How quickly has your portfolio doubled?

[disneysteve]

I was just going through my financial records and noticed that our portfolio has doubled over the past 7 years. That made me curious how long the previous doubling had taken, and sure enough it was also 7 years. So 2006 to 2013, and 2013 to 2020. I will hopefully be retired before the next 7-year period ends, so may not see another doubling, which is okay because we don't need it to double to hit our retirement goal; we only need it to increase about 50% which should happen well before 7 years from now.

Have you ever looked at the doubling rate for your portfolio?

[kork13]

I haven't looked at it previously, and it's probably not terribly telling right now because I've been somewhat early in the accumulation phase, and almost all of that was during a period of incredible investment returns coming out of the 2009 recession...

But FWIW, in Jan 2011, I had ~$100k. By Jul 2013, $200k (doubled in 2.5 yrs). In Jan 2016, $400k (doubled in 2.5 yrs). Jul 2018 was $800k (doubled in 2.5 years). I crossed $1M right around July 4th 2019 (an awesome Independence Day!), and currently floating around $1.2M. I expect my pace will slow down, because my contributions no longer make up so much of my growth. But regardless, it's definitely a fast pace of growth... Surprising, in fact. I didn't recognize myself even how quickly it had all been doubling like that.

[bjl584]

Mine has doubled in the past 4.5 years

[disneysteve]

I expect my pace will slow down, because my contributions no longer make up so much of my growth.

It's definitely quicker early on. If I go back before 2006, the doubling rate was faster since it was mostly from contributions. Now it's mainly from growth.

[moneybags]

The rule of 72 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/ruleof72.asp says your income would double in 7 years at a 10% interest rate.

[disneysteve]

The rule of 72 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/ruleof72.asp says your income would double in 7 years at a 10% interest rate.

True, but that doesn't account for new contributions so the actual return isn't that high.

[QuarterMillionMan]

I wouldn't count my chickens before they hatch. Gold is $1865 an ounce. Bitcoin is $18,000. Mortgage interest is 3%. The market could crash the likes that we've never seen before. Remember all the quantitative easing, printing of money, kicking the can down the road, USA $27 trillion in debt, the sugar high that the stock markets have seen, the next 7 years let alone the next 4 or 5 years could see some major corrections. I would love to see doubling in the next 7 years as well but the writing is on the wall.

[Scallywag]

I only take a 6% ROI when predicting future returns. That doