Supporting and monitoring eight portfolios set up by the trustee using Google Sheets
Portfolio six is almost 9 years old. The beneficiary contributed $4500 and the trustee $9000 for a total of $13,500. The current value is $24,154 for a gain of $10,654 or 78%, which is 11.5% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. Go here for details or to the link on the right.
The stocks are generally doing well and no action is needed at this time.
Portfolio four is almost 12 years old. The beneficiary contributed $6000 and the trustee $12,000 for a total of $18,000. The current value is $38,597 for a gain of $20,597 or 114%, which is 11.3% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. Go here for the details or to the link on the right.
Like the other portfolios that moved to the agency model recently, the brokerage switched to paying dividends in fractional shares which caused a book keeping headache and I’ve switched back (it doesn’t impact value). The portfolio has done well and currently doesn’t have much cash on hand.
Portfolio Five is almost 12 years old. The beneficiary contributed $6000 and the trustee $12,000 for a total of $18,000. The current value is $38,767 for a gain of $20,767 or 115%, which is 11.4% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. You can see the details here or at the link on the right.
The stocks in the portfolio are generally doing well. Alibaba and Baozun have been hit with headwinds out of China. Right now there is $7,452 in cash, mostly from the sale of Appian (APPN), which rose quickly and we sold and have not yet reinvested the funds.
It is minor and doesn’t impact value but we moved these portfolios from UTMA to owned by the beneficiary and the provider flipped all the individual stocks to reinvest dividends so now we have a lot of fractional shares. I turned that off and it is minor in the grand scheme but an annoyance because I work here to tie out to the penny.
Portfolio three is 14 years old. The beneficiary contributed $7000 and the trustee $14,200 for a total of $21,200. The current value is $34,524 for a gain of $13,324 or 63%, which is 6.3% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. You can see the detail here or at the link on the right.
The portfolio is ETF based. We recently moved from UTMA to self-managed with agency and the dividends came in the form of incremental shares rather than cash so we had to adjust the shares, and there was a reverse split for gold (IAU). These are minor changes in the grand scheme, but since I tie out to the penny, it is annoying. I recently changed the ETF’s to not re-invest, which works out since we aggregate dividends and re-invest with new contributions regularly. The portfolio is 34% Bonds / Cash / Gold which reduces risk but also returns in times when the markets have been rising such as the post March 2020 market scare.
Portfolio two is almost 17 years old. The beneficiary contributed $13,000 and the trustee $17,200 for a total of $30,200. The current value is $61,439 for a gain of $31,239 or 103%, which is 8.2% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. Go here or to the link on the right for more detail.
The portfolio is doing well overall, with mostly ETF’s and some single name stocks. BABA is one of the single name stocks that has hit trouble recently with Chinese regulation, but it is a good long term holding. The portfolio has 23% of assets in cash, bonds, & gold which reduces risk but also has held down returns that have risen recently after the March 2020 markets scare.
Portfolio One is our longest lived portfolio, at almost 20 years. We started this portfolio the day after 9/11/01 (a significant day in hindsight).
The value is $91,424 and the beneficiary invested $5000 and the trustee $19,000 for a total of $24,000. Gains are $67,424 or 280%, which averages out to 10.4% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. Go here for a summary or to the link on the right.
In March we sold half our position in Rocket Mortgage (RKT) when it was part of the “meme” stock frenzy. The stock has returned to what we paid for it originally plus paid a dividend. We also had a reverse split for IAU gold shares (rare, it actually makes the price higher) and received a small amount of cash for our fractional half share (not a dividend, a return of capital, but very small).
The stocks in the portfolio are generally doing well, along with the market overall.
The following 16 stocks (plus gold) have been solid in our portfolio and are recommended for consideration if you don’t have them or wish to add more.
Other US companies to look at for July, 2021:
Other foreign companies to look at for July, 2021:
Our portfolios continue to perform well, like the overall market. We are up about 30% over the last year, net of contributions. US markets are up around 40% during that period, but our portfolios are about 20% cash / gold along with non-US stocks so it is roughly equivalent.
There are a few stocks that haven’t performed as well as the market as of late; Alibaba (BABA) the Chinese internet giant, SUMO Logic (SUMO) the cloud analytics company, and Baozun (BZUN) the Chinese e-commerce fulfillment company. However, the performance wasn’t terrible for these 3 companies, just not nearly as good as the overall market.
We are looking at companies to consider buying for the summer investment round. I am performing research now on candidates.
