[Poll & Discussion] CofB&F members' returns for 2025 [Pre tax, and after fees, commision etc.]

[shhughes1116]

+188% this year in non-retirement account.  Performance almost entirely driven by Zegona, EQR Resources and Canadian Copper.  
 

+25% to +45% in retirement accounts. 

Performance entirely attributable to dumb luck and fortuitous timing that enabled me to avoid the tariff temper tantrum carnage in April.  

Lots to be thankful for in 2025.  

 

[Viking]

2025 = 20.9%. Very happy with that result.
 

Context:

• I am shifting towards a wealth preservation mindset (direction of travel). “Why risk what you need for what you don’t need.” This impacted my return in 2025. And it will impact future returns. 
• Our best accounts (TFSA, non-registered and kids accounts) were up about 30%. 
• Our ‘worst’ accounts (RRSP’s, LIF’s) were up about 15%.
• We are trying to wind down the RESP account as we only have one kid still in university; return was 5%. 

5 years ago 100% of investments were in our ‘worst’ accounts (plus RESP). Today it is almost a 50-50 split between ‘best’ and ‘worst’. My plan is to continue to use our ‘worst’ accounts to fund expenses (and pay the taxes) and let our best accounts run higher.
 

Bottom line, our total investment portfolio is now split nicely among the different accounts and this will give us a lot of optionality moving forward (in terms of what accounts to use to fund living expenses). The restaurant menu is now full of options!

—————

To clarify, Canada has a large number of tax-advantaged investing accounts and they are all good and amazing generators of wealth - FHSA, TFSA, RRSP, RRIF, RESP. 
 

And each of them have different strengths and weaknesses. A weakness of RRSP and RIF accounts is they can get too big - and yes, that is an awesome problem to have. 

Edited January 1 by Viking

[ourkid8]

My 2025 return is 23.03%.  I am extremely pleased with the results and the big wins in my portfolio were: Fairfax Financial, Alibaba, St. Joe, Kingsway Financial Services and Royal Bank of Canada.  

[73 Reds]

21 minutes ago, Viking said:

2025 = 20.9%. Very happy with that result.
 

Context:

• I am shifting towards a wealth preservation mindset (direction of travel). “Why risk what you need for what you don’t need.” This will impact future returns. 
• Our best accounts (TFSA, non-registered and kids accounts) were up about 30%. 
• Our ‘worst’ accounts (RRSP’s, LIF’s) were up about 15%.
• We are trying to wind down the RESP account as we only have one kid still in university; return was 5%. 

5 years ago 100% of investments were in our ‘worst’ accounts. Today it is almost a 50-50 split between ‘best’ and ‘worst’. My plan is to continue to use our ‘worst’ accounts to fund expenses (and pay the taxes) and let our best accounts run higher.
 

Bottom line, our total investment portfolio is now split nicely among the different accounts and this will give us a lot of optionality moving forward (in terms of what accounts to use to fund living expenses). The restaurant menu is now full of options!

@Viking good for you!  If I had to guess, my returns this year were similar to yours.  Once you focus on preserving wealth and lifestyle, yearly returns become somewhat mundane.  As for me, I have not had a down year this century; the reason I know that is I haven't drawn a paycheck since the 1990s and all of my income since the last job has been derived from investments, some more passive than others.  My net worth has risen each and every year, some years rather significantly.  So I guess it is the trajectory, rather than nominal returns that become important once you reach a certain goal.

[TwoCitiesCapital]

2016: 24.7

2017: 25.9

2018: (14.1)

2019: 25.5

2020: (4.80)

2021: 18.8

2022: (19.7)

2023: 38.6

2024: 24.4

2025: 12.0
 

Biggest contributors were Fairfax +40%, Altius +60% (finally!!!!), and Prosus+56%, and Alibaba 72%. Have a handful of other small positions that are like 0.25% - 0.5% that all did well, but don't move the needle individually like Aecon and Foran Mining that were both up 70-80% off the lows I bought them. 

 

Offsetting that was Bitcoin -6%, Exor -6%, JACK -54%, and getting whipsawed in CLF for something close to -50%. I also own a bunch of bond funds/aggressive fixed income only earning 4.5 - 7.5%.

 

The bitcoin performance somewhat understates the loss - I had been rolling a large amount of put spreads into October thinking the worst was over and got absolutely massacred....three times in a row. Prior gains from put spreads sold through the year had all been rolled into long-calls that expired worthless so nothing to offset the loss with. This leverage had probably increased my notional exposure to Bitcoin to be something ~50% greater than what my cash BTC position is and the losses much larger than holding cash bitcoin and increased my losses to 2-3x the cash Bitcoin performance. I was ~+20% back in September so the crypto crash took me down several pegs. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ValueNation]

2025: 27.7%

2024: 31.7%

2023: 20.5%

2022: -8.5%

2021: 23.7% 

2020: 1.5%

 

5-year CAGR 18.1%

Edited January 4 by ValueNation
prior numbers had excluded Dec 2025!

