Last quarter’s devastating investment performance resulted in an overall annualized return of -9.33%. The fact that the S&P 500, the benchmark I use for my investments, faced a -15.14% annualized return at that point was little consolation. The third quarter of 2010 proved to be kinder to my investments.
I can’t take much credit for the improvement. Other than continuing to invest in small basket of investments in my 401(k) every other week, and a discounted investment in my company stock purchase plan at the end of the quarter, I haven’t made any changes investment moves. In fact, two of the four investments I purposefully chose over the past few years, not including index mutual funds and retirement investments, are in the red for the year.
Microsoft, shares of which I purchased in 2006 with free money from ShareBuilder, is down an annualized -23.84% in my account for the year. I bought shares of Toyota at the beginning of the year, after news about vehicle recalls. I thought the bad media would result in just a short term dip and an opportunity to buy, but I didn’t choose the bottom so I’m still waiting for the price to return to the level it was when I purchased.
Here’s how to get that bonus from Sharebuilder.
Keep reading to see my investment balances and performance as of the end of September 2010. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, and questions after taking a look at the data. The numbers come out of Quicken, which I keep up-to-date several times a week.
Published or updated October 5, 2010. If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to the RSS feed or receive daily emails. Follow @flexo on Twitter and visit our Facebook page for more updates.
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Luke Landes founded Consumerism Commentary in 2003 and has been building online communities since 1990. Luke, also known as Flexo, has contributed to PC World Magazine, US News, Forbes, and other publications. 
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Flexo—Do you know of any online stock sites which offer something similar to your free money offer from Sharebuilder to invest as an incentive to join their site?
I think Sharebuilder still has a similar promotion going on if you’re interested.
Eric is correct. Sharebuilder is currently offering a $25.00 sign-up bonus. Plus, if you know someone that has a Sharebuilder account and they invite you to sign up, they will get 2 real-time trades for free, also.
Thanks Eric and LDS! I added the link to the current ShareBuilder bonus (here).