Yesterday I received notice that my second quarter report was available for our TIAA retirement fund. So I logged in to download a copy and realized that it had actually lost 1% this last quarter. Now I know what you're thinking, 1% is nothing, which may be true depending on how much money were talking about it, but I was still a little shocked to see the result.

Upon further inspection to determine what had caused this, I was even more surprised to find out the reason...The Vanguard Index Signal Fund (VIFSX). This is a new retirement account as my wife recently changed jobs that brought us into the TIAA fold, so the total amount invested is not as large as it would normally be and is more susceptible to swings in the market. That being said, I decided to look at the holdings of the fund. After a short search I found the top 25 holdings for the fund on the Morningstar site and have included a screenshot for your reference below. My apologies for the large image but wanted it to be readable.

Looking at the YTD Return percentages it is easy to see why this fund is dragging down the whole account. I was surprised to see the number of 'losers' in the mix. In fact only 20% of the top 25 are in positive territory. The interesting and not so surprising thing is the number of financial stocks doing poorly. (Shout-out to Will Profit, Citigroup down 41%) The trend here though is that almost everything is down which confirms that if it looks like a bear and smells like a bear, IT's a BEAR.

We are only half way through the year of course, and I'm sure some of these numbers will improve by years end to save face and squeak out a profitable return for the fund, but I was certainly surprised. I recently adjusted my percentages down on this fund within my TIAA account, but I guess it was not soon enough. Still escaping with a 1% loss through what has arguably been one of the toughest times in history for the market is not so bad.

I ended up positive1.5%.  Only because I took 80% out of my international fund and bottom fished the the company stock for a 15% gain.  Everything else is terrible. 

Speaking of TIAA-CREF

I have some first hand knowledge of this company ( had 6 months contract back in 2000 )

They are good conservative company, you will not outperform other funds, but normally you would not lose as much in a bad economy - they don't do risky investments. They are no BCS or LEH. As a matter of fact, I think till just recent years not too many people realized that their pension fund is bigger than Fidelity Magellan. But here is the real problem with TIAA - they are one of the biggest real estate owners in USA and now it hits them badly. But, speaking of long term you will come way ahead, too bad none immune to losses.

Of course my personal best memory of TIAA-CREF was cafeteria - $2.50 for 3 course restaurant quality meal :-)

Of course Heebner's Focus fund was reaping good returns last 3 years, but just last 3 days it lost about 15% of YTD gains - all those high flying gainers are one time heroes - just happened to be in the right place at the right time. On a long run any mutual fund losing you money counting inflation and real cost of money.

What to do, what to do...the only way to make money is to "sh..t on another little guy" :(