{"id":2870,"date":"2012-07-16T08:10:21","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T13:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/?p=2870"},"modified":"2012-07-16T18:51:57","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T23:51:57","slug":"spy-dollar-cost-average","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/07\/spy-dollar-cost-average\/","title":{"rendered":"S&P500 Dollar-Cost Averaging, Pt. 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

It recently occurred to me that I’d stopped tracking the performance of a hypothetical $1,000\/month investment into the S&P 500 (via the SPY exchange-traded fund), going back to a start date of October, 1998. In fact, the last time I’d talked about this topic was my S&P 500 post<\/a> of April, 2009. The market’s been on a great run since then, all things considered. (Thanks, Federal Reserve, for making sure asset prices don’t go down long-term!)<\/p>\n

So here’s where our fictional dollar-cost-averaging investor would stand now (all dividends reinvested; returns exclude fees, taxes, etc.):<\/p>\n

\"SPY<\/center><\/p>\n

As of the end of June, 2012, our investor had a cost basis of $188,586. His investment would have been worth $217,672, for an on-paper gain of $29,085 over the course of those 13+ years. For those keeping score, he’s up a smidge over 15 percent, which equates to an internal rate of return of 2.16% per year.<\/p>\n

Our investor’s high-profit mark, to date, was back in March of this year. Cashing out then would’ve brought a profit of $36,468. That mark looks to be eclipsed shortly, I’d think. <\/p>\n

(From the “Wait, you mean there’s risk?” department, it’s worth noting that our investor was staring at a $5,833 loss as recently as September of 2011, too.)<\/p>\n

Now all we need is for a Dave Ramsey acolyte to chime in with a “Look how your money grows when invested at 12 percent<\/a> per year in good growth-stock mutual funds!” rant, and we’ll be on our way.<\/p>\n

What Does This Tell Us?<\/h3>\n

I dunno. Go long antacid, maybe?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It recently occurred to me that I’d stopped tracking the performance of a hypothetical $1,000\/month investment into the S&P 500 (via the SPY exchange-traded fund), going back to a start date of October, 1998. In fact, the last time I’d talked about this topic was my S&P 500 post of April, 2009. The market’s been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-investing","category-stocks-mutual-funds"],"yoast_head":"\nS&P500 Dollar Cost Averaging, Part 3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mdmproofing.com\/iym\/weblog\/2012\/07\/spy-dollar-cost-average\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"S&P500 Dollar Cost Averaging, Part 3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It recently occurred to me that I’d stopped tracking the performance of a hypothetical $1,000\/month investment into the S&P 500 (via the SPY exchange-traded fund), going back to a start date of October, 1998. 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