I’ve been in the market with my retirement accounts for almost a decade now and I currently have a 0% return on them (actually down $5k). It would have been better to let them sit in an HYSA for the past decade.
My only funds are indicies and treasuries. VTSAX, VTIAX, VGSLX, and VUSTX specifically.
Am I doing something wrong here? I know the saying “time in the market is better than timing the market” but it’s still disheartening to see a 0% return after a decade of investing huge amounts of personal income in hopes of having a solid retirement fund.
My first guess is that most of your additions have been relatively recent. When I look for the Covid spike, around March 2020, there’s a little bit, but it’s not the 3-year setback that most funds had. Your gains Covid-2021 are 4x your Covid drop, where VTSAX was only around 3x. If your purchases are weighted to 2020-and-after, then the 2022 downturn will have exaggerated effect. International market has had much worse time in the lead-up and aftermath of Ukraine, so if you’re more heavily weighted in VTIAX, this may further exaggerate the recent weakness.
Time in the market is important, but if you’re adding $100 invested in 2014 that’s worth $200 now to $1000 invested in 2021 that’s worth $870 now, the net effect is that you have $30 loss and approximately 0% rate of return.
Yeah that’s a good point. My recent contributions were certainly focused around mid 2020 - mid 2021. I’m at roughly 70% VTSAX, and then 10% each VTIAX, VGSLX, and VUSTX.