How I Got Almost 25% Returns During COVID - 19

While some people might have gotten nervous through the COVID-19 experience I used that time to invest and got more than 20% return on my money.

​Updated- September 1st, 2020 and that is now above 30%!

Because I have multiple rental units and a retirement petition, if I stay long enough in my current employer,  my "investing" is typically just maxing out my personal Roth IRA which is $6,000 a year.  But, because I was so optimistic on where the market was I choose to almost double that in 2020. 

Listed below are my actually purchases through 2020 into my Roth.

You may notice that I purchased only index funds and that came from my own trial and error which I talk about here. This strategy of buying mutual funds is often talked about in the Financial Independence community because of its passive management and low fees.

​Okay, let's take a deep dive into each of those purchases in my Roth IRA.

First, the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund (VTSAX) purchases.

I bought the entire way down and actually lucked out by making my largest purchase at the very bottom which was 34.97% cheaper than the price 5 weeks earlier. My average purchase was 24.19% lower than what the peak was back in February and it still isn't back to that peak although it is getting close. 

VTSAX high 2/18/20 at $83.79

VTSAX low 3/23/20 at $54.49

VTSAX after 8/7/20 at $82.67

Okay, now let's take a look at how I did with Vanguard S&P 500 Index (VOO) in my Roth.

VOO high on 2/18/20 at $310.92

VOO low on 2/18/20 at 204.27

VOO closed 8/7/20 at 307.36

I wasn't able to get this at quite the discount I was for VTSAX but I'll still take an average of 15.95% off.

These kinds of discounts made me want to buy more in my Robinhood account that I had stopped using. 

If you added all my purchases together here is how it looks!

Summary

Know your investment strategy! If you don't have one you need to think about it and create something that you want to stick with in the good times and bad. I know mine and that's helped me get almost 30% returns in 2019 and now over 20% through the Corona Virus. 

For me it is pretty simple, and is basically the Warren Buffet quote, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.” My investment strategy is buy and hold. So at any point there is a downturn in the market I want to dump as much cash in as I feel comfortable because my hope is that in 25 years America will still be going strong and those mutual funds will have increased in value.

It is THAT simple.

I don't get super nervous when the market drops because I don't know how far it's going to drop and I can't time when it'll drop or bounce back. My only hope is to purchase them at a discount and watch them increase in value over the next 20-30 years.

If you are interested in books on investing here are some I recommended!

​**This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you and allows me to keep the lights on around here. All thoughts and opinions are my own. ​​​