. This is an amazing story about the power of a bull market.
First, a look at my investments (not my net worth) for the past 5 years:
Jan 2009 $315,226
Jan 2010 $434,872
Jan 2011 $486,302
Jan 2012 $461,436
Jan 2013 $519,228
Jan 2014 $587,831
June 29, 2014: $642,770
If I hadn't mentioned "bull market," you may have looked at these numbers and thought wow, she's a great saver. Truth be told, I was not only not saving any money until 2014, but I was also spending sizable wads of cash on some major home improvements (and a new car).
So despite FIVE YEARS of not saving any money, I managed to more than double my net worth!
I was laid off in September 2009, and immediately after that I stopped contributing to savings of any sort. I did, however, complete an already started screened porch-into-sun room renovation and spent $6,176 doing so.
Then in May, 2011, I plunked down $14,000 for vinyl siding and in October of that year, I threw $17,000 at a mortgage prepayment, eager to pay the darn thing off. (I finally did pay it off in 2012.)
In January 2013 I paid off a pesky sewer loan for $2900, and in May, I spent $20,000 cash (no car loan for me) on a new Honda Civic. That summer, I spent another $5,800 for a new roof.
I didn't restart saving until January 2014.
My asset allocation is pretty plain vanilla. I mostly use low cost index funds with Vanguard and T. Rowe Price in the following allocation:
Domestic stock: 45%
Small Cap 12%
Large Cap 33%
Bonds 23%
International Stock15%
REIT 7%
Cash 10%
Total 100%
An OMG bull market
June 29th, 2014 at 02:05 am
June 29th, 2014 at 03:54 am 1404010492
June 29th, 2014 at 04:25 pm 1404055531
June 29th, 2014 at 04:26 pm 1404055600
June 29th, 2014 at 07:54 pm 1404068081
June 29th, 2014 at 07:55 pm 1404068157
June 29th, 2014 at 08:57 pm 1404071822
June 30th, 2014 at 01:05 am 1404086707
July 2nd, 2014 at 10:15 pm 1404335719
July 3rd, 2014 at 06:16 pm 1404407797
July 5th, 2014 at 01:40 pm 1404564054
July 5th, 2014 at 01:43 pm 1404564221
That being said, I feel a little helpless in defending myself from the next downturn/correction. It will come, at some point. I did make my portfolio a bit more conservative, but I still have 65% of assets in stock. I did divert more money to a short term bond fund ($18K) and a short term investment grade bond fund ($18K) , and put another $8,000 of cash into a fixed rate CD. Just hope I have enough ballast to keep me steady in a storm.