Surging Ahead of the Markets

July was a bad month for traditional investors. The S&P 500 lost about 2.5% for the last week and about 3% for the month. Other stock indexes, especially emerging markets did worse. We did better in our Retirement Watch portfolios. We sold the last of our traditional stock portfolios by July 14. While stocks were falling, we were earning strong profits from Vanguard Long-Term U.S. Treasury Bond and iShares COMEX Gold Trust. Also profitable was our position in PIMCO All Asset All Authority. We also earned modest returns from DoubleLine Total Return Bond and WisdomTree Dreyfus Chinese Yuan fund. The only losers in the portfolios were TCW Strategic Income (down about 1.75%) and Hussman Strategic Growth (down 1.0%). Cohen & Steers Preferred Securities and Income had a slight positive return.

The portfolios overall had positive returns of 0.53% to 0.80% for July. Once again we demonstrated how a diversified, balanced portfolio that’s adjusted according to risk management principles will avoid large losses while generating solid, steady returns for the long-term. It delivers returns that exceed the long-term returns of stocks with far less volatility and risk of permanent loss of capital.

Our best-performing portfolio since the beginning of 2010 is our Retirement Paycheck Portfolio. This income-oriented portfolio generates about a 6% yield from interest and distributions and has generated a total return of 18.38% since the beginning of 2010. In the last 12 months it’s returned 16.29%, and it had a positive return of 0.67% for July. You can learn the details about our portfolios and follow our future changes in the portfolio by becoming a member. Learn more at www.RetirementWatch.com.