How'd you do?

Ok, 2007 is over. I did substantually worse than last year with regards 401(k) returns. It was 3% last year with sucks ass but after last years's 20%+ return it doesn't hurt that much. Small cap stocks killed me last year but when they come back I'll be glad I have them. Oh yea, wife's 401(k) beat me but I set hers up so I take solace in that. Glad I got rid of that BofA stock!

So, how did ya'll do?

 

5.9%. Small Cap was -.14% for the year. Guess I can take solace that I am buying it cheap.

International was the saving grace for me. 16% for the year.

 

Just curious how you guys quantify these returns -

For example - the chart for NBGNX looks bad, but that big drop is just a cap gains distribution, and it's an untaxed account. The same can be said for other funds....

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=NBGNX&t=1y

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=VPMCX&t=1y

Also dividends - this one had about a 4% yield, not shown on the charts, plus the cap gains drop:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=VWELX&t=1y

Index didn't do great, and my aggressive guy lost:

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=VFINX&t=1y

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=VSEQX&t=1y

 

Similar situation for me with the International. Glad I'm 36% allocated in International. Unfortunately, at least for last year, my allocation was 19% small caps and they were down 6%.

 

Regarding Small Caps, I just looked at that number next to the big negative sign.

 

Meat, my 401K is managed by Fidelity so I am just going off their calculated ROR. Not sure of their methodology.

 

Well, just cut off the regular 401k and turned on the new Roth 401k. Hopefully it'll be for the better in the long term.

 

My measurement on ROR is how much the account started with, how much the account ended with, do the math . New contributions funk that up, I let Fidelity handle that part, but it's clear if I was winning or losing regardless of whether that's via dividends/cap gains/stock growth.

Anyway, MSFT up 18% was nice. Had a large chunk in international that returned 10%+. And a huge chunk in a managed retirement fund (target 2040) that hit 7.7%

 

Not too bad considering. Crappy part is if I had just had everything in fixed income or govt. securities I would have done better overall. Guess that's the price for being aggressive.

 

My fund portfolio returned 31% last year; heavy China, SE Asia, and Energy. I don't pay much attention to my 401k, though I assume it pulled it's normal 5-6%