Portfolio Performance: -15.1% for 2008
Click here to view the spreadsheet containing all disclosures for my complete equity portfolio, including initial entry points, YTD returns, total returns, etc.
THE ENLIGHTENED-AMERICAN PORTFOLIO SPREADSHEET
- Enlightened-American Portfolio: -15.1% YTD (including dividends)
- DJIA: -33.8%
- Nasdaq: -40.5%
- S&P 500: -38.5%
- DJ WIlshire 5000: -38.7%
- Russell 2000 (smallcap): -34.8%
As you can see, the portfolio finished the year down 15% on the year. Frankly, I’m not in any kind of mood to summarize the year’s performance or go over my mistakes at the moment. Most likely, I will publish my mistakes of ’08 later (readers can review my 2007 mistakes here).
In the meantime, I’ve spent much of my vacation catching up on some reading (and even managed to sneak in a non-financial book). Some quick recommendations:
Despite having a sizable stack of books on my shelves waiting to be read, I regularly hit the libraries and can’t seem to help bringing home a book or four, most of which I won’t get to. I just happened to pick up this book because of the title. It’s always been my position that, for their situation, most people overestimate the usefulness of so-called retirement investment accounts. Specifically, the lack of freedom, flexibility and liquidity is a heavier price than most people realize.
Nevertheless, picking up a book based solely on the title leads to low expectations and in fact, my expectations were so low that I took no notes. Mistake. The authors crystallize many of the same sentiments that started me on my investment journey. Their basic premises is that mainstream America, i.e. not the top 10% of the income scale, have been propogandized to readily accept the financial industry’s roadmap for retirement, a roadmap that has been formulated for the benefit of corporations and Wall Street, not for the actual retirees. Not only have regular folks swallowed the bait whole but the moneyed class, through lobbying and political lackeys, managed to structurally imbed these imbalances into the system, all the while touting the primacy of the individual, the entrepreneur and the self-made man (anybody need a bailout?).
I don’t agree with everything in here but there is much food for thought. Of course, what gives the book considerable heft is that it was written in 2002 and recent events have borne out exactly as they called it. They even discuss the repeal of Glass-Steagall and the forgotten lessons of history to be relearned as a result. The only prediction that hasn’t come true (yet) is the rise of interest rates but I suspect that’s coming.
While I imagine many readers will be put off by the heavy pro-union vibe, the authors are not necessarily Democratic apologists. In fact, they reserve most of their criticisms for the Clinton Administration. Nevertheless, there’s a heavy sympathetic progressive vibe that conservatives will find troubling and may allow to cloud the ideas in this book. But readers know I am no fan of ideology and those who still cling to “free-market” primacy must acknowledge the myth of that there was ever a free market to begin wiht.
In a case of too little, too late, I finally got around to Einhorn’s ode to Allied Capital. While I found the non-ALD portions of the book to be very interesting, Einhorn spends most of the book digging (and digging and digging and …) into the accounting and corporate tomfoolery at Allied. Investors of American Capital will recognize some of the same moves, especially the pricing of debt at par while writing off equity.
What can I say, I’m a glutton for punishment.
I did get around to one non-finance book and this was it. Pollan lays out the case against the Western diet as the root of most of America’s health issues, past, present and future. While the catchy slogan of “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.” may seem a bit pithy, it makes perfect sense after you read the first part of his book. Highly recommended for people interested in food or health — isn’t that just about everyone?
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