And here I go…..

It’s been roughly a year since I moved my 401k from an actively managed Betterment account to managing the account on my own, hence it seems like a good time check in on the account, and bring the amounts back in alignment with what they were originally.

Given that I am on my fourth job since college, which actually doesn’t seem like a lot, I guess I like to stick around. There are funds that I saved in 401K plans from my prior employer’s that I now have direct control over in a 401k, which I am now solely responsible for since pensions aren’t actually a thing for us Gen-Xers.

Unless one is investing their entire account in only one fund, or they’re using a service like Betterment to actively manage it (which will do this for you, for a fee of course), one will need to check in on the account and bring things back in alignment, otherwise they risk getting over focused or under focused from what they originally intended.

Looking at what’s happened over the past year, one under performer that stands out is the Vanguard Consumer Staples Fund VDC, which I suppose makes sense. With all the fear of the recession that never happened over the past year, consumer spending might be impacted by that, hence the under performance of this fund, which is designed to focus on consumer staples.

My ESG Funds have also not done well this past year, I guess that’s what I get for trying to be ESG in an era where that is seen as being a bad thing, and ‘too woke’ in certain circles, hence the Vanguard ESG US Stock Fund has underperformed ESGV.This same sentiment is probably also a lot of why my Disney holdings in my non retirement accounts are down, thanks a lot Ron DeSantas.

Ok, enough of the negative, time to move on to some positive news in my rebalancing, the funds that have actually done better, so I will need to sell some if them to balance things out. One big winner, from what is not a big holding is the Vanguard Information Technology Fund VGT. I’ve done well so far this year with Tech stocks in general, besides a brief attempt to short Nvidia through options back in January, back when the AI wave was first catching on. The lesson I learned out of that is never trade options without protection. Not really a thing with retirement accounts, but, though I would put that out there.

The other big winner over this past year is the S&P 500, via the VOO, riding the general upswing over the past year in the index, even if those gains are driven by just a few of the largest cap stocks in the index.

There are other funds I have in this account also, some of which I will need to sell, others I will need to buy more of. Hopefully this will help keep me in balance without having to resort to using an actual financial advisor, then next summer, I need to remind myself to do this all again.

Disclaimer: Investing involves risks, and nothing in this post should be construed as financial advice. Risk of investments includes the loss of principal, which I can’t assume liability for. Please consult with an actual financial advisor for advice.