Ups and downs!

I am yet to see any sign of consistent performance in my fund - but in part that's because of my constant fiddling with the way I calculate the figures I report.  This isn't in the same way my former-fixed income fund manager described that his marketing did when he was in the banks - identifying which period of time demonstrated the best period of performance then reporting it.  No, I am trying to give as accurate account as possible; in part, it affects whether I continue this whole enterprise given that I have a lot of "skin in the game" i.e. my retirement income!

So, what is interesting this quarter?  Well, my performance is again lagging the market (even though the market has really bellyflopped in the last few weeks). Disappointing really, given that I felt I had sped ahead when the markets realised that the world was still screwed - and that lots of people trying to outprint each other's currencies didn't actually produce a material growth effect.

I have dropped in my comparison against the Trustnet managers - and am now sitting in the 76th percentile (I also worked out you can actually see the performance for the year to date) - including an uplift of 1.2% for my lack of fund manager management charges (it helps a lot!).

A continuation of the good news from last quarter is that, now I am into positive growth, I can expect to net a pension equivalent to about 74% of my current income - although based on 3% inflation for the next 34 years that actually equates to a real income thats about 35.5% of my current salary.  At least I won't be a higher rate taxpayer, I suppose!

Last quarter I told you the best and worst performing stocks for growth (Carnival and Aviva respectively) - well this has now changed.  Carnival remains my growth genie (although CareTech was pegged back by a second purchase of shares), and my all-time dog is thee ater company Dee Valley Group.

Thinking ahead, I am always trying to think "fundamentals".  In some cases I have bought stocks for stupid reasons - but on the whole it is because I believe theyy hae a long term benefit.  This means if things are dropping in price it presents a buying opportunity - and my real suckers at the moment are Dee Valley Group, IG Group and Tesco.  I'll buy more shares on Tuesday - I wonder if L will go for any of those or if she'll be more keen for something new.

To summarise - at least growth is now positive.  There's still bad stuff on the horizon, so how the storm is weathered will dictate my future.