11-04-2013, 12:20 PM
I track my YTD performance, but really pay little attention to it any more. After all, saying that my goal is to gain at least 8% or stating a goal of at least out performing the S&P500 is pretty meaningless. I can make my call, invest the dollars, and what comes, comes with probably about equal chance of meeting such stated goals.
My current target is to at least replace any distributions that are taken during the year. That can happen through capital gains, dividend and interest income, and fresh money being put into play. If the market treats me badly, then I'll just try to put some of the distributions back into the pot, so that there is no net draw down.
As long as I'm able to follow my plan of adding the social security checks to the investment portfolio, I'm expecting each year for the nest egg to grow, regardless of portfolio performance and regardless of distributions. For me that is all that really matters, having the nest egg grow so that the dividend stream grows, hopefully growing to the extent that inflation is mostly offset.
So bottom line for me for this year simply boils down to how the closing NAV of December 2012 compares to the closing NAV of December 2013. The investing goals will only be used to help tweak my various strategies.
My current target is to at least replace any distributions that are taken during the year. That can happen through capital gains, dividend and interest income, and fresh money being put into play. If the market treats me badly, then I'll just try to put some of the distributions back into the pot, so that there is no net draw down.
As long as I'm able to follow my plan of adding the social security checks to the investment portfolio, I'm expecting each year for the nest egg to grow, regardless of portfolio performance and regardless of distributions. For me that is all that really matters, having the nest egg grow so that the dividend stream grows, hopefully growing to the extent that inflation is mostly offset.
So bottom line for me for this year simply boils down to how the closing NAV of December 2012 compares to the closing NAV of December 2013. The investing goals will only be used to help tweak my various strategies.
Alex