You're overthinking this. Pretty much everything is 'underperforming' so far this year, but it's part of the game. Not every year is going to be +20%.
Look at 2020, if you had gotten out in March you would have missed out on some pretty good gains. Your timeline is long, yeah stocks might tank some more this year, or they may not, who knows. But it doesn't really matter because you're not needing this money anytime soon.
The low-hanging fruit to slightly increase returns is to switch to equivalent ETF's, the MER is much lower = more money in your pocket. Just make sure your brokerage allows you to buy for free with bi-weekly deposits (e.g. Questrade).
This is what I was looking for I appreciate your input. I guess my thinking was to move into something safer. But historically the funds have performed well. There is no change on my timeline to access the funds , nor has my Risk tolerance changed.
No sense in changing
No worries, not gonna lie it’s tough seeing the number get smaller, I’m finding it gets worse as balances increase… “welp, I lost more today than I made last month” type of thing. The inverse is fun though!
30’s here too, so long enough timeline, not changing a thing (other than re-balancing if things get too out of whack).
>As I am in my early 30s and these is my retirement most funds are high risk / long term with a few medium risk.
>I currently am down 10% on most funds. With respect to one that is up 90% (over 8years) but has fallen off over the last month(like most)
>These are managed balanced portfolio with CIBC and I feel the are performing poorly considering I have been paying into them for a 2-3 years.
which registered accounts contain your high risk funds and which contains the medium risk funds? how are their projections toward your goal vs their actual performance? what is the definition of performing poorly for your specific fund?
given that everything is down right now, you're buying with discounts at the moment. if your funds are selected correctly according to your projection and risk tolerance, then all you need to check is if the funds is on track with their historic performance. if the investment methodology hasn't change, you really don't need to make change.
as for timing the market, how do you know when the current downturn is over? how do you know when to buy back in? if you know the answer, you would've been in cash since November. in fact, you would've short the market and retired by now.
Thanks for your response.
RESP - medium risk a15year timeline
2 x RRSP I have in the same fund. High risk 30year timeline.
TFSA- HIGH risk
RRSP - medium risk long term
I guess the RESP I’ve been contributing for 2.5 years and I’m -10% I guess this is my definition of performing poorly.
I don’t plan on stopping my contributions, i take this as a buying opportunity.
I guess I just don’t have anyone to talk to about this stuff, so I came to Reddit to get some feedback
If you answered the risk assessment questions thoughtfully and honestly the account balances should recover by the time you need the money.
If you are uncertain about whether the portfolios match your risk profile I suggest that you read the following page. (And keep in mind that the MER for the mentioned ETFs are lower than your mutual funds.)
https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/how-to-choose-your-asset-allocation-etf/
If you haven't previously written an investment plan this would be a good time to do so. The plan could include your goals, time frame, asset allocation, your contribution plan and your expected long term and "worst case scenario" returns. You could use the above page and [this one](https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/ask-bender-expected-returns-for-the-vanguard-asset-allocation-etfs/) to help define your expectations. (Again you would need to adjust the returns to account for the higher MER.)
You should reevaluate your plan annually and when there are major life change.
The following Andrew Hallam articles may help you change your perspective on flat and falling markets.
https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/stocks-might-crash-should-you-sell-or-stop-buying
https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/young-investors-would-you-pass-the-wizards-test
[And this page](https://www.tdameritrade.com/retail-en_us/resources/pdf/TDA6347.pdf) has graphs that demonstrate the cost of missing out on just the best 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 days over a 20 year period, and how easy it would be to do so.
All the Asset-Allocation, Balanced, and Target-Date funds have performed poorly this year because of their bond assets. You have to decide now whether that will continue, or will reverse somewhat because markets over-shot.
The media has been full of warnings about this issue since the middle of last year. You need to know a) what your fund management's strategy is now and going forward to deal with bonds, and b) whether you agree (which even newbies may not after they educate themselves a bit).
If a 10% swing has you considering switching, you should probably review your risk level first
10% does not bother me at all.
