If you don’t have a goal, and you don’t have a written investment plan, and you don’t plan, then you have very little to measure. My goal isn’t to “beat the index” but to stay with my plan. When I get my weekly email from Personal Capital, I look at it, but I really don’t care if I beat or under-performed the S&P 500 index. The reason is simple. I strive to have dividend growth investments, including a higher percentage of utilities and financials in our accounts. If a sector I favor is under-performing, I won’t hit the S&P 500.

Nevertheless, I don’t turn a blind eye to the results.  Personal Capital also provides good tools to look at my performance against other categories of investments. I will keep this brief. The following images help me see my results against various types of investments. Do you see why I stay away from bonds? Why might I be beating the DOW?

The blue line is my YTD results. The orange line is bonds. From Personal Capital.

As noted earlier, I am a big fan of financials, which includes banks, insurance companies and BDC’s. Here is my sector chart:

My utility weighting and BDC’s influence my results. I know why I have what I have.

I am also performing better than a “blend” of growth and value.

A blended portfolio can give a false sense of security during market volatility.

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