Slack Investor remains IN for US, UK, and Australian index shares.
December has been a jolly month for the markets that Slack Investor follows. The US, Australian, and UK markets climbed 1.4%, 2.7%, and 3.8%, respectively.
This is also time to rub the belly and review the calendar year 2016. The Slack Self Managed Super Fund, which is my main retirement vehicle, had a mixed year due to some not so wise investments in telcos and medical stocks. However, it still returned 7.5% overall for the 12 months. This was below the benchmark ASX return of around 11% but well above the online cash rate of around 2%.
As Slack Investor has a general policy not to directly invest in mining companies, it can be expected that the Slack Fund would underperform the benchmark in a year that mining companies did exceptionally well (2016, +52%).
Although the festive spirit prevails, it is good to remind myself of the words of Rudyard Kipling from “IF”
… If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same
Slack Investor tries to follow these wise words of British stoicism and treat the transient good and bad news of the stock markets with some detachment … and remain ever vigilant in a mostly slack way!
See the ASX, US and UK-Index pages for updated details.
Very nice job with your portfolio this year, I think that’s a good return considering the rollercoaster some of your portfolio would have had.
Good luck for 2017 🙂
Tristan
Thanks DDU .. and for the wish of luck … an important factor in this investment game (and in life!)… Your blog is always entertaining and interesting. Great to see an Australian Finance blog scene emerging .. Good luck to you both in life and finance .. Cheers, SI