ETF Monkey

I just finished an educational series of articles for Seeking Alpha on the topic of solid anchors for your portfolio. I opened one of the articles with this introductory paragraph: Just as literal anchors are used to save sailing vessels from shipwreck, certain key concepts or "anchors" can go a long way towards saving your investment portfolio from metaphorical shipwreck. Since, in this modern 21st century, many of us depend on our investments to help carry us through our retirement, this becomes a matter of some importance. In the three articles, I discuss the anchors of low expenses , diversification , and dividends . In each case, I explain the importance of the selected anchor, offer an explanation of how to achieve it, and then show real-world examples of the application of each anchor in various ETF Monkey model portfolios. This is a wonderful series of articles for both the younger or beginning investor, as well as an individual who may be of modest means and y...

I recently published the Q2 update for The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio. As my readers may recall, I set up a variant of this portfolio that I called The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core + REIT Portfolio . This idea was based on my personal portfolio, in which I maintain a dedicated allocation to REITs. For those interested, the above-linked article explains the rationale for this, as well as features the fact that I set up this particular variant by removing a rather arbitrary 2.5% weighting from each of the asset classes in the "base" portfolio such that I ended up with an initial weighting of 7.5% for REITs. A commenter on one of my recent Seeking Alpha articles suggested that REITs are a useful addition to a diversified portfolio. It was this comment that led me to develop this quick update on my own variant of such a portfolio. Here, then, as of the market close on July 25, 2016, is the cumulative performance of The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core + REIT Portfolio: F...

Author's Note: If you find my work valuable, I would deeply appreciate your taking a minute to follow me on Twitter , Google + , and/or Facebook and/or sharing a link to this article on your social media accounts. This article is an update to the following articles: On July 1, 2015, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha introducing  The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio . On January 4, 2016, I wrote the 2015 year-end update for the portfolio. On April 5, 2016, I followed that up with the 2016 Q1 update . On April 13, 2016, I executed a second rebalancing transaction for the year. In this article, I will report on the performance of the portfolio for the period ended July 18, 2016. I was on vacation on June 30 and unable to capture the required screen shots to document an update as of that date. While this Q2 update is a little late, as it turns out the sharp rebound following the Brexit announcement offers a nice opportunity to evaluate the performance of the port...

Back on February 11, 2016, I executed a series of transactions to rebalance The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio . As explained in that article, the severe decline in both domestic and foreign stocks left these two asset classes significantly underweight, with bonds being overweight. Here, for convenience, is a "before and after" snapshot of that transaction. As it turns out, the timing of that rebalancing could not have been better. In hindsight, it can be seen that February 11 represented, at least to this point, the low point for 2016. I don't take particular credit for this. My efforts were simply an application of the principles found in this article .

This article is an update to the following articles: On July 1, 2015, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha introducing  The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio . On January 4, 2016, I wrote the 2015 year-end update for the portfolio.  On February 11, 2016, following the severe market decline during the first part of 2016, I wrote a  follow-up  article that detailed a rebalancing  transaction that I executed to bring the portfolio back in line with my target weightings. In this article, I will report on the performance of the portfolio for the quarter ended March 31, 2016. Evaluating the Portfolio: Q1 2016 Here is the corresponding Google Finance page for the portfolio as of the market's close on 3/31/16. Have a look, and then I will offer a few comments. First, as a reference point, the S&P 500 index closed at 2,043.94 on December 31, 2015 and 2,059.74 on March 31, 2016, for a gain of .77% for the period. 

In connection with the philosophy explained in this article , I executed a series of rebalancing transactions in The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio as of pricing available at approximately 9:30 a.m. Pacific Time on February 11, 2016. The Rebalancing Transactions Here is a graphic of the Excel worksheet I used to analyze the rationale for rebalancing, calculate and track the necessary transactions, as well as display the "before and after" status of the portfolio. Please note that you can click on the picture to see an enlarged view. Rebalancing The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio - Before and After As can be seen in the "Before Rebalancing" section, due to the extremely sharp decline in both domestic and foreign stocks during this first part of 2016, the weightings of these asset classes had fallen significantly below our targets; almost 2% in the case of foreign stocks. At the same time, bonds were 1.3% above their target weight , and we also had ...

This article is an update to the following articles: On July 1, 2015, I wrote an article for Seeking Alpha introducing The ETF Monkey Vanguard Core Portfolio . On August 26, 2015, following the severe market decline culminating on August 24, I wrote a follow-up article both evaluating the performance of the portfolio as well as executing a rebalancing transaction to bring the portfolio back in line with my target weightings. In this article, I will report on the performance of the portfolio between August 24 and the end of the year on December 31. I have decided to move this and future updates for this portfolio to my personal blog so that Seeking Alpha readers do not get confused between this portfolio and The ETF Monkey 2016 Model Portfolio I introduced at the end of the year. As a convenience to readers of this article, here is a graphic of how the portfolio stood on 8/24/15 after my rebalancing transaction ( Note: You can click on any picture to see an enlarged versi...