This year we moved three of the accounts over to “limited agency” status from trust funds; this has become necessary as the beneficiaries get older. This is a one-time effort that took some time given that the steps are not simple nor clearly laid out. Even today I noted that many of the individual stocks were set to reinvest dividends, which I turned off because it causes challenges in tracking and is minor in the grand scheme if you reinvest cash regularly (as we do with new investments).
Since our last updated in mid-February (approximately the market “top”), the value of our positions has declined by about 5% overall, with some portfolios hardly moving and others declining over 10%. The differences were driven by:
Given that these portfolios represent a log-term investment for each of the participants and would be a portion of their total net worth (i.e. they often hold other cash in savings or other accounts), we try to be reasonably heavily invested in the market, but each participant has their own risk tolerance.
During this rotation into value stocks, some sectors which had been battered such as energy (Exxon-Mobil and Chevron) and Financials and some general retail have come back strong. There are many of these stocks in the portfolios (such as Coca-Cola, Procter and Gamble, and many others) but they generally represent a lower portion of the total “value” because the tech stocks have risen so much that their position size is much bigger.
We also see variances by region, with Chinese stocks rising and US stocks generally rising (at least in some sectors) but European stocks stagnant. Since these portfolios seek to choose both US and overseas stocks, we also will see changes in value based on changes in currencies and country-specific dynamics. We do not intend to “predict” which ones will rise and fall, but we encourage a balanced mix of stocks by sector and region / currency where possible.
Some specific stocks have fallen and are “on watch”, including:
By portfolio:
Recently there have been some sales and a few of the portfolios are looking at possible incremental investments.
Note that there are very few “bargain” stocks out there. One that I thought was a relative bargain was Rocket Mortgages (RKT) and then it was pumped up so we ended up taking some short-term profits which we normally don’t do. Some stocks we are considering:
US Companies
Non-US Companies
The stocks that have driven the most value in the portfolio that are not bought across all the portfolio (because every beneficiary selects individually) are:
Portfolio eight is 5 1/2 years old. The beneficiary contributed $3000 and the trustee $6000 for a total of $9000. The current value is $16,423 for a gain of $7,423 or 83%, which is 17.5% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. Go here for details or to the link on the right.
During 2020 there was $97 in dividends and a long-term loss of $510 tied to the sale of GM. The portfolio is doing well overall.
Portfolio 7 is 5 1/2 years old. The beneficiary contributed $3000 and the trustee $6000 for a total of $9000. The current value is $16,157 for a gain of $7,157 or 80%, which is 17% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. See the details here or at the link on the right.
The portfolio is doing well. During 2020 we had a long term loss of $558 for taxes (sell GM) and $121 in dividends.
Portfolio six is 8 1/2 years old. The beneficiary contributed $4500 and the trustee $9000 for a total of $13,500. The current value is $22,835 for a gain of $9,335 or 69%, which is 10.4% / year when adjusted for the timing of cash flows. You can see the details here or at the link on the right.
The portfolio overall is doing well. The drug maker Gilead (GILD) has a good dividend but has had a stagnant price since we bought it many years ago and is on watch.
During 2020 for taxes there was $206 in dividends and a long term capital loss of $841 tied to sales of Shell (RDS.B) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).
Portfolio Five is 11 1/2 years old. The beneficiary contributed $6000 and the trustee $12,000 for a total of $18,000. The current value is $36,700 for a gain of $18,701 or 104%, which is 10.9% / year when adjusted for the timing of cash flows. Go to the link on the right for details or here.
During 2020 there was a net long term gain of $5592, which mainly came from selling Appian (APPN). Dividends totaled $268.
The portfolio is going well. Big gain stocks include Cloudflare (NET), Nvidia (NVDA), Okta (OKTA), Paypal (PYPL), Infosys (INFY) and Procter and Gamble (PG). There is $7393 in cash to consider re-investing as well.
For capital gains – if your income is under $40,000 (as a single filer) in 2020 the long term capital tax rate is ZERO. Thus this was a good year to sell Appian! The long term tax rate is 15% for income > $40,000 but less than $441,000.
Portfolio four is 11 1/2 years old. The beneficiary contributed $6000 and the trustee $12,000 for a total of $18,000. The current balance is $34,611 for a gain of $16,611, which is 92% or 9.7% / year adjusted for the timing of cash flows. See the link on the right or go to this link for details.
During 2020 there were some sales with a small net long term gain of $30 and a short term loss of $158. Dividends totaled $316.
The portfolio is currently doing well. TESLA has been a big winner. Other winners include ORCL, NVDA and PG.
Trust Funds For Kids 