I don’t have to tell you that it has not been a fun time for stock market investors. How bad is it out there? We now have a bear market within a bear market. So far this year, a diversified portfolio such as the Sleepy Mini Portfolio with an 80% allocation to equities would have lost about 17% and we are barely past the first week of March! Here’s how the portfolio looks as of February 28, 2009:
TDB909 – Canadian Bonds – $987.62 (21.9%)
TDB900 – Canadian Equities – $927.90 (20.6%)
TDB902 – US Equities – $1,287.77 (28.6%)
TDB911 – International Equities – $1,299.38 (28.9%)
Total – $4,502.66
Total Invested – $6,000
While it does feel like throwing money into a meat grinder, I do know one thing: if there is one thing that I’ve learn from bitter experience it is that I can never trust myself to get the timing right. In that spirit, it is time to put another $1,000 into the Sleepy Mini Portfolio and rebalance it back to the target asset allocation – 20% bonds, 20% Canadian stocks, 30% U.S. stocks and 30% International stocks. That is what I’ve been doing in our personal accounts and whether it is foolhardy or wise, only time will tell. We’ll use the rebalancing spreadsheet to figure out how much of each holding should be purchased to bring the portfolio to target:
Transactions:
TDB909 – TD Canadian Bond Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $112.91.
TDB900 – TD Canadian Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $172.63.
TDB902 – TD US Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $363.03.
TDB911 – TD International Index (e-Series) – Buy units for $351.42.
Investing that feels more like having a hand stuck in a meat grinder!
