2009 Investing In Review

At the beginning of the year we set up some hypothetical portfolios. Rather than review them in individual detail, lets just look at some performance.

One S and P 500 index fund, symbol spy, was us up 25.48% for 2009.

Fortune Magazine picked 10 stocks for 2009.

Here is how it did:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Mkt value	Gain
Altria Group, Inc.	MO	19.79	1290.476	289.1662
Annaly Capital Management, Inc.	NLY	17.41	1082.293	82.293
Dell Inc.	DELL	14.54	1388.325	388.3248
Devon Energy Corporation	DVN	76.57	1107.645	107.645
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.	DO	101.17	1653.456	653.456
Fluor Corporation (NEW)	FLR	46.01	993.5824	-6.4176
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	64.68	1065.986	65.9855
Medco Health Solutions Inc.	MHS	65.11	1509.554	508.8442
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	18.93	1016.821	16.821
Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA)	POT	112.2	1466.92	466.92
Cash		397.26	12972.32

So we are 29.72 % which beats the S and P Fund by 4.24% which is impressive. Notice that half of the stocks beat the S and P and half did not. So you can see the risk.

This was the best of our portfolios. The bond weighting in the others pulled them down. International exposure was great.

Now we will see what 2010 will bring.

Hey An Up Month

Well we finally had a month when the major averages moved up. And that is no April Fools joke!

Here is how we did.

Our portfolio of 10 stocks from Fortune Magazine gained $269 and now has a value of $9027.

Name	Symbol	Last price	Change	Shares	Cost basis	Mkt value
Altria Group, Inc.	MO	16.02	-0.36	65.74	1001.31	1053.11
Annaly Capital Management, Inc.	NLY	13.87	0.41	62.38	1000	865.24
Dell Inc.	DELL	9.48	-0.01	96.68	1000	916.52
Devon Energy Corporation	DVN	44.69	0.07	15.07	1000	673.31
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.	DO	62.86	-2.96	16.8	1000	1055.84
Fluor Corporation (NEW)	FLR	34.55	-0.28	22.06	1000	762.3
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	52.6	-0.41	16.55	1000	870.37
Medco Health Solutions Inc.	MHS	41.34	1.74	23.62	1000.71	976.54
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	13.62	-0.08	55.9	1000	761.37
Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA)	POT	80.81	-0.98	13.52	1000	1092.62
Cash		-2.02				-2.02
Total						9027.22

Our low risk portfolio gained $285 and looks like this:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Change	Shares	Cost basis	Mkt value
Schwab Total Stock Market Index Inv	SWTIX	14.02	0.19	181.52	2800	2544.94
Schwab International Index Inv	SWINX	11.21	0.27	90.43	1200	1013.67
Schwab Total Bond Market	SWLBX	8.75	0.02	670.77	6000	5869.26
Cash		0				0
						9427.87

Our medium risk portfolio gained $360. Portfolio looks like this:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Change	Shares	Cost basis	Mkt value
Vanguard Total Bond Market Index	VBMFX	10.1	0.01	390.79	4000	3947.01
Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index	VGTSX	9.39	0.22	167.6	1800	1573.79
Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx	VTSMX	19.32	0.25	195.43	4200	3775.69
Cash		0				0
						9296.49

Our rebalancing act gained $320 and looks like:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Change	Shares	Cost basis	Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF)	IVV	79.62	0.63	61.1	5476.05	4864.74
Cash		4523.94				4523.94
						9388.68

We then rebalace by selling some 2.14 etf shares:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Change	Shares	Cost basis	Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF)	IVV	79.62	0.63	58.96	5282.4	4694.35
Cash		4684.33				4684.33

Hopefully we have some good months ahead.

Testing Simple Investment Ideas in 2009

2008 was certainly a bad year for almost all investors. 2009 may be bad also, or not. However, if you sit out then you will miss the recovery, when and if it ever happens.

I thought it would be fun to track some investment ideas in 2009. Tools such as the portfolio at Google finance make this easy to do. For all of our portfolios we will hypothetically invest $10,000 and charge ourselves a discount brokers fee of $10 per transaction. We will also start with the closing prices as of December 31, 2008. Here are the initial set ups:

1. A portfolio of 10 stocks from the December 12 issue of Fortune Magazine. Fortune picked 10 stocks to own in 2009. We will buy $990 worth of each and use up our mythical $10,000 with the brokerage fee. Fortune did make these picks earlier in December and there has been some price movement since then.

Here is our starting value:

Name	Symbol	Last price	Shares	Mkt value
Altria Group, Inc.	MO	15.06	65.74	990
Annaly Capital Management, Inc.	NLY	15.87	62.38	990
Dell Inc.	DELL	10.24	96.68	990
Devon Energy Corporation	DVN	65.71	15.07	990
Diamond Offshore Drilling, Inc.	DO	58.94	16.8	990
Fluor Corporation (NEW)	FLR	44.87	22.06	990
Johnson & Johnson	JNJ	59.83	16.55	990
Medco Health Solutions Inc.	MHS	41.91	23.62	990
Pfizer Inc.	PFE	17.71	55.9	990
Potash Corp./Saskatchewan (USA)	POT	73.22	13.52	990
Valuation				9900

2. A "low risk" portfolio suggested by Daniel R. Solin in his book The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read. The portfolio consists of a total stock market index fund, a total international index fund, and an bond index fund, weighted 28%, 12% and 60%. We will use index funds from Charles Schwab.

Name Symbol Last price Shares Mkt value Schwab Total Stock Market Index In SWTIX 15.37 181.52 2790 Schwab International Index SWINX 13.16 90.43 1190 Schwab Total Bond Market SWLBX 8.93 670.77 5990 Valuation 9970

3. A "medium risk" porfolio also suggested by Daniel R. Solin in his book The Smartest Investment Book You'll Ever Read. This is similar to the low risk portfolio except it is weighted 42%, 18% and 40%. For fun, we will use Vanguard Funds rather than Schwab.

			Name Symbol Last price Shares Mkt value Vanguard Total Bond Market Index VBMFX 10.21 390.79 3990 Vanguard Total Intl Stock Index VGTSX 10.68 167.6 1790 Vanguard Total Stock Mkt Idx VTSMX 21.44 195.43 4190 Valuation 9970

4. Rebalance. We will start with 50% cash and 50% an S and P 500 exchange traded fund. Each month we will rebalance to the 50-50 allocation, spending $10 to make the trade.

Name	Symbol	Last price	Shares	Mkt value
iShares S&P 500 Index (ETF)	IVV	90.31	55.31	4995
Cash		4995		4995
Portfolio				9990

I plan to post on the first Wednesday of each month the standings of each portfolio. I may add one or more in January, but the idea is to track these ideas going forward.

Do you have any you want to add?

Let the games begin.