This has been on my "to do" list since paying estimated taxes in mid-June, and I finally had the time and inclination to sit down and make an attept at it. I'm still in the process of figuring out exactly what to look at in these quarterly reviews. As usual, I find that I end up spending the majority of the time creating a new spreadsheet and manually typing in details that I later decide aren't really what I should be looking at.
I've been slowly making my way through Morningstar Guide to Mutual Funds, and taking notes on each chapter. I find it to be far better than the "learning" information on the website, which seems to be generic handwaving.
So in an attempt to understand what I currently own, I created a spreadsheet wtih the following columns (picked from my notes from the book):
* fund
* symbol
* account
* style
* stars
* sectors
* % assets in top 10
* asset allocation
* benchmark
* trailing annualized return (3, 5, 10 year)
* benchmark return
* 3 yr standard deviation
* expense ratio
Then I looked up each fund I own and copied the info. Putting in the sectors and the returns took the bulk of the time -- what a lot of typing! Not sure this was worth the effort. I noticed a little bit of duplication -- two large-value, and two world large-value funds -- but the holding in the second fund in each case were fairly small.
The only conclusion I came to was that, yes, American Funds has low expense ratios.
Next I made another worksheet for the current hodlings:
* fund
* symbol
* account
* shares
* current value
* amount invested
* amount withdrawn
My basis info isn't available on my brokerage website, probably because the funds were originally purchased directly from American Funds rather than through the brokerage. I later transfered them to the brokerage so everything would be on one statement. I need to call my broker and see whether the basis info can be obtained and added, or if I need to go back through 15-20 years of statements to figure out the basis for each fund.
Finally I went to Morningstar and used instant x-ray to get an overview of the whole portfolio (including DH's funds). The asset allocation is currently:
Cash 9.47
US Stocks 35.93
Foreign Stocks 43.51
Bonds 10.57
Other: 0.53
Next time, I'd like to work out a way to streamline transferring the current holding numbers from the brokerage to the x-ray tool.
I'm considering eventually putting a 5-10% stake into REITs, but that's another learning curve in itself! My thinking is that real estate is an asset class that moves independently of the stock market, and the current bust may make the next few years a good time to invest.
The stock style is currently
size:value/blend/growth
large: 24/29/23
mid: 6/4/7
small: 2/2/3
Going forward I think I want to add more small- and mid-cap exposure.
The Stock Sector percentages were mostly close to the numbers for the S%P 500. Nothing struck me as terribly high, although I have no real opinions on which sectors should be 5%, 10%, or 15%.
World Regions:
US & Canada: 48.44%
Europe: 27.84%
Japan: 2.39%
Latin America: 2.82%
Asia & Australia: 14.45%
Other (Africa): 4.06%
Average Mutual Fund Expense Ratio: 0.68%
Stock Stats (ratio to S&P 500):
Price/Prospective Earnings: 13.27 (0.99)
Price/Book Ratio: 2.10 (0.91)
Return on Assets: 8.80 (1.03)
Return on Equity: 21.35 (1.00)
Projected EPS Growth - 5 yr% 13.00 (1.14)
Yield % 2.71 (1.25)
Avg Market Cap ($mil): 24,233 (0.49)
I'm not sure what to make of the Stock Stats section, but it seems to me to indicate that most stats are on par or a little better than the S&P 500.