I think I speak for everyone when I say – Wow.
The year 2019 will go down as one of the best years for most people in terms of their investments. The S&P 500 (everyone’s standard for judging US stock performance) went from $2,607.39 to $3,235.14 (Jan 1 to Jan 1) – a 24.0% increase. Tack on the 1.77% dividend yield and you were seriously kicking butt, as long as you just left it in the market in an Index Fund! Hopefully the readers here didn’t panic in Dec 2018 and sell their stocks.
I’ve been an index investor for most of my investing life. Whenever I have dabbled in individual stock pickings, I mostly got my head handed to me. So here I stay. My allocations tend to be broader than just your typical “dump it all into the S&P 500”
Retirement Accounts: Remember, my allocation for these is:
- 30% Bond Index Fund
- 17.5% S&P500 Index Fund
- 17.5% International Index Fund
- 17.5% Small Cap Index Fund
- 17.5% REIT Index Fund
My company 401K/Deferred account doesn’t have a REIT option, so I’m 25% for the other 4 categories.
I set up my father’s inherited IRA to see how it would perform if it was concentrated on creating income (i.e. dividends). My allocation for that was:
Dividend Income Account: Allocation:
- 25% Dividend Stocks
- 25% REITs
- 50% Bond Index Funds
Finally, my “fun money” post-tax account is primarily setup for value investing, with a mix of USAA and Vanguard index accounts.
Value Account: Allocation
- 12% PAWZ ETF (it invests in pet related companies, a vanity play on my part)
- 44% USAA Market Index (my brokerage is USAA)
- 44% in Vanguard Value Index fund
So how did they perform for the year? Here are all my portfolio items (not weighted)
| Name | Symbol | Capital Gain % | Dividend % | Total Return |
| TRowe Price S&P 500 | PREIX | 28.5% | 1.8% | 30.2% |
| Extended Equity Market Index | PEXMX | 22.0% | 1.0% | 23.0% |
| International Equity Index | PIEQX | 17.7% | 2.6% | 20.3% |
| Real Estate | TRREX | 3.7% | 2.5% | 6.2% |
| US Bond Enhanced Index | PBDIX | 5.2% | 2.9% | 8.1% |
| Vanguard Bond Index Fund | VBTLX | 5.7% | 5.24% | 11.0% |
| Vanguard 500 Index Fund | VFIAX | 28.8% | 1.85% | 30.7% |
| Vanguard REIT Index Fund | VGSLX | 24.5% | 3.31% | 27.8% |
| Vanguard Small-Cap Index Fund | VSMAX | 25.5% | 1.38% | 26.9% |
| Vanguard Int’l Index Fund | VGTSX | 17.7% | 2.98% | 20.7% |
| Vanguad Welesley Income Fund | VWINX | 11.8% | 0.95% | 12.8% |
| Eagle Small Cap growth | 18.7% | 0.00% | 18.7% | |
| Vanguard 500 Index Fund | 28.8% | 1.74% | 30.6% | |
| Vanguard Total International Index | 17.7% | 2.08% | 19.8% | |
| Vanguard total bond Mkt | 5.7% | 2.52% | 8.3% | |
| Eagle Small Cap growth | 18.7% | 0.00% | 18.7% | |
| Vanguard 500 Index Fund | 28.8% | 1.74% | 30.6% | |
| Vanguard Total International Index | 17.7% | 2.08% | 19.8% | |
| Lord Abbot Total Return | 6.2% | 2.71% | 8.9% | |
| Chevron Corp | CVX | 10.8% | 3.9% | 14.7% |
| Cisco | CSCO | 10.7% | 2.9% | 13.6% |
| Healthcare Realty Trust | HR | 17.3% | 3.6% | 20.9% |
| Ishares Preferred | PFF | 9.8% | 4.9% | 14.7% |
| Realty Income Corp | O | 16.8% | 3.7% | 20.5% |
| Service Properties TR | SVC | 1.9% | 8.8% | 10.7% |
| UMH Properties Inc | UMH | 32.9% | 4.6% | 37.4% |
| Verizon | VZ | 9.2% | 3.9% | 13.2% |
| Vanguard Total Bond Index | VBTLX | 5.7% | 2.5% | 8.3% |
| Vanguard Int-term Bond index | VBILX | 7.2% | 2.5% | 9.7% |
| USAA Extended Market Index | USMIX | 24.0% | 1.3% | 25.2% |
| Vanguard Value Index | VVIAX | 22.5% | 2.6% | 25.1% |
As you can see, no real negative items in the bunch. While the bonds and REITs didn’t light the world on fire, the other stocks really jumped off. The bonds and REITs will help balance the portfolio out when the stocks have a correction (and we all know a correction is long overdue here).
Overall, I was up 20.1% for the year, which definitely exceeded my expectations. Even with all the bonds and REITs, the overall performance was excellent.
Mr. 39 Months