Nov 5th, 2008
September was bad…
September was bad, bad, bad in the stock market. How bad was it for my portfolio? Let’s take a look.
The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index (VTSMX) was down a nasty 9.23% for the month. Despite that dismal performance, it was stellar compared to the T. Rowe Price International Discovery Fund (PRIDX), down a horrific 15% for the month! Even the rock steady Vanguard Total Bond Market Index (VBMFX) was down 1.4% but continued to pay its very nice dividend.
The total portfolio returned a negative 8.09% for the month! This would be bad for the year, but is positively horrendous for a month. However, notice that the total performance was better than the total stock market (reflected by the included VTSMX), even though most of the portfolio is split between it and the international fund–again, hooray for bonds and asset allocation! Of course, as you can see, September was bad, but tomorrow we’ll see that it could get worse…
