OUCH! Down $6,001 this month. I’m not worried though. I wish I would have had this outlook over a decade ago – that a down market means every share I buy during that time is on sale.
Currently my work 401k is showing a year to date (10/1/21, our fiscal year) rate of return of 3.4%. My Vanguard account and Christy’s Betterment account for our Roth IRAs have different views for our rate of return.
For some reason my Vanguard account doesn’t show a rate of return for Year To Date. So to get an accurate comparison, I set them both for 1 year.
My Vanguard account shows my rate of return since 12/1/20 is 23%. Christy’s Betterment account shows a 15.4% return since 12/15/20.
Vanguard also does not give a rate of return if I do a custom view to see the last month, but I have to say, it’s not good. It just looks like a downward red arrow. Betterment’s monthly view shows a – 2.8% rate of return.
BUT…If you look at the lifetime of our accounts, the Vanguard shows a 30.7% rate of return and the Betterment shows a 37.6% rate of return.
That is the important thing to remember when looking at your accounts. Don’t focus on the short term. The shorter the term, the less likely you are to succeed. You need to focus on your long term goals when investing.
(Raises glass) Here is to the a continued roller coaster ride in 2022. Cheers!
| Investment | Deposit | Balance | Growth |
| Work 401k | $1,268 | $121,714 | – $4,997 |
| Roth IRAs | $1,000 | $28,377 | – $1,004 |