Life has been busy with workload and multiple trips lately, and I couldn't find time to post a portfolio update last month. Nevertheless, my portfolio has been prospering, and handily beat my benchmark by a full percentage point in the last two months.
ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY
My portfolio performance is helped by three factors:
1) A couple of individual domestic stock bets are paying off: APOL returned 22% in June and my biggest holding COP returned 12% in May, more than offsetting the weakness of my financial stocks.
2) On the foreign equity side, my hand-picked funds are performing exceedingly compared to benchmark (EFA).
3) Increased exposure to both domestic and foreign equity positions (vs cash position) further improved performance.
So, here is some highlights of my portfolio in the 1st half of 2007:
- Portfolio grew from $712K at the end of 2006 to $818K at the end of June 2007
- Reduced cash position from 27.5% of portfolio to 19.9% of portfolio (Employee Stock Option excluded)
- First half weighted return of 7.71% that beats 50-35-15 benchmark return of 7.47% and 45-30-25% benchmark return of 6.85% (for reference: S&P 500 returned 6.00%, VTI returned 7.23%, EFA returned 9.95%)
NEXT STEPS
At the end of June, I'm reaching ideal allocation for my foreign equity positions (actual of 35.1% vs target of 35%). I still plan to gradually convert cash to domestic equity funds ("dollar-cost averaging") in the next few months at a pace of $10,000/month so I can lift my domestic equity exposure from the current 45% to the target of 50%.
MONTHLY PORTFOLIO PROGRESS FOR MAY AND JUNE