year for me. My net worth went from $280k to $416k, so it's up almost 49%.

• I paid off two auto loans
• Reduced my insurance cost by $75/month
• Reduced my electricity bill by 15%, just by being more conscious of my usage
• Sold my gas guzzling pick up truck and bought a station wagon
• Started a taxable brokerage account after maxing my retirement accounts

But I failed at implementing budgeting software. I tried YNAB, but I didn't like spending the time required to log every transaction in. I'm not too concerned about tracking every penny, because I have been bringing my expenses down in many different areas.

[kork13]

I'm still on the lower end numbers-wise (I'm only 27), but definitely a very good year for me as well -- there's alot for me to be very grateful for.

For just my savings & investments, I've gone from about $131k to $191k in 12 months -- a 45% increase! That does include contributions as well -- actual investment gains have "only" been about 27% in 2013, in near lock-step with the market (hooray index funds!).

What I'm more happy about is the TOTAL picture for me, which includes debt reduction -- my total net worth has gone up from $160k to $240k, a 50% improvement! My car loan has gone from $17k down to $6k (will be paid off by May or June), and I've paid down my home's mortgage by almost $10k (value is relatively flat, up perhaps .5%).

[Snydley]

Ok I have to ask- how did you all make so much money? How is your portfolio distributed?

[kork13]

Ok I have to ask- how did you all make so much money? How is your portfolio distributed?

The biggest reason for most of the gains we all have this year is simply the fact that the S&P 500 gained about 29% in 2013. I'm 27 y/o, and for most of the year was invested in 70% domestic stocks, 20% international stocks, and 10% bonds. Everything is in index funds, which just track the market. Because the market did well, I did well.

[disneysteve]

Ok I have to ask- how did you all make so much money?

By staying invested in the stock market. We didn't panic when the market went down in 2008 and sell. We didn't sit on the sidelines and wait for the market to recover before investing again. We didn't sell low and buy high.

I own 6 stock mutual funds. The returns for the year were 15.14%, 29.74%, 32.33%, 32.40%, 35.49%, and 43.19%.

It isn't hard to see where the money came from with those kinds of returns. Of course, the reason my overall return was "only" 23% is that I'm not 100% in stocks.

By the way, in 2013 we also paid off my car loan, bought my wife's car and paid off a good chunk of that loan and paid down our mortgage.

[97guns]

i have kept track of my portfolio's gains since 2009, dont know what my gains are for last year but since '09 my portfolio which is real estate has grown from 300K to over 750K

[KTP]

We managed about a 20% gain overall, not counting contributions. The reason we didn't get the 29% return of the market is because we have some money in bonds (did poorly) and some money in international (also did poorly). Diversification sucks.

[riverwed070707]

My numbers don't look like any of yours but my balance was $43,601 on 1/1/2013 and ended the year at $69,791, which includes $11.6k in contributions. I too was pleased with performance Sent me sailing past my goal of having 1x my annual salary saved by age 30 2.5 years ahead of schedule. Guess I better aim for 2x!

[disneysteve]

some money in international (also did poorly).

International was the relative "weak" performer but still did well. That was the 15.14% return on my list so it was the lowest return of the bunch but I wouldn't say it did poorly, just not as well as the others.

[KTP]

International was the relative "weak" performer but still did well. That was the 15.14% return on my list so it was the lowest return of the bunch but I wouldn't say it did poorly, just not as well as the others.

Sorry, meant EM not general international.