[Gamecock-YT]

2025 return: +37.9%

 

The year was primarily driven by Altius Minerals (ALS.TO), which entered 2025 as by far my largest position and finished the year up roughly 52%. I added to the position in February after AngloGold Ashanti announced a 34% resource increase at Merlin, where Altius (and Orogen) holds a royalty. Despite the significance of the news, both Altius and Orogen sold off on the announcement for reasons I still don’t fully understand. Since then, those positions are up roughly 60%.

 

At the same time, I initiated a small position in Orogen (OGN.V), which is up 72% on a standalone basis, excluding the Triple Flag shares received through the Silicon/Merlin transaction.

 

The only other meaningful activity during the year centered on the GCI Liberty (GLIBK) spin-off from Liberty Broadband (LBRDK) and the subsequent rights offering. In advance of the spin, I exited all non-strategic positions, primarily LLYVA, TBRG, and OBE, to concentrate capital into LBRDK in order to capture the GLIBK due bill. That basket is up approximately 29%. I was fortunate to exit a very large LBRDK position ahead of the post-earnings drawdown. In hindsight, I should have been more aggressive reallocating after the due bill period, but I was still able to exit the LBRDK position with a positive result.

 

The main detractors for the year were the usual suspects: SIRI and VET.

 

I ended the year with the vast majority of the portfolio concentrated in ALS.TO and cash.

 

 

Annual Returns

• 2025: +37.9%

• 2024: +35.56%

• 2023: +0.40%

• 2022: -3.75%

• 2021: +19.9%

• 2020: +12.0%

• 2019: +33.0%

• 2018: -15.5%

• 2017: +35.0%

• 2016: +17.3%

 

 

 

[Castanza]

22.26% across my accounts

[Xerxes]

Closing the book on 2025. 
 

2025 => 24.38%
2024 => 36.96%
2023 => 24.81%
2022 => -11.48%
2021 => 20.09%
2020 => 11.36%

 

CAGR stands at 21%. 

Unfortunately I only started calculating return consistently in the same way since 2020. From memory i had ok return in the 2010s. 

 

It does not include crypto; and net of all cash contributions. 

 

Crypto gained nothing this year. Flat or down for me. 

 

S&P500 had a gain of 16% in the same period in USD terms; but I believe TSX had a giant 27% return, thanking to mining, gold and banks.

[schin]

2025 - 138.45%

2024 - 41.80%

2023 - 27.10%

2022 - (2.16%)

2021 - 10.05%

2020 - 16.34%

 

As many of you know, I have been mostly concentrated in European bank stocks, but currently rebalancing as tax efficiently as possible. No bitcoin, no Mag 7, no Fairfax or Berkshire, generally no tech during this period.

 

Edited January 2 by schin

[Saluki]

I have 3 accounts, and these are the returns for my main account. They were better in my smaller accounts, but I'm not going to bother to add them together and average them, because I'm not here soliciting for clients so the exact numbers don't matter. I'd just like to provide a data point that it's not impossible to outperform the index over time. That you don't have to be a wall street pro or have a hedge fund pedigree to do do well picking stocks. And that you don't have to invest in crypto or things like Tesla or NVDA to beat the index. Traditional value investing still works. And people who still worship the old gods are not worshipping false idols. 

 

My 1 Year Return:

Cumulative time weighted return

29.11%

Select to view help aboutHow is this cumulative time weighted returnvalue calculated?

S&P 500 TR View selected benchmark index help

 

17.88%

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My 3 Year Return

Cumulative time weighted return

109.40%

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S&P 500 TR View selected benchmark index help

 

86.11%

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My 5 Year Return

Cumulative time weighted return

147.95%

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S&P 500 TR View selected benchmark index help

 

96.16%

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How did you guys do this year? 

[gfp]

 

[Saluki]

This is in my main account. I'm up a lot more in my smaller account, which is a double, but mainly because of one stock, Kraken Robotics, which had a great year. 

 

29.11%

Select to view help aboutHow is this cumulative time weighted returnvalue calculated?

S&P 500 TR View selected benchmark index help

 

17.88%

Select a benchmark index

 

 

[Longnose]

2025 = 42.32% 

 

Went pretty overweight in google around July with 60 / 40 split between shares and options. Which carried the overperformance.

[gary17]

9 hours ago, schin said:

2025 - 138.45%

2024 - 41.80%

2023 - 27.10%

2022 - (2.16%)

2021 - 10.05%

2020 - 16.34%

 

As many of you know, I have been mostly concentrated in European bank stocks, but currently rebalancing as tax efficiently as possible. No bitcoin, no Mag 7, no Fairfax or Berkshire, generally no tech during this period.

 

 

This is amazing performance !

 

Gary

[Pellom]

+21.77% across all managed accounts. 

 

I sold out of Ulta and Alphabet too quickly. Nintendo was a big winner, as were Markel and Coca-Cola FEMSA. 

 

I had some trading issues with IBKR in their non-professional advisor offering that threw much of my reporting off for the year. I think I've got it figured out heading into 2026. 

[This2ShallPass]

My yearly returns and cagr over 1, 3 and 5 years.

