Pulling info from the Oracle of Omaha

Just paraphrasing from this web article


Short and sweet, just the bullet points here

• Treat stocks like businesses not tickers
• Don't invest with 'borrowed' money
• Avoid high-fee investments

That is it

Go read the original for more details

Lost Focus

Focus had been lost in this endeavor.
Moving back to the Midwest to assist the wife with her parents aging.

Article I just read.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-13/the-old-are-eating-the-young

Coming up on the End of 2015

So here on 12/26/2015, after pulling $1600 out of the plan to pay to become a Real Estate Agent here is what the account at Vanguard is sitting at right now.

$11,62.28 right now. This is after the market tanking a few times this year and with the withdrawal.
Overall not a bad ending to the year and I anticipate a much better year in 2016.

I broke $11k in my Retirement Account in Total Worth in 2.25 years

Yes I did move about $1.5K into it to start it off, but from February 2013 till May 2015

My Vanguard Account on 05/09/2015 shows the following information

Month	Net transactions	Portfolio gains/loss	Earnings	Overall change
May 2015	$0.00	$252.92	$0.00	$252.92

So right now my totals are

Beginning balance	$0.00
Net transactions	$10,041.76
Investment return	$979.09
Ending balance	$11,020.85

Which makes my overall Rate of Return as 9.75% since February 2013. So I am going to refine a little to break 10% and keep a close eye on it all. 

Now in my Wife's Account, not in Vanguard, I have not been so focused so by sticking with a Targeted Retirement Fund up until just very recently she has been obtaining the following rates of return. 

Date		Rate of Return
05-08-2015		1.14%
12-31-2014		6.04%
12-31-2013		-1.92%
12-31-2012		4.34%
12-31-2011		8.05%
12-31-2010		6.10%
12-31-2009		0.08%

Now that I am taking a very active hand in our funds, using advice I am pulling from multiple Trading Websites as well as the tips (Primary Source) found in the book Money: Master The Game by Tony Robbins, I am adjusting what her investments are to include also Large Cap and Index Funds to assist in diversification. 

Some decent rates of return, but not consistent. So that is my first priority for her account, as well as increasing the rate of returns for her.

So onto more research and diversification. 

Coming up are what I have in my account right now (Only Vanguard Options as that is where my Employer is enrolled at).

Affiliate Link to the book 

6.4% 1 Year Rate of Return

As of 05/03/2105 my overall activity is

Since inception activity summary
Beginning balance	$0.00
Net transactions	$10,041.76
Investment return	$847.50
Ending balance	$10,889.26

So from Feb 2013 till May 2015 (A total of 26 months) my portfolio lost value in 9 months out of the 26. A total overall loss rate of 34%. 

So an overall total of 6.4% rate of return over the last 12 months. 

So time to adjust the contributions to bring that rate of return up closer to the 10% that I want to realize for the rest of my life

More later

Where it is right now Investing Strategy Wise

The investing sites, for employer 401(k) always seem to have tools and quizzes to assist in how someone invests.

For the current one I am on (Vanguard) it has some tools to help someone decide, based on answering some questions, the mix of investments that matches what is answered.

So I did that questionnaire and it came back saying I should invest thus

Copied from Vanguard:

Here's your recommended investment mix:
30.0% Stocks
 70.0% Bonds
 0.0% Short-term reserves


And here is where I am actually at
Your current investment mix
How existing money in your account is invested
 94.8% Stocks
 5.1% Bonds
 0.1% Short-term reserves


A huge difference

So yesterday I found a tool in the site that shows how, historically, my mix would have done, the Portfolio Analysis

This is total bonus gold as it gives me a good, theoretical, idea how the future may progress. There has been TONS of volatility in the past so this is a good thing for me.

Copied from Vanguard:
Risk/return allocation analysis
This is how a model asset allocation similar to yours performed over a historical time frame.

Historical risk/return (1926–2014)
Average return 10.1%
Best year 51.6% (1933)
Worst year –40.7% (1931)
Years with a loss 25 of 89 (28.1%)
info These returns are based on broad market indexes; the returns of your holdings might have been more volatile.


The only allocation analysis that performed better in the historical was a fully stock allocation and it had an Average return of 10.2%.
Not a large difference and I like the fact I have diversity beyond 100% stock in there. Not a huge amount of diversity at this moment, but my allocations are now set to diversify and have more index funds in them than even a year ago.

Go see if your investment website gives you something similar to analyze how you are and could be doing, and so help yourself out.

Welcome to my Journey to over a Million Net Worth

Target Date January 1, 2023
Goal: 1 Million Dollars in Networth
Path being Taken: Investing, Trading, Part Time Writing, Part Time Job, and a Full Time Job

Welcome to all that pass this way.

This is the record of my journey to break a Million in Net Worth within 8 years (Hint by the time I reach Age 60).

So this will be a record of my successes and the inevitable setbacks, as well as a progress report to keep myself on track and focused.

Note: I also plan to use this as a teaching/coaching/educational tool for those reading along with me so hopefully it will inspire and aid them in their own financial quests.


So Why A Million in Net Worth?
As good a number as any. When I reach it by age 60 then shortly after that my Retirement Check courtesy of the US Naval Reserves kicks in, eligible for Social Security a few years later, my wife is 4 years older so we can claim at similar times. To supplement what will be in our funds then, both our retirements along with what I am going to generate between now and then.

Where I am right now

In my Employers Fund here are the relevant stats covering 2.25 years working there

Beginning balance	$0.00
Net transactions	$9,953.79
Investment return	$849.50
Ending balance	$10,803.29

Comes out to be a nice little 8.5% Return over 2 years.With a little more diversification I figure I will be able to average at least 10% in an overall rate.
Note: Will be fully Vested in approximately 3.75 years at which I am estimating about 21,000 total at current rates.

My wife has more in her 401 but a much lower Rate of Return based on the funds available in her plan to select from. Best case there is almost 2%, no where near an acceptable number, and little that can be done about it at this time.

What Experiences I bring to the Table in this Endeavor:
Family: Both of my parents had been in Life Insurance, Real Estate, and Advising. My father ended up in Investment Advising and my mother is still in the Mental Health counseling field.

My youngest brother is working at one of the major financial firms, call center support of day traders and similar investors. He is sporting multiple financial services licenses.

Myself: I have done Career Counseling, not the same but some items can port over, as well as HR and Payroll, Benefits, Plan Coordination at a prior employer, and a very vested interest in success. I currently have a 4-40 RCSR Property Casualty license and working on several others in conjunction with this.


So I look forward to taking anyone interested along on this trip. I will post decisions, reference materials in making my decisions, wins and losses, as well as lessons learned.

Lets Go for It,

TadK


PS: The name of this blog comes from my initial deposit into my new brokerage account. I had $28 available so I started it off with that amount. Still need to exceed $3,000 to start placing my trades, but it has begun.