Apr 23rd, 2008
March Madness: How’d My Portfolio Do?
Yes, March is long over, but the analysis is not. As we take yet another look at my retirement portfolio, which continued to struggle as the market as a whole has this year, we see that the ship might be righting itself.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund which, as a reminder, is about 50% of my total portfolio, was down a small bit in March, just a hair over 1%. The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund was up a hair, under .3% (yes, three tenths of a percent). Finally, the T. Rowe Price International Discovery Fund was down, close to 2%, for the month of March.
All of these are very small numbers, matching the rather small period of time we’re looking at. If anything, it looks like it’s possible that the bleeding may have stopped and that the downward tumble the market’s been in for a few months may be reversing itself; given the (so far!) strong results we’ve seen in April, I’m hoping that the bad times are behind us–for awhile–and there’s good times in the here and now. And that’s no April Fool’s joke!
