In addition, our year-to-date total decrease is -16.9%.

Reflections on my portfolio this month

September was tough, just like most of 2008. However, instead of looking at the gigantic losses, it helps to focus on the benchmark. I use the Vanguard Target Retirement 2045 Fund. It’s the closest set of indexes to my asset allocation.

The YTD return for the 2045 fund is –18.56%. Compared to my -16.9% decrease, I’m feeling a little better!

September Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Exxon Mobil
• Worst: Home Depot

Mutual Funds

• Best: Vanguard Reit Index
• Worst: Vanguard Emerging Markets Index

My Dollar Plan Review

You might have noticed that I skipped a site review last month. (Actually you probably didn’t.) They’re really just for me to stay accountable to making the site the best site I can for you.

I’m going to combine the site stats with my net worth each month, so I only have to do one update (a trick I stole from Moolanomy). Since I skipped August, I’ll incorporate both August and September here.

Top Articles

Want to know what everyone enjoyed last month? In cased you missed any, here were the top articles written in August and September:

1. 29 Steps I Took to Leave the Workforce at Age 29
2. 15 Tips for Saving Money While You Still Have a Job
3. Myth Busted: $7,500 First Time Home Buyer Tax Credit is Not a Credit
4. Leaving the Workforce at 29: Where Do I Go From Here?
5. Ideas for Frugal and Easy Cooking
6. Digging Out of Dirt and Debt
7. 7 Sneaky Ways Your Health Insurance Can Save You Money

Site Statistics

• Visitors: 43,787 in September; 27,625 in August (58% increase).
• Page views: 115,352 in September; 57,246 in August (102% increase).
• Subscribers: 1190 at the end of September; 951 at the end of August (25% increase).

I reached my goal of 1,000 subscribers on September 6! Thanks and welcome to the new subscribers!

Top Referrals

Here are the sites that sent the most referrals to My Dollar Plan during August and September. Thanks for the referrals and be sure to check out their great sites.

1. Get Rich Slowly
2. Simple Mom
3. Million Dollar Journey
4. Frugal Dad
5. Free Money Finance
6. Generation X Finance
7. The Digerati Life
8. Wallet Pop
9. Lazy Man and Money
10. The Wisdom Journal

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In addition, our year-to-date total decrease is -11.9%.

Reflections on my portfolio this month

August was a critical point for our portfolio. In the future, it will be the month that I draw an arrow to noting that I took out the first of many retirement withdrawals to fund my new lifestyle. Along with a down market, you’ll notice our portfolio heading the wrong direction lately!

I was going to calculate how much of the decrease is due to making withdrawals, and how much is due to market return, but I decided it didn’t actually matter at this point. At the end of the year, I’ll do that to compare my return to the benchmarks, but it’s not something I want to get caught up in each month.

August Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Aqua America
• Worst: Exxon Mobil

Mutual Funds

• Best: Vanguard Small Cap Value Index
• Worst: Vanguard Emerging Markets Index

Previous 2008 Net Worth Updates

• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008

Check out how others did in August

• 2008 Financial Status / Net Worth Update at My Money Blog
• August 2008 Site and Net Worth Review (+1.72%) at Moolanomy
• Personal Balance Sheet, August 2008: Net Worth +0.43% at One Caveman’s Financial Journey
• August 2008 Net Worth Update (+1.27%) at Million Dollar Journey
• August net worth report at Consumerism Commentary
• Net Worth: August 2008 at Mapgirl’s Fiscal Challenge
• First of month net worth update at Step 3
• Net Worth Update: August 2008 at No Debt Plan

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In addition, our year-to-date return is -7.7%.

Reflections on my portfolio this month

I just moved a portion of our portfolio to a CD ladder. I just did that last week, so it isn’t the likely explanation for the significant drop this month.

In addition, due to the need for access to cash, I’m adjusting our asset allocation even further. I’ll write about the changes soon.

June Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Exxon Mobil
• Worst: Home Depot

Mutual Funds

• Best: BGI US Debt Index Funds (Bond Index) – last month’s worst
• Worst: Vanguard REIT Index

Previous 2008 Net Worth Updates

• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008

Check out how others did in June

• June 2008 Financial Status / Net Worth Update at My Money Blog
• Net Worth Update – June 2008 at Lazy Man and Money
• June 2008 Net Worth Update (+2.09%) at Million Dollar Journey

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In addition, our year-to-date return is now only -1.7%.

Reflections on my portfolio this month

Since I decided not to take the early retirement my pension plan had a significant drop. Luckily some of our other investments made up for that.

Last month, Nickel wanted to know:

Do you have data going back through the bubble burst? Or does that pre-date your investing?

Since I started investing in 1996, I was working on putting together a graph for 1996-2002. Unfortunately, it looks like all the old data is stuck in an old version of Microsoft Money somewhere in storage!

Maybe someday when I’m feeling adventurous I’ll try to dig it out, because now I’m interested to see what it would look like!

May Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Harley Davidson
• Worst: Aqua America

Mutual Funds

• Best: Spartan Extended Market Index
• Worst: BGI US Debt Index Funds (Bond Index)

Previous 2008 Net Worth Updates:

• April 2008
• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008

Check out how others did in May:

• Personal Balance Sheet, May 2008: Net Worth +42.15%! at One Caveman’s Financial Journey
• May 2008 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth at The Sun’s Financial Diary
• Personal Balance Sheet, May 2008 ($158,793, +7.8%) at Consumerism Commentary
• May 2008 Net Worth Update (+3.12%) at Million Dollar Journey
• Net Worth Update – May 2008 at Lazy Man and Money
• Net Worth for May 2008 – I Feel So Stimulated at My Family’s Money

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During April our portfolio increased 3.8% and brings us to 1031% total increase since the beginning of our dollar plan.

April Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Exxon
• Worst: Procter & Gamble

Mutual Funds

• Best: Vanguard Emerging Markets Index (Was the worst last month!)
• Worst: BGI US Debt Index Funds (Bond Index)

Action Plan

I’m still debating how to handle the change in my pension plan. It will affect our dollar plan either way.

Previous 2008 Net Worth Updates:

• March 2008
• February 2008
• January 2008

Check out how others did in March:

• April 2008 Score Card — Part I: Net Worth at The Sun’s Financial Diary
• Net Worth Review at Single Guy Money
• Anyone Loving the Market in April? at Free Money Finance
• Personal Balance Sheet, April 2008 ($151,079, +5.3%) at Consumerism Commentary
• April 2008 Net Worth Update (+1.65%) at Million Dollar Journey
• Net Worth Update – April 2008 at Lazy Man and Money

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Our total percent increase since the beginning of our dollar plan is 972.7%.

March Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Paychex
• Worst: Fifth Third Bank

Mutual Funds

• Best: Vanguard REIT Index
• Worst: Vanguard Emerging Markets Index

Action Plan

I plan to finally sell the Fifth Third Stock. I have consolidated the certificates into one account. In addition, I’m considering giving our kids the rest of the individual stocks. It will depend on the final result of our taxes after the recharacterization.

Previous Net Worth Updates:

• February 2008
• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007

Check out how others did in March:

• Consumerism Commentary
• Single Guy Money
• My Money Blog
• The Sun’s Financial Diary
• Million Dollar Journey
• My Family’s Money
• Stupid Money Hacks

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The total percent increase (not to be confused with total return) of our portfolio since the beginning of our dollar plan is 989.6%, dipping under 1000% for the first time since last July.

The Good News
Despite the declining balance we have a few items that are worth celebrating:

• Our 457 plan lowered the expenses. For our current balance it will result in .03% less in fees. As our balance grows the savings will be even larger because they also implemented a cap on the fees.
• Our decision to add bonds to our portfolio during our overhaul last fall is helping offset some of the decline.
• Now that I’ve returned to work I will resume contributions to my retirement account. It will now be directed towards my Roth 401k.

February Performance Highlights

Individual Stocks

• Best: Exxon Mobil continues to lead the pack.
• Worst: Fifth Third Bank. I’m ready to sell this stock and take the loss. It took forever to get our certificates added to the DRIP plan so that we could sell everything in one transaction.