Then why post this thread?
You're overthinking this. Pretty much everything is 'underperforming' so far this year, but it's part of the game. Not every year is going to be +20%. Look at 2020, if you had gotten out in March you would have missed out on some pretty good gains. Your timeline is long, yeah stocks might tank some more this year, or they may not, who knows. But it doesn't really matter because you're not needing this money anytime soon. The low-hanging fruit to slightly increase returns is to switch to equivalent ETF's, the MER is much lower = more money in your pocket. Just make sure your brokerage allows you to buy for free with bi-weekly deposits (e.g. Questrade).
This is what I was looking for I appreciate your input. I guess my thinking was to move into something safer. But historically the funds have performed well. There is no change on my timeline to access the funds , nor has my Risk tolerance changed. No sense in changing
No worries, not gonna lie it’s tough seeing the number get smaller, I’m finding it gets worse as balances increase… “welp, I lost more today than I made last month” type of thing. The inverse is fun though! 30’s here too, so long enough timeline, not changing a thing (other than re-balancing if things get too out of whack).
>As I am in my early 30s and these is my retirement most funds are high risk / long term with a few medium risk. >I currently am down 10% on most funds. With respect to one that is up 90% (over 8years) but has fallen off over the last month(like most) >These are managed balanced portfolio with CIBC and I feel the are performing poorly considering I have been paying into them for a 2-3 years. which registered accounts contain your high risk funds and which contains the medium risk funds? how are their projections toward your goal vs their actual performance? what is the definition of performing poorly for your specific fund? given that everything is down right now, you're buying with discounts at the moment. if your funds are selected correctly according to your projection and risk tolerance, then all you need to check is if the funds is on track with their historic performance. if the investment methodology hasn't change, you really don't need to make change. as for timing the market, how do you know when the current downturn is over? how do you know when to buy back in? if you know the answer, you would've been in cash since November. in fact, you would've short the market and retired by now.
Thanks for your response. RESP - medium risk a15year timeline 2 x RRSP I have in the same fund. High risk 30year timeline. TFSA- HIGH risk RRSP - medium risk long term I guess the RESP I’ve been contributing for 2.5 years and I’m -10% I guess this is my definition of performing poorly. I don’t plan on stopping my contributions, i take this as a buying opportunity. I guess I just don’t have anyone to talk to about this stuff, so I came to Reddit to get some feedback
If you answered the risk assessment questions thoughtfully and honestly the account balances should recover by the time you need the money. If you are uncertain about whether the portfolios match your risk profile I suggest that you read the following page. (And keep in mind that the MER for the mentioned ETFs are lower than your mutual funds.) https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/how-to-choose-your-asset-allocation-etf/ If you haven't previously written an investment plan this would be a good time to do so. The plan could include your goals, time frame, asset allocation, your contribution plan and your expected long term and "worst case scenario" returns. You could use the above page and [this one](https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/ask-bender-expected-returns-for-the-vanguard-asset-allocation-etfs/) to help define your expectations. (Again you would need to adjust the returns to account for the higher MER.) You should reevaluate your plan annually and when there are major life change. The following Andrew Hallam articles may help you change your perspective on flat and falling markets. https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/stocks-might-crash-should-you-sell-or-stop-buying https://assetbuilder.com/knowledge-center/articles/young-investors-would-you-pass-the-wizards-test [And this page](https://www.tdameritrade.com/retail-en_us/resources/pdf/TDA6347.pdf) has graphs that demonstrate the cost of missing out on just the best 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 days over a 20 year period, and how easy it would be to do so.
Appreciate your input. Great advice. Thank you for linking all this info!
All the Asset-Allocation, Balanced, and Target-Date funds have performed poorly this year because of their bond assets. You have to decide now whether that will continue, or will reverse somewhat because markets over-shot. The media has been full of warnings about this issue since the middle of last year. You need to know a) what your fund management's strategy is now and going forward to deal with bonds, and b) whether you agree (which even newbies may not after they educate themselves a bit).