 

2025 35%

2024 13%

2023 46%

2022 -16%

2021 29%

 

	CAGR (My returns)	CAGR (S&P 500, 1.5% divi)	Difference
1 Year	35.18%	17.90%	17.28%
3 Year	30.30%	23.13%	7.17%
5 Year	20.86%	16.71%	4.15%

* CAGR is really XIRR (for both my pf and S&P 500) assuming similar cashflows.

 

Mistakes:

• Fannie / Freddie commons - I bought in 2022 as lottery ticket (<1% position). When they started going up, got out ~$5. Sometimes should let luck do it's thing. The position was not core, intent was lottery then let it run. Don't overanalyze. 
• Eurobank - Tier 1 position held for few years. At ~$1.85 sold half position as I worried about valuation. I'm still a bit torn on this decision - banking is not an area of expertise for me, but chalking this to a mistake as I unnecessarily interrupted compounding when the company was executing well.
• Hedging / Options - I continue hedging and using options for downside protection. I'm careful on sizing (~1-2%), still something to correct as these rarely work. It gives me peace of mind so I don't do anything dumb in my core portfolio! But might be time to ween off the crutches. Hoping this won't show up in my 2026 update:)

Positives:

• TSMC - quickly built TSMC into a Tier 1 position from scratch this year (bought in size during the April tariff tantrum). 
• Execution — the single most important thing that’s helped me over the past 5 years hasn’t been great ideas, but boring execution. I started writing my high level portfolio thoughts down weekly, and in 2025 I got more deliberate about being specific on what I wanted to do and actually following through. It forced discipline. A couple examples: increasing Tencent / Prosus early in the year and rebalancing the portfolio. 
• Fairfax trading position - Added 25% to my already big stake when it hit <$1600 before earnings. Index addition was an unexpected bonus.
   

Thank you to all the board members, being part of this community has definitely made me a better investor! Wishing everyone a great 2026.

 

[villainx]

I'm solidly at around the SP500 range +~17%.  Has been uphill battle past few years as one 30% position has been largely underperforming, this year up 8%.  It's also mostly in my taxable account so ... I'm kinda stuck unless I pay the tax piper.   Not making excuses, just really not sure how to fix this other than really execute with the remainder of the portfolio.

[John Hjorth]

21 minutes ago, villainx said:

I'm solidly at around the SP500 range +~17%.  Has been uphill battle past few years as one 30% position has been largely underperforming, this year up 8%.  It's also mostly in my taxable account so ... I'm kinda stuck unless I pay the tax piper.   Not making excuses, just really not sure how to fix this other than really execute with the remainder of the portfolio.

 

@villainx,

 

One of these days, among future January days, there will will be a day, where 8% for the year just passed is just great.

 

Nothing wrong with feeling the 'locked-in syndrom' because of potential, by now deferred taxes. You just have to revert it, to that what you're doing, actually works! 

[whatstheofficerproblem]

I am one of the 4 with >120%. Made some timely good bets in 2025 from MGNI, IREN to LQDA. All that put me at 300%, though the amount I started with already small. Waiting for bonus so I can yolo on LQDA.

[John Hjorth]

1 minute ago, whatstheofficerproblem said:

I am one of the 4 with >120%. Made some timely good bets in 2025 from MGNI, IREN to LQDA. All that put me at 300%, though the amount I started with already small. Waiting for bonus so I can yolo on LQDA.

 

To me, @whatstheofficerproblem,

 

You simply need another dresser for your hair [ref. your CofB&F avatar], I mean the hair on your head, btw! -I mean, brushed back would be much better for you, I think!

[whatstheofficerproblem]

5 hours ago, John Hjorth said:

You simply need another dresser for your hair [ref. your CofB&F avatar], I mean the hair on your head, btw! -I mean, brushed back would be much better for you, I think!

 

, appreciate the advice John. The avatar is the only place I have hair left. In reality, I am losing it quick. Male Pattern Baldness is the enemy of humanity.

[This2ShallPass]

9 hours ago, whatstheofficerproblem said:

I am one of the 4 with >120%. Made some timely good bets in 2025 from MGNI, IREN to LQDA. All that put me at 300%, though the amount I started with already small. Waiting for bonus so I can yolo on LQDA.

Congratulations! 300% in one year is amazing.

 

[whatstheofficerproblem]

7 hours ago, This2ShallPass said:

Congratulations! 300% in one year is amazing.

 

 
Thank you. My biggest regret to date is selling IREN at $12 after buying at $5. Could have been a 15x name.

[John Hjorth]

12 hours ago, whatstheofficerproblem said:

, appreciate the advice John. The avatar is the only place I have hair left. In reality, I am losing it quick. Male Pattern Baldness is the enemy of humanity.

 

 I was referring to you running in the last lane with 300 percent, likely also the side window in the door down, the hood, folding top down, the elbow resting on the door, then an approprite hairstyle is also needed to the mach the Ray-Bans!  

 

-'The three S'es', you now, right?  : 'Charm, Self-esteem and Cool hair'! 

 

 

- - - o 0 o - - 

 

Being bald or semi-bald isen't a curse, I think. I think most women don't really care about it. And it leaves more area for kisses!  - And I don't know anyone who like to have hair in their snacks, btw!