CONGRATULATIONS TO US ALL ON A GREAT YEAR. LETS DO IT AGAIN IN 2026. HAPPY old year.....CELEBRATE your success. AND.......HAPPY NEW YEAR.....to us all, each and every one of us. To ALL the posters and lurkers here. THANK YOU for making this thread a nice resource. We are all in it together. We support each other by posting our thoughts, successes, failures, and life and investing experiences. I SALUTE US ALL.....we are investing WARRIORS. For the most part we WIN....by doing nothing. We IGNORE all the massive NOISE. We sit and.....WIN.
I will post my 2025 final result at the close today. I will also post the results for my two funds.....SP500 Index Fund and Fidelity Contra Fund. I will be curious to see if..... TireSmoke or Road....has the highest number for 2025. I suspect one of them will be the best on this thread.....although they both take extremely high risk with a very focused portfolio. EVERYONE......when you get a chance....put up your numbers.
My year in....ART. We had a good year with ART this year. I am going from memory but I believe we added SIX paintings this year. One was a major work purchased at auction. One was by private sale. One was by commission. Three were from galleries. We sent paintings to two exhibitions in 2025 and we will be taking a painting to exhibition in January of 2026. We also added 2-3 pieces of sculpture. We plan to not do much with ART in 2026. We need to recover financially from the 2025 purchases......and....we are getting more and more picky on what we will buy due to lack of wall space and our age. We tend to go in spurts on our art purchases.
OK....a FITTING end to 2025. EVERY stock in my portfolio in the RED. BUT...to cap it off.....a beat of the SP500 today by 0.10%. A nice little 4-5 day market drop to end the year. GOODBYE and GOOD-RIDDANCE 2025. Although you did manage to give me a BIG GAIN. BUT....I hated the "feel" of the markets for most of the year in 2025.
NOW.....the final result....drum roll please: For 2025 my entire portfolio at......+28.41%. A nice significant beat of the SP500. See below for are my results for the past EIGHT YEARS.
All I keep for each year is how my Fidelity Contra Fund did for the year and how my SP500 Index fund did for the year. I have those numbers going back decades. I have not kept track of my annual gain or loss for my entire portfolio since the early 2000's. Today....I was thinking about how I have done since the start of this LONG TERM INVESTING record. When we hit year end for 2025....this thread will span EIGHT YEARS....from 2018 to 2025. I was curious so I took the time to go back and see what my entire portfolio return was for each of the years reflected in this thread. Over that time we have gone through a world wide pandemic, an economic shut-down, a nasty bear market, some boom years, many, many, corrections, and INNUMERABLE fear-mongered daily and weekly and monthly events. Even a BLACK SWAN or two. HERE are my REAL RESULTS for the years of this thread 2018.......(-7.4%) 2019.......+31.67% 2020.......+20.32% 2021.......+34.76% 2022.......(-21.91%) 2023.......+45.44% 2024........+65.31% 2025........+28.41% Based on the above an annual average return for my entire portfolio for 2018 through 2025 is: +24.58%. A HIGHLY UNLIKELY and IMPROBABLE return. I will GLADLY take it....but this is a highly abnormal return. There is no way I expect to do this over the next 5-10 years or the rest of my life. It is just not sustainable or NORMAL. But as a fully invested all the time LONG TERM INVESTOR....I love this result. AND....I know there are others on here that are even higher...perhaps much higher. BUT...at the same time...I know and respect that this is not a NORMAL return figure. So I....DO NOT...expect returns going forward to match this high number. AND in spite of this data....my long term goal is to average 10% per year long term. I am NOT going to let my expectations run away with me. I am not going to chase returns. I will respect what the market gives me and avoid the DANGER of OUTSIZED EXPECTATIONS and the big emotional swings that can create for an investor.
As for my funds: Schwab SP500 Index Fund.....total return.....+18.69% Fidelity Contra Fund.....total return.....+22.56%.
HERE is the last market day of the year: S&P 500 closes lower Wednesday, but wraps 2025 with a 16% gain https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/30/stock-market-today-live-updates.html WE are now all EQUAL till Friday......starting at......+0.00%.
Hey everyone......let us know how you did for the year. If you are out and about tonight.....BE CAREFUL OUT THERE.
Hello all, my main account as of December 30,2025 is 28.99%, maybe off some because today is not calculated in. Thank you all, especially Mr. WXYZ. I pray you all have a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Blessing to all. God gets the glory.
Brokerage Account =+26% 401K=+20.5% All in all including income that was added to both accounts, +25% on investment worth since this exact time last year. My investment value increased 2 years worth of salary. Not too bad. It shows once one has "critical mass", as in a sizeable balance, the contribution part of investing drives the success very little.
YES......"critical mass".....is so fun. A gain of 10% turns into HUGE money. That is a big investment goal for anyone....to get to "critical mass". When a portfolio gets over $100,000.....that is when the compounding can be crazy. It seems like it takes forever for most people to hit that first $100,000....but steady contributions and holding good stocks and funds for the long term WILL make it happen. I used to listen to an investing radio show with a host named Bob Brinker. He talked about "critical mass" all the time. WELL DONE....Blake.
AND...I dont mention enough...it is ALL about your portfolio as a whole. We tend to get all focused on individual stocks and investments.......when they are doing well or not doing so well. What really counts is the entire portfolio and your MIX of investments. Too much focus on each individual holding can lead to throwing the baby out with the bath water.....churning your account as you constantly chase returns.
I will do one final goodbye to an investing GIANT. A 5 million percent return in 60 years leaves Warren Buffett’s legacy unmatched https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/01/warren-buffetts-legacy-a-5-million-percent-return.html "Key Points Warren Buffett has handed over the CEO reins to Greg Abel after a six-decade run. From 1964 to 2024, Berkshire delivered a compounded annual gain of 19.9%, nearly double the S&P 500′s 10.4%. As Buffett relinquishes the helm, investors are increasingly focused on what disappears with him." I guess he did ok.......pretty good Buffett: "When Buffett took control of Berkshire in the mid-1960s, its shares traded around $19. By the end of 2025, a single Class A share was worth over $750,000. From 1964 — the year before Buffett took control of Berkshire — to 2024, the one-of-a-kind conglomerate delivered a compounded annual gain of 19.9%, nearly double the S&P 500′s 10.4%, resulting in an overall return of more than 5.5 million percent, according to the company’s latest annual report. The shares added another 10% to that return in 2025."
A great 2026 to all of you. My first 2026 post will be some notes I read dont know exactly where, maybe Motley Fool, Reedit etc. They seem acurate to me. "Buy every month. Pay yourself first. Automate contributions. Increase them as income rises. Ignore the noise. Wealth is built quietly through repetition, not predictions."
Well, Happy 2026 to all!! We survived another one. Looks like some very good returns have been posted so far up thread. Nice job fellas. I will join in and add mine for the 2025 roll call. I ended 2025 with a +19.89%. A very nice year indeed.
I see absolutely NOTHING in the financial media today. Apparently they are all taking the day off following New Years day. SO NICE....to have no noise so far today.
I see that in one of the top wage cities......Seattle....a minimum wage couple can make about.....$94,000 a year. if they work a 40 hour week. Minimum wage just went up in 19 states—workers in one state are getting a $2 an hour raise https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/01/min...in-these-us-states-starting-january-2026.html
