Every now and then even I surprise my self

I was reading an article on the Harvard Endowment found at the following link http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-09-20/can-timber-rebuild-harvards-endowment.  In the article there was a graphic that compared the Harvard endowment 10 Year Annualized Return to 7 of it peer endowments (Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, Dartmouth, Penn, and Cornell).  The 10 Year period of comparison for this report was June 2001 through June 2011.   And as one would expect all of the Endowments achieved these results via the efforts of some very highly competent and compensated professional money managers.

Entity	10 Year Annualized Return
Yale	10.1 %
Columbia	9.9 %
Princeton	9.8 %
Harvard	9.4 %
Me	8.6 %
Brown	7.7 %
Dartmouth	7.0 %
Penn	6.8 %
Cornell	6.4 %
Annualized S&P 500 Return (Dividends Reinvested)	2.3 %

I added the 10 Annualized SP500 as an additional reference, one should have an impartial bench mark.  I suspect that the respective endowment manager report their portfolios relative progress versus this benchmark to their respective Universities.  The 10 Year Annualized Return for the SP500 used in this comparison was calculated using the calculator provided on the site http://dqydj.net/sp-500-return-calculator/

Granted I do not have all of the high price talent, connections and resources that they have, and I certainly pale in comparison as to amount of funds that I have to invest, but all in all I feel that I have done reasonably well in comparison considering what I do and don’t have or know.   My 10 Annualized Rate of Return was calculated by Quicken accounting program, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.

The average 10 Year Annualized Return for this group of Universities for the period in question is 8.39 Percent.  This groups average and individual 10 Year Annualized Return when compared to the 10 Year Annualized Return for the SP 500 is remarkable (3 to 5 times that of the benchmark).  Then again it could be a very poor benchmark, I don’t know.  For the same period my Quicken calculated 10 Year Annualized Return was an impressive (Well I consider it impressive) 8.6 Percent, not bad for an old retired Physicists/Engineer.

All that I am claiming, if I am claiming anything is that I consider my self to be very lucky and fortunate.  I feel that I am just another data point in the tale of the old blind hog finding another acorn or truffle.

My portfolio is an equal blend of three different model passive portfolios (Aronson, Yale, and Second Grader) that all invest in passive index mutual funds that have low if not the lowest management fees available to the average investor.  The particular on the various portfolios can be found at the following site http://www.marketwatch.com/lazyportfolio.  I do owe a sincere debit of gratitude to Paul B Farrell who generated the articles, and marketwatch.com for publishing them.

Now for the obligatory verbiage I am not currently nor have I ever been nor is it likely that I will ever be an employee of the Marketwatch.com or any of subsidiaries, or controlling corporations.  I do not know, nor have I ever met Paul B. Farrell, and to the best of my limited knowledge I do not know or ever met any of his family.  I am not currently nor have I ever been, nor is it likely that I will ever be an employee of The Vanguard Group.  I do have vested interest in the various mutual funds that make up these model portfolios since I own shares in them.

Finally and most important past performance is no guarantee of future performance.  But you do have to be in the game if you ever expect to have any chance.