Mutual Funds

• Best: Vanguard Emerging Markets Index
• Worst: EAFE Index Fund

Here’s some of the YTD returns for the US Market for comparison:

• The S&P 500 is down -9.38% for the year.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down -7.53% for the year.

Action Plan

While it’s disheartening to see our portfolio drop by over $25,000, I’m still comfortable with our decline. Our contributions are very small in relative value to our portfolio value at this point so there isn’t much I can actively do to change the impact of the market. I am comfortable with our asset allocation and plan to sit tight, as we are investing for the long term.

Previous Net Worth Updates:

• January 2008
• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007

Check out how others did in February:

• Single Guy Money
• Blogging Away Debt
• The Simple Dollar
• Million Dollar Journey
• Moolanomy
• The Honest Dollar
• Debt Free Revolution

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Factors

Since the total market was down in January, so is our portfolio as we use a total market approach to investing. As always, 2 plans in our portfolio have not reported results yet. I have updated those accounts for December 2007, which dropped the year end results for 2007 to 18.8%.

I received a match in my 401k plan in January, although it was very small due to poor 2007 performance at my company and a lower amount to match on because I have been on leave since last fall.

Finally, we have made very few contributions to our accounts in January. Those should pick up in February once I return to work and we begin some of our investment snowflaking.

January Performance Highlights

Stocks

• Best: Home Depot 10.28%
• Worst: Harley Davidson -15.05%

Mutual Funds

• Best: Vanguard Reit Index 0.64%
• Worst: Vanguard Emerging Markets Index -10.72%

Action Plan

It’s still very early in the year to worry about any declines in our portfolio. However, I’m working on our 2008 financial goals (which you’ll see later this week) and I will be including at least one initiative to contribute some additional funds to our investments.

Previous Net Worth Updates:

• December 2007
• November 2007
• October 2007

Check out how others did in January:

• Single Guy Money
• Blogging Away Debt
• The Simple Dollar
• Million Dollar Journey
• Moolanomy
• The Honest Dollar

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Our total net worth change since January 2003 is 1062.5% just missing our dollar plan goal of 1080%.

Highlights

Our top three individual stocks held all year were:

• Exxon Mobil
• Procter & Gamble
• Johnson & Johnson

We have been slowly eliminating all individually held stocks with only 9 remaining. I would like to eliminate these positions in 2008. (Exxon may be the sole exception). I would prefer to use all index funds and limit individual stocks to our holding in my investment club.

Our top three mutual fund sectors held all year were:

• EAFE International Index Fund
• Investment Club
• Total Bond Fund

This list is somewhat misleading as most funds were exchanged when we adjusted our asset allocation. I thought I would list them anyways.

Why We Were Short

The Total Stock Market index returned 5.49% for 2007. It accounts for a large portion of our portfolio. In addition, I have been on maternity leave since the birth of our second son in September. I haven’t been contributing to my company plan since then as the majority of my leave is unpaid. While it isn’t very significant in terms of our overall portfolio, every little bit counts!

Accessible Net Worth

Only our investment accounts are included in these updates. I exclude home equity and assets because I do not plan to convert them to an income stream in the future. I refer to the modified number as accessible net worth so as not to confuse it with a true net worth (total assets – total liabilities).

Estimates

One fund does not update until about 2 months late with deposits reported 4 months late. In addition, six DRIP plans have not updated. I have estimated these positions with conservative numbers. The total returns will be adjusted as they report in future monthly updates.

Action Plan

While I’m slightly disappointed that we didn’t meet our goals for the year we are close enough that I don’t feel the need to make adjustments to the plan or our 2008 goals. I may consider adding some additional funds to one of the accounts towards the end of 2008 once I see how the upcoming year plays out.

Previous Net Worth Updates:

• November 2007
• October 2007

See how other personal finance writers did in 2007 (I will link to them as their net worth updates are posted throughout the day):

• Rocket Finance
• Gather Little by Little
• Cash Money Life
• Mrs. Micah
• Single Guy Money
• Being Frugal
• Paid Twice
• My Two Dollars
• Moolanomy
• Credit Withdrawal
• Debt Free Revolution
• Plonkee

How did your investments do in 2007?

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