How were your investment returns in 2021?

[Exterous]

I know there are some people interested in investing here so I figured I would ask. 18.11% for me - weighed down by investments in international index funds. (One decade they'll outperform the US right? Right? )

 

[ultimatebob]

Are you really asking about 2020, or 2021?

In 2020, I gained about 21.85% (A lot of that gain came from Tesla, yay TSLA!)
In 2021, I only gained 20.67% (TSLA didn't do as awesome as the year before)

That's not bad, but I'm still underperforming the S&P 500 as a whole. The older I get, the more I think that whole "diversified portfolio" thing is a scam to sell mutual funds that underperform the market average. I have international stock funds and a bond fund like the "experts" say I should have, but they never do great and they also got hammered during the great March 2020 COVID panic just like everything else did. So, just like in 2008, diversification didn't really do anything to help me.

 

[KB]

I know there are some people interested in investing here so I figured I would ask. 18.11% for me - weighed down by investments in international index funds. (One decade they'll outperform the US right? Right? )

Ever year for the last decade has been the year international is going to outperform and it hasn't yet. I have been rebalancing every year to stay about 33% in international so I never get returns like the S&P 500 does. History tells us that everything reverts to the mean eventually and international will meet the US so I keep waiting.

 

[ultimatebob]

Ever year for the last decade has been the year international is going to outperform and it hasn't yet. I have been rebalancing every year to stay about 33% in international so I never get returns like the S&P 500 does. History tells us that everything reverts to the mean eventually and international will meet the US so I keep waiting.

I used to keep 20% in International, but now it's down to just 17% simply because my domestic stocks keep outperforming it by a huge margin. I'm not putting more money in... all the big S&P 500 companies are multinational anyway.

 

[deadlyapp]

I'm just in mutual funds, but it looks like 2021 I was around 19.5%. I didn't want to go through and look at 2020 since I'd have to do a bit of data manipulation.

 

[repoman0]

Pure S&P500 in all my retirement accounts so like 27% in there or whatever it did last year. I’m 32 and can’t touch those for 27 years so I just chase easy returns.

SPY + my fiancées company stock in our after tax accounts, the latter of which did ~100%. Of course it’s tanked with the rest of tech this year so we’re barely beating SPY in those now over the last 13 months.

 

[Muse]

Pure S&P500 in all my retirement accounts so like 27% in there or whatever it did last year. I’m 32 and can’t touch those for 27 years so I just chase easy returns.

SPY + my fiancées company stock in our after tax accounts, the latter of which did ~100%. Of course it’s tanked with the rest of tech this year so we’re barely beating SPY in those now over the last 13 months.

I'm in SPY only as well, no restrictions. 2020 saw me paying way more in taxes, only because I did a sell/buy, because I feared a sell off due to the madness approaching the general election. That turned out to be a mirage, and I had to pay short term capital gains. I think maybe 2021 was better than 2020 for the S&P500. I dumped some shares before Dec. was done, I think it allows me to reap some without being taxed. I bought some back this month with that money, but that will be short term until Dec. 2022.

 

[KB]

I used to keep 20% in International, but now it's down to just 17% simply because my domestic stocks keep outperforming it by a huge margin. I'm not putting more money in... all the big S&P 500 companies are multinational anyway.

It may be time to increase international. The out-performance of the US can't last forever. Take a look at the difference between two comparable Vanguard ETFs with the same goals.

Compare VYM (US High Dividend Yield , 2.7% yield, PE 16.76) to VYMI (International High Dividend Yield, 4.11% yield, PE 10.46)

If the international VYMI grows to match the same PE as the US fund, it will grow by 50%. Its unlikely the US will grow earnings by 50%.

 

[nakedfrog]

Well, I've been trying to find out for like 30+ minutes now but John Hancock's website is a fucking joke, and hasn't been able to successfully load during that timeframe.

Looks like 2020 was 17.662%
2021 was 17.498%

 

[KentState]

Since I have another 25 years to work, I really haven't aggregated all of my investments together to figure it out. Sometimes I feel like a dog that has all his bones buried across the back yard. I know it's all there, but would have to find it all to even know what's what.

 

[Exterous]

Are you really asking about 2020, or 2021?

Whoops. New years are trixy

It may be time to increase international. The out-performance of the US can't last forever.

