Performance 2019

Here is another strange stock market year ending, with indices breaking record after record. I had made myself humiliated by the market in the first half of the year, achieving a performance of just over 3% (compared to nearly 20% for the SPI). In the second half of the year, I was practically on a par with him, at nearly 8% of gains, while maintaining significantly less volatility, thanks to 15% of real estate, 10% of Treasury bonds, 10% of cash and 5% of gold. I am therefore very happy with this second half of the year. I was helped in this by the very good performance of my Japanese small caps.

That said, I dragged the backlog accumulated during the first half of the year with me, never managing to catch up. In the end, my portfolio increased by 13,65% in 2019, making less than half the performance of the SPI (+32%). Even though I am happy to have made infinitely more money than if I had left it in a bank account, I obviously cannot be satisfied with such a gap on the market. Fortunately, the match ends at the final whistle and, even if I know I am repeating myself, the downward correction is always a little closer. With value stocks and diversified asset classes, I am equipped to face it.

Since the launch of the portfolio in 2010, this gives me an average annual performance of 9.8%, compared to 8.3% for the SPI. I am still maintaining my gap, but it is always narrowing a little more. My portfolio has about forty positions as of 31.12.2019, I have reached the maximum of what I set for myself. I will avoid acquiring more, unless I have a big crush.

In 2019, I received CHF 16,800 in net dividends, which is my best year yet. Paradoxically, the more I struggle compared to the market, the more I earn in income. This is the effect of value stocks, which pay more, but are currently lagging behind growth stocks.

I am now 40% on my way to financial independence, with the remainder of my income coming from real estate. My loyal readers will recall that I set myself four years ago an ambitious goal for the year 2020. Obviously, to become a rentier already next year, the market would have had to correct in the meantime, so that I could acquire even more dividend-paying stocks. We will see if this will be the case next year.

2020 is also a big year because on December 1st dividendes.ch will celebrate its tenth anniversary. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my readers for their loyalty. In this anniversary year, there will be many new features, with the publication of a large e-book during the spring as well as a planned overhaul of theasset allocation, in connection with some elements that will be covered in the new book. This one is taking up a fair bit of my time at the moment, which is why I have less time to post at the moment. Thank you for your patience. The reworked part on asset allocation will certainly become a premium part in the future (therefore paid but at a very reasonable price). As long as it is in the development phase, it will nevertheless remain free.

To everyone, I wish you an excellent year 2020 and a good stock market.