Well its been roughly a month since this here blog said hello to the world. I’ve promised to provide updates on our journey to FI along the way. You can always check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page Anyways, without further adieu, here is how we did in December:
Net Worth: Up $10,347 (3.4% growth…niiice)
Portfolio Balance: Up $4,463 (1.9%)
How’d we get here?
57% of the net worth gain is due to debt payoff. December was the final month of our student loan pay-down effort… and I am happy to say that puppy is toast! We made a strong final push and knocked it out the third week of the month.
The remaining gains (43%) are a combination of market performance/dividends ($3,417… thanks Mr. Market!) and contributions ($1,046).
Top Performers:
- Our Joint Account with Edward Jones (All Stock) – Up 2.8%
- Our Vanguard Accounts (Roughly 86% stocks/14% Bonds) – Up 1.93-2.34%
Dogs:
- The remaining Edward Jones accounts (73% Stocks/27% Bonds & Alternatives) – Up 1.04-1.71%
Thoughts
Not too surprising given the recent market performance and the variations in allocations between the accounts. Shockingly, (read strong sarcasm) the account with the highest fees ranks dead last. I’m keeping a sharp watch on that one. This is a trend that I’ve noticed going back at least a few months. It’s been lagging my low-fee index funds by about 3% and my other actively managed accounts by roughly 0.5%. This particular account is subject to an Assets Under Management Fee (AUM) that is too high for my liking. The rest of the Ed Jones accounts are “grandfathered” and not subject to the AUM. Needless to say, it will be interesting watching how this stacks up. Since this account was set up my investing philosophy has sharply veered towards low fee index funds, so I am predisposed to hate on it to begin with.
The worst part is our monthly contributions were going to this account alone (outside of the work 401k and kids 529 plans). I stopped this nonsense this week. Future monthly contributions will likely go to the Vanguard accounts.
Moving forward, expect to see the majority of the gains shift to the portfolio side as we no longer have debt (besides the mortgages) to kill off. I would also expect to see a bit wilder ride, since Mr. Market can be bi-polar unlike debt payoff, which is guaranteed.