March 2013 update (234,000 +4,000 or +2%)

The portfolio changes:

↑ Accumulate additional $3,500 as part of my annual savings plan ($42,000 a year or $3,500 a month)

↑ Vanguard Energy ETF stocks are up $ 300

↑ Gazprom and Company shares are up $790 combined

↑ Precious metals up $400

↓ Emerging market mutual funds are down $990

  

Observations:

-         Emerging market mutual fund. High risk investment with any income being killed by greed and inefficiency. Some specific comparison:

        Manege square  -  3.2% funds fees,  0.6% for keeping records. Investor pays 3.8 % annually!

        Whole market tracker, such as MMVB index 1.8% fund fees and 0.6 for keeping records or 2.4% annually.

              Compare it with Vanguard S&P 500 ETF 0.05% or Emerging market ETF (VWO) 0.18%.  The investment has not made any money for the last 5 years of exposure. It has been a very expensive price for practical experiment.

-         Proportion of my portfolio in cash is creeping up, but I am a little bit worried now. Seemingly I missed the train with investing in S&P500 and most of the observers are waiting for a correction. 

By all means procrastination is not a short track to financial independence, but I am really puzzled with next step.