Portfolio Update: One Year Results

If you invested on May 1st, 2007, and you followed the conventional wisdom in fund investing these days which is to invest in index funds instead of managed funds, a year later, you might have have found yourself sitting on a loss instead of having made money.

And had you bought ETFs, generally the least expensive indexing option, your loss could have even more painful.

On May 1st 2007, I picked 20 mutual fund categories- ranging from Large Cap Growth to Inflation Protected Bonds to Emerging Markets. Then I hypothetically invested $2500 in funds I picked (available through Etrade with low initial investment minimums), Vanguard Funds (picking index options when available) and ETFs, in each of the 20 categories. I also invested in three Vanguard Index funds, matching the same percentage of Domestic equity, Foreign equity and Bonds as the other $50,000 portfolios.

I set up these hypothetical portfolios in the free portfolio tracking tool available at morningstar.com.

You can read more about this experiment here.

As of the close of trading on the last day of April, 2008, only the portfolio I picked avoided losing money. The WylieMoney Slowly portfolio has gained a hand picked fund in a new category each month and is also in the black. I have learned from my experiment and migrated many of my non-retirement investments into many of the funds I researched and my brokerage is also in positive territory.


If you had simply invested in the S&P 500, you would be sitting on a loss 0f -5.69%. Had you stuck $50,000 in a nice savings account, you would have beaten all of these portfolios.


The difference is not great, but I must admit that I am a little surprised that after a year, the funds I picked, outperformed all the index options. That the performance is the difference between making money and losing money is even more unexpected.

Here are the details (click on each image for a larger view):

WylieMoney 20 Mostly Managed

WylieMoney Slowly

My Brokerage

Three Fund Index

Lazy 20 Mostly Index

ETF 20

Combined IRAs

S&P 500

Fund of the Week: BPTRX Baron Partners

The top performing fund last week from my mutual fund experiment was BPTRX Baron Partners My Post, up 3.02%. This fund was added to the WylieMoney Slowly Portfolio a few months back.

The worst one week performance was -2.19% by PNRZX Jennison Natural Resources which is a fund I own in my brokerage account. PNRZX is the single top performing fund in my experiment since last May earning 40.32% 1st, so I won't sweat a tough week. Last week's best performing fund PRNEX T. Rowe Price New Era made this week's worst 10 funds list.

Portfolio Update 4/25/08: Jump Around

A couple of portfolios decided to jump around this week. Last week I mocked the ETF portfolio but noted that it was outperforming my IRA. Well my IRA did not like that one bit and almost doubled the 1 week return of the ETF portfolio to jump ahead of it on the list. The Three Fund index portfolio also jumped ahead of the struggling Lazy 20 Mostly Index portfolio.


With less than a week to go until the one year anniversary of my mutual fund portfolio experiment, I'm pleased that several of the portfolios have managed to pull into positive territory, despite a rough 12 months.

I'll dive into the 1 year results next week

WylieMoney 20 Mostly Managed

WylieMoney Slowly

Three Fund Index

Lazy 20 Mostly Index

ETF 20

S&P 500

2008 Walk for Hunger

Spring is upon us and once again, I'm doing the Walk for Hunger!


The Walk for Hunger raises money to fight hunger across Massachusetts.

The route is 20 miles long. It starts and finishes in the Boston Common and goes out to Newton and back. Over 40,000 people participate so we get up very early to beat the crowd which is why my pictures don't have a ton of other people in them!

I plan to take my new camera and take pictures along the way so I'll post some photos after the walk, like I did last year.


If you want to make a donation, click here to donate directly to Project Bread in support of team WylieMoney!

Portfolio Update: 4/18/08: Lovely Day

Friday was a lovely day at the end of a lovely week.

I'm adding a new feature to the weekly update. I loaded the 100 or so funds (and a few stocks) that I track in the 8 portfolios I compare, into one list at Morningstar. Now I can easily show the best and worst performing funds from the previous week.

This week, PRNEX T. Rowe Price New Era, a fund I own in an IRA was up 8.14%. This fund has been on a tear since last may, up 37.17% since then.

The worst performing funds were all bond funds. The worst performing fund was BTTRX American Century Target 2025 My Post. I own this in My Brokerage where is has been among the best performing funds since May 1st and have it in both WylieMoney portfolios.

All the portfolios showed solid gains last week.


Last week, My Brokerage and the WylieMoney Slowly Portfolio were tied. WylieMoney Slowly broke away to secure second place. The ETF portfolio had been making up ground this year but lagged this week and still kinda stinks, although it is beating my IRA.

WylieMoney 20 Mostly Managed

WylieMoney Slowly

Lazy 20 Mostly Index

Three Fund Index

ETF 20

S&P 500

Happy Tax Day!

Today is the last day to send the government your money so they can turn around and give me my apology check!

If you have not filed yet, don't forget, if you use Turbotax, you can get a discount by clicking here. I railed before about how absurd it was for Turbotax to charge for its free version so it could then provide a 'discount.'

A WylieMoney reader noted that the Free Edition is not the same as the Basic Edition. This appears true despite the fact that both editions describe themselves as for "Simple" returns and are listed in the same ad format as the far left option which is deceptive and misleading.

Regardless, the Discount page does not even note that a free option is available which is poor form so if you have a very simple return and have not filed yet, go find the free version!

Also note that if you plan to waste money on (I mean treat yourself to) a coffee at Duncan Donuts today, you can get a donut for free (Thanks for the tip Marian and Sheryl!).


If someone tries to offer you a discounted donut, well, don't be suprised, but don't pay...

Portfolio Update 4/11/08: Contrarian

Last Friday, as the Dow collapsed, led by GE's 12.79% decline, I decided to be a contrarian. Most everyone was selling, but not me:

"Volume on the New York Stock Exchange topped 3.6 billion shares, with decliners outpacing advancing stocks more than 3 to 1. On the Nasdaq, more than 1.8 billion shares were exchanged, and declining issues outnumbered advancers roughly 4 to 1."

Not only did I add HIINX Harbor International to the hypothetical WylieMoney Slowly portfolio, I finally invested my 2007 Roth IRA contribution. I also added to some funds in my brokerage account.

The DOW, NASDAQ, and S&P 500 were all down 2% or more on Friday but the WylieMoney Mostly Managed portfolio was down less than 1%. This portfolio has outperformed all the portfolios I track during a volatile market trending downward over the last 11 1/2 months.

Adding $2500 to the WylieMoney Slowly portfolio on Friday brought that portfolio into a tie for second place with My Brokerage account since the $2500 I added has yet to decline!

WylieMoney 20 Mostly Managed
WylieMoney Slowly
Lazy 20 Mostly Index
Three Fund Index
ETF 20
S&P 500