How much have you made/lost in Investments since you started (Roughly)

Dolla

I haven't Invested myself, but would like to see how the rest of you have done

Moneycoach

Hmm, what have you considered?

Pincher

Still don't qualify for an account with Coutts, damn it.

racing_blue

It's a good question. I have read that while stock markets over time have returned 7-8%, private investors as a group achieve less. I'd be interested to see if answers here confirm that with absolute values for profit or loss.

I'm probably far too OCD about these things, and have kept detailed records since I started investing in 2006. There are ins and outs because I emptied my investment accounts once to move house, and withdrew some more money to remortgage. But the net amount transferred into investment accounts (all transfers in, minus all transfers out) = £69,151. And the current balance of investment accounts = £106,828

So if you stopped the clock today, I would be £37,677 in profit.

Whether this is a good return on 10 years "work", while putting up to £100K at risk, I am not sure. Certainly my house did better!

Paradoxically my returns have been worse since I tried to get organised. Most of the profit was from the early years where I bought and sold on a whim. For the last 2 years I have had a disciplined investment strategy, but have seen losses of -1.6% ( about £-1300) in 2014 and -6.2% (about £-6,000) in 2015. In these years my benchmark, Vangaurd's lifestrategy 60:40 advanced 10.2% and 1% respectively. So I guess being well organised does not make you right!

Voyager2002

Well, I started investing in 2010 (tail end of the banking crash) and by mid-2014 I remember telling a friend that my portfolio had increased in value by 25 per cent and so had done much better than my house (which had taken ten years to show similar growth).

However, I did a complete audit and valuation around February this year. Since most of my holdings are in "emerging markets" I was hit badly by the most recent problems. Over all, I am looking at a loss of about half of a percent of the money I put in. Prices have risen since then but I don't have time to repeat the calculation...

JohnRo

I've monitored it, but only in any detail for the last three years or so. It's too complex to go further back and get any meaningful numbers since strategies, accounts, amounts and circumstances have all changed significantly.

My net 'wealth' in cash terms has almost quadrupled since 2006 (when I had an amount I can identify) which sounds ok to me but probably isn't. None of that is down to home ownership though, just moving money around. That's about as detailed as it gets.

atush

I cant say, as almost ALL of my investments have been made monthly, over decades. And with the compounding, returns have been pretty great (even with the dot.com crash, the 9/11 crash the global credit crunch etc).

but in my small stockbroking acct, I have made much more than I have lost (incl a few that went to 0). And these are trades you can see as they were made on one specific date.

Moneycoach

JohnRo wrote: »

I've monitored it, but only in any detail for the last three years or so. It's too complex to go further back and get any meaningful numbers since strategies, accounts, amounts and circumstances have all changed significantly.

My net 'wealth' in cash terms has almost quadrupled since 2006 (when I had an amount I can identify) which sounds ok to me but probably isn't. None of that is down to home ownership though, just moving money around. That's about as detailed as it gets.

John, it sounds as though you have done very well over the past 10 years. Any advice that you would care to share based on this experience?

Moneycoach

atush wrote: »

I cant say, as almost ALL of my investments have been made monthly, over decades. And with the compounding, returns have been pretty great (even with the dot.com crash, the 9/11 crash the global credit crunch etc).

but in my small stockbroking acct, I have made much more than I have lost (incl a few that went to 0). And these are trades you can see as they were made on one specific date.

Atush, any advice.


What were your returns in % terms?


I have been advised to aim for between 10% -20% and that is what my current investments are doing.


One of them is held with a fund manager who has a good 28 year reputation and started his own fund about a year ago and it achieved 16% gross.


I won't say who, but Google could help... This tip is for all...

BananaRepublic

I started over 20 years ago, and my best and earliest invesment has increased by roughly 10% per annum, my worst were more like 6.5%, with one exception, namely a Japan fund which has made about 10% in 15 years. This excludes property. I should have bought a 3 bed house decades ago and rented out some rooms, but who foresaw the extraordinary property rises? Well, some did. Diversify and invest for the long term are my tips.

enthusiasticsaver

I only started investing in January 2015 and the stock market has not done great so this compounded with the fact I invested a lump sum of around £25k in April 2015 when the market was high means an annualised return of 4.18%. Last year it was mainly in negative though and only in recent months have the numbers turned green (positive). I am drip feeding monthly which seems to work better than lump sums. Vanguard LS 60 is the fund I am investing in.