How are your investments doing?

[drssg]

I don't agree with the philosophy that you don't lose the money until you sell. Regardless of whether an investment is up or down, the only thing that matters is your assessment of the future.

If my buggy whip stock is down 75%, it might be time to acknowledge that buggy whips aren't a growth industry and accept my loss. When my Exxon stock was down, I believed that oil would continue to be a critical resource for the world, and I rode it out.

When I retired, I started paying closer attention to my investments, and I learned that several of the financial terms don't mean what I intuitively think they should mean.

To me, "amount invested" means the money that I took from my wallet and placed into an investment. If that investment produced dividends, which I allow to reinvest, my wallet would say that those dividends are part of the investment return. Financial software says those dividends add to my "amount invested". This causes the calculated "return" and "% return" to be lower than I would expect.

When evaluating long-term performance, it is also critical to "show closed lots". This means that, even if you sell a bad investment, it will still show up on your portfolio report with a current value of zero, and it is still used in the overall performance stats for the portfolio. This can make a HUGE difference in the calculated return and % return.

Internal rate of return (IRR) is the value that makes the most sense to me. It takes into account all of the buys and sells and dividends, and it calculates the equivalent annual interest rate that would generate the resulting value over time. IME, the IRR is unaffected by the "show closed lots" setting.

I also find that the RATE of return (IRR) is much more useful than the % return. If I have an investment that has generated a 30% return, that might be great, or it might be lousy. If I've only had it for a year, that's great. If I've had it for 20 years, then that's not so good.

 

[Snobdds]

Let me tell you something that has been brewing...the baby boomers are no longer the dominant voting block. Millennials are now the largest voting block, surpassing Gen X . They are falling behind milestones their parents have made at younger ages. This being the biggest...

They are going to start voting en mass to socialize the profits made by the prior generations as a way to stay equal. Keep an eye in New York mayors race. Also, the 401k machine is being held afloat by AI, once the real earning are priced in and can't be sustained, it's going to start slow and then all at once. See .com bubble for a recent example of how that rug pull goes. The flow of 401k money is decreasing with the adaptation of AI. The financial markets will change and there is a lot of paper wealth that will disappear.

This thread is a classic case study told many times over, that the paper wealth is not seeing what is coming. If you are 60+...get your money out of the market. There is huge forward risk on the horizon. Save in real assets, not paper assets.

I think even housing in 10 years will be a complete 180 from where we are now. They will have to bulldoze entire blocks to keep the value of housing from completely cratering. Demographics are changing very fast...

Plan accordingly...

 

[paulsharvey]

Got two investment funds, generic, "target year" stuff; and both are doing OK. Not amazing, not bad, just OK. I pretty much ignore them, although one, I do fund every pay check, but its a fairly small, automatic contribution; other is from like 14 years ago, and is "locked", as in, I can "retire" to take the money, or not touch it (FRS, state retirement system), can't redirect it, borrow against it, ect. Kinda just left it alone on the off chance I might want to go back to state/county one day

 

[riptides]

Let me tell you something that has been brewing...the baby boomers are no longer the dominant voting block. Millennials are now the largest voting block, surpassing Gen X . They are falling behind milestones their parents have made at younger ages. This being the biggest...

They are going to start voting en mass to socialize the profits made by the prior generations as a way to stay equal. Keep an eye in New York mayors race. Also, the 401k machine is being held afloat by AI, once the real earning are priced in and can't be sustained, it's going to start slow and then all at once. See .com bubble for a recent example of how that rub pull goes. The flow of 401k money is decreasing with the adaptation of AI. The financial markets will change and there is a lot of paper wealth that will disappear.

This thread is a classic case study told many times over, that the paper wealth is not seeing what is coming. If you are 60+...get your money out of the market. There is huge forward risk on the horizon. Save in real assets, not paper assets.

I think even housing in 10 years will be a complete 180 from where we are now. They will have to bulldoze entire blocks to keep the value of housing from completely cratering. Demographics are changing very fast...

Plan accordingly...