A common refrain that has been wrong for a while now. I mean I still hold international because it might come to pass one day but the world keeps coming up with new reasons why it won't this year* (Insert every year since - 1998? Didn't find it in a 5 second google search but tis been a while)

 

[Exterous]

Since I have another 25 years to work, I really haven't aggregated all of my investments together to figure it out. Sometimes I feel like a dog that has all his bones buried across the back yard. I know it's all there, but would have to find it all to even know what's what.

We have 9 accounts (4 from my work alone due to how they do their 4xxY accounts) so I created a spreadsheet that automatically pulls in the prices. So all I need to do change the number of shares we own every so often which takes ~10min every time I do it. At the end of every year I input the YTD returns manually (that used to automatic but something in google sheets broke) and a formula calculates the overall ROI. It also tells me my asset allocation %. I think the initial setup was ~2 hours of work but almost no real effort since then. I have slowly added things over time though. I started recording snapshots of account balances Dec 31st in 2018 and then added a chart to show progression over time. Then I started copying the end of the year info into a new tab so I can see my ROI per asset class per year. Recently I added a rough 'spending' tracker tab which will get more detailed the closer we get to retirement. I also added retirement healthcare, retirement account withdrawal rules, pension guestimates for my wife and SS projections (At full promised benefits and at 65% of promised benefits).

Might sound like a lot but once the foundation is in place its easy to slowly add things over the years. ~2 hours a year to add a few more points of information that will be useful or interesting in the future

 

[brianmanahan]

hard to tell with my contributions, but i think it was around %15. overall NW is up %30 though from the end of 2020.

almost half of my money is in international funds and in bonds so that slowed returns down a bit

 

[Elfear]

For my main investment account, I've stayed with the S&P 500 and small-cap index for a number of years. 2021 was a good year at ~27-28% return. I have some crypto holdings that hit almost 500% for the year but have since taken a steep dive.

 

[biostud]

Around 28% including dividend. All passive investments from 2020.

 

[ultimatebob]

For my main investment account, I've stayed with the S&P 500 and small-cap index for a number of years. 2021 was a good year at ~27-28% return. I have some crypto holdings that hit almost 500% for the year but have since taken a steep dive.

Yeah, I decided around April of 2021 that a small amount of my portfolio should be in crypto and crypto stocks, just in case the fanboys are right about it going up 10X over the next 5 years. So, yeah... I bought high and got my ass kicked. I'm probably break-even at this point.

 

[Spacehead]

Just curious, when figuring your percentage do you subtract the amount you put in for the year or just use your start/end numbers?

Looks like i'm at 22%... 18% if i subtract my contributions.

 

[Saylick]

About 43%. Bought a buttload of AMD/Xilinx and just held.

 

[IronWing]

Flat in 2021. I'm saving returnable milk bottles. With inflation, I figure the deposit amount will jump in 2022 ==> PROFIT!

 

[Brainonska511]

For retirement funds, it was a good year: ~20% in a Roth IRA (~80-85% invested stock index funds); ~28% for my 401k (100% invested in stock index funds) according to Fidelity's little 1-year performance ticker. It's all probably a somewhat high % of stock funds, but my time horizon for retirement is >25 years.

In my taxable account, which holds a good chunk in a MA municipal bond fund (for the double tax free dividends) and a 60/40 stock/bond index fund, it was around ~15%.

 

[BurnItDwn]

in 2021, overall im up around 23%.
My strongest performer was probably CCL, which I had a small position close to when they bottomed out. (i should have sold it when it was up over 60%, but hanging on to it still)
My weakest performer was certainly BABA which I bought on the decline. Its down around 40% still.

401k has most of my savings, and its split between a couple different index funds.

 

[Gardener]

+20%, sold a couple of losers early in the year, and my international index fund was meh, again. Another thumbs up for the S&P index fund.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Yeah, I decided around April of 2021 that a small amount of my portfolio should be in crypto and crypto stocks, just in case the fanboys are right about it going up 10X over the next 5 years. So, yeah... I bought high and got my ass kicked. I'm probably break-even at this point.

I don't do FAUX, but the Duck displays some of their headlines.....

Cryptocurrency prices continue to fall because buying demand is absent: CEO

Fox Business|44 minutes ago
Bitcoin prices continued to tumble Tuesday


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Still waiting for the annual statement from my Fed employee mutual type fund. Due mid Feb.

 

[Zeze]

Went up 600% then now at 200%.

Nothing crazy. I got in early to Nio (Chinese EV).