Feb 28th, 2008
Asset Allocation Continues to Carry My Portfolio Along
This post was written before the February 28, 2008 stock market opening:
The Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund that makes up about 1/2 of my retirement portfolio has continues to have issues; given that my portfolio had shown a relatively solid positive gain for February to date, I thought that perhaps the fund had increased in value–and it did, but just a bit, up about .5% (yes, less than a percentage point). The Vanguard Total Bond Market Index that represents about 1/4 of my retirement portfolio was actually down a bit, about 1.5%. However, the T. Rowe Price International Discovery Fund (yes, the one I want to replace with the Vanguard Total International Stock Index Fund), which also represents about 1/4 of my retirement portfolio, was up a very nice 3.5% so far in February. For comparison, the Vanguard Total International stock Index Fund was up 3.7% for the same period. Granted, these are ridiculously short amounts of time to be doing comparisons on, although I will also note that while both international funds are down for the year, the Vanguard fund is down less by about a percentage point (negative 8.55% vs. negative 9.61%).
Once again, asset allocation–investing in different types of markets to try to reduce risk–pays off by providing limited exposure in different areas. The international market once again outpaces the U.S. market as well as the bond market, helping to improve my portfolio’s performance again this month.