Millennials do not really share the same "goals" as baby boomers. It is a different mindset now for what their future holds. I think in ten years housing will be in the same condition it is now...affordable to those who can afford it...out of reach to those attempting to enter the first time market.

 

[Snobdds]

They do, I employ a lot of millennials' and they want what their parents had, a life that was not so expensive.

Many suburban neighborhoods are now full of Boomers at or near retirement. The Millennials and Gen Z have not moved in. Lots of gray hair, not a lot of kids. Ergo, the decline of Halloween. The suburbs are also generationally desynchronized. During the Boomer and Xer generation’s childhoods, the first two generations of suburbs were new with well made modest houses and more young, first-time homebuyers with children. Neighborhoods were vibrant. There is a change coming,

 

[Oaktree]

I don't invest in individual stocks. One change in upper management can ruin a company. Look at JCPennys and Bud Light. Instead I stay in mutual funds and usually look at the companies they are invested in before I buy. Or at least the top ten that show up on the easy to look at information. At one time a few years ago I had three different funds and when I investigated a little deeper they were all invested in the same companies. That was not very smart and was laziness on my part. I also stay with one financial company and that is Fidelity. Have dealt with a couple others and not got the impression that they were on top of the job. When talking to a Fidelity representative I rarely ask a question that they cannot answer.

Another vote for Fidelity. I've been with them, at least in some form for 30-odd years and have been very pleased with them.

JC Penney and Budweiser's problems extend well beyond upper management and into cultural changes. Brick & mortar retail in general has taken a huge hit in the last couple decades (with a few exceptions like Walmart), and younger people aren't drinking beer to the extent older generations did.

They are going to start voting en mass to socialize the profits made by the prior generations as a way to stay equal. Keep an eye in New York mayors race. Also, the 401k machine is being held afloat by AI, once the real earning are priced in and can't be sustained, it's going to start slow and then all at once. See .com bubble for a recent example of how that rug pull goes. The flow of 401k money is decreasing with the adaptation of AI. The financial markets will change and there is a lot of paper wealth that will disappear.

This thread is a classic case study told many times over, that the paper wealth is not seeing what is coming. If you are 60+...get your money out of the market. There is huge forward risk on the horizon. Save in real assets, not paper assets.

I'm not quite as pessimistic as you, but for sure things are changing. I don't think we'll see a lot as long as boomers are still around, but who knows what'll happen once we're gone.

Not sure what you mean by "real assets"...real estate?, precious metals? All well and good as part of a portfolio, but not very liquid.

 

[paulsharvey]

Millennials arent Young, I think we are like 44 to 30 or something like that. I think people often lump 20 somethings in with them,
Gen X is like 45-60+; Boomers are 60+ to cold;


The generation thing doesn't really sense, Boomers are an 18 year span, 46-64 (18 years); Millenails are 81-96 (15 years), so X must be 64-80 (16 years). To top that off, i dont know there is really a defined start or stop to each gen

 

[Fuddyduddy1952]

Ours are doing fantastic, especially since we started investing in our 20s & now 70s.
Mutual Funds...starting with Fidelity Puritan since it served my Grandfather so well. He was visited by Edward C. Johnson II and his wife after WWII. They were traveling from Boston to vacation in Florida, Grandfather really liked them.
Then I diversified through the years, never used a broker, never sold anything then funds from Vanguard, T. Rowe Price, Janus, etc.
IRA maxed day one, then a cash annuity (monthly bank deposits), Cash Core account for some dividends & capital gains, and a joint SMA account, 280 stocks traded daily.
Always lived frugally well below our means.

 

[Doorman63]

Year to date-both are at 15%
I still have 2 pensions as well.
8 years till I can collect 100%…..may sneak out a bit earlier depending on life’s events.

 

[mark in portugal]

I own residential rental property for 30 years; so I get rental income as well as accruing capital gains.

There is some work involved, but not too much. I DIY everything, pay no percentages to anyone (except tax of course).

The results have been very good; capital gains are hard to measure because I renovated on my own time, but around 600%.

Solid investment, real property.