racemize

I agree! The headlines are getting way to cheery. I'm saving up cash now.

Perhaps this was naive of me, but I've been comparing it to the S&P TR without adjustment. I could do what you are suggesting by creating another IRR with a TR index value, but then I would be discounting any timing effects that result from skill, e.g., me choosing to invest at (hopefully) the right time. Is this not appropriate? Edit: Went and looked at mutual funds in my brokerage accounts, and they are using the TR as the benchmark, so it appears that they are not adjusting either.

Thanks--when you did do it, what structure did you use? Could you expound on why it was unpleasant?

Perhaps because there is more demand for investments (e.g., more money from 401k plans or retirement accounts)? It seems to me that we are still regressing in terms of P/Es, but maybe we've reached the end of that for now.

Thanks for the nice comments all. If anyone made it through the market section, I'd appreciate any feedback you have on the content (particularly if I'm off base somewhere). I know most of it probably isn't terribly insightful, but I thought I would put down my thoughts on various subjects I'd paid attention to or read about in 2011. Re my largest position--I've had it since the beginning and it hasn't paid off yet, so I may be drinking my own cool-aid, but we'll see. Maybe I'll post a write up of it.

So I wrote an annual report for my "fund" (calling it a partnership, but it doesn't really exist yet). It ended up being much longer than I expected, but I thought I would share it. StevensFund2011Annual.pdf

Would you mind sharing what kind of set up you are using?

Well that was almost awesome--it appears that TX requires me to register as an investment advisor and to have passed some examinations in order to use the account. At least, unless I misunderstood the texas ssb web page.

I know this is a rather old topic, but it is around what I was going to ask, so I thought I would revive it. Basically, I'm in a similar situation where friends and family want me to manage money (in the US), and I'd like to set up an investment partnership. I've set up an LLC before and it was fairly inexpensive, but some of the information I've read were indicating costs at 20-30k to set up an investment partnership, which is prohibitively expensive at current levels. I know I'll need to talk to a lawyer, but I'd like to get some ball park costs and education (e.g., on the right set up) before hand, so any advice/information would be appreciated. Also, with these partnerships, I assume there is a structure where you can easily add new partners rather than having to dissolve and recreate with a new partner (or require resigning by current partners)?

For those of you using google spreadsheets, this will pull the relevant value automatically: =(Index(ImportHtml("http://www.standardandpoors.com/indices/sp-500/en/us/?indexId=spusa-500-usduf--p-us-l--", "table", 7),4,7))

yep, my full history IRR jumped from 13.8% to near 20% (though I only have 1.5 years on it thus far).

Seems like sporting life has more to do with active wear (maybe similar to REI?). Buckle is mostly fashion-type clothing.

Just added time weighted gains to my tracking spreadsheet after looking at wikinvest. Apparently, it was even better than my IRR: Underlying Gain: 4.83% IRR: 12.79% Time Weighted: 17.41% 12.43% Edit: Actually, no, it was just about the same (sign error in formula). It seems like IRR is a better metric than time weighted though. Is there any reason to use time weighted versus IRR for performance?

Wow..that site is great. I've been looking for something like that for years! Thanks so much. Looks like I was up 9.5% for 2011. This site is pretty great, except that it imported all my terrible 401k performance (no real options for investment), so now I can't see what my stock portfolio performance was... Almost good =/.

I use the xirr function, which uses cash inflows and outflows with dates to give you a time weighted return--it is the rate that would be applied to all the money while it was present to achieve the provided results.

I have a spreadsheet that calculates assets-liabilities daily. I also have it keep track of the change of the value (derivative) per year to see how my slope is doing.

Irr of 12.8%, with an underlying gain of 4.9%. This was my first full year of investing, and I think it went pretty well. Incidentally, does everyone use irr to measure performance?

Hi all, I'm considering going to this for the first time and have never been to Canada/Toronto. Could some of you veterans give me some input on good places to stay or tips for the area? Thanks!

All true as well! Hopefully, it didn't sound like I was denigrating the Wii, which I enjoyed, particularly mario kart and super mario brothers. You are spot on re Xbox live, which has membership dues, running ~50 a year I think. Re games, I'm mostly playing RPGs, like Dark Souls, Skyrim, etc. The FPS's that I play are almost always either coop (Gears of War), RPS's, or both (e.g., Borderlands). The Call of Duty/Modern Warfare style games I usually don't play, so I haven't tried out Battlefield--I've heard good things.

I finally found a thread I'm an expert in! Disclosure: I've owned both of them--and both have died. I got a new Xbox but did not get a new Wii. The answer to your question really depends on what type of games you want to play, but at age 8, you'll probably want the Wii. Here's what the two consoles are good at: Wii: Family games, more cartooney games - e.g., mario brother series, zelda, etc. You don't get a ton of serious games on the Wii and the hardware is less graphically sophisticated. Wii also has a place where you can buy old games from previous consoles (e.g., super mario brothers) for fairly cheap, e.g., in the 2-5 dollar range, as I recall. The full sized games are much more expensive--video games in general run 50-60 dollars at release and drop down to 20-35 dollars after a year or so. Xbox: More for serious gamers and online gaming. There are more FPS (First person shooter) style games on this console, like Gears of War, Call of Duty, etc. Many of these games let you play with (co-op) or against others online. Warning though, the type of people you get paired up with, if you do it randomly, usually consist of 13 year olds that are very good and very annoying. They also tend to cheat. Xbox also has an arcade section where you can download games, which are typically created by independents. Their costs are usually in the 5-10 dollar range. I think Wii is probably the one you want to go with for an 8 year old, but that may transition to a more "serious" console in the teenage range.

Now I'm starting to feel foolish for only a 3% position.

thanks Grenville--I was hoping one of these would be an excellent choice, but perhaps they aren't. Are you just indexing in your 401k now then?

hi all, our 401k is going to let us enter a couple of value funds: Tilson, Davis, and Winters are options (We can't invest in stocks, or I would do that). Previously, I've been using my 401k as my indexing vehicle (since there weren't many other options), but now I have these funds available. I know the board overall isn't too impressed with Tilson, but he does beat the index. I don't know as much about Davis and Winters, so wouldn't mind input on their funds, if you have any. I'm considering getting out of indexing and putting it across all of the above funds, but I'm not that sure. Generally, I don't like funds and would choose indexing over them, but these guys are value, so I'm considering breaking from that philosophy. Any opinions would be appreciated!

There does not appear to be a direct link, but it is the december 16th episode. Pretty typical Value comments. http://wealthtrack.com/previous.php

Out of curiosity, what age are you? Was this a retirement type plan? My wife and I have considering being expats at some point (e.g., for retirement), such as to NZ, so I'm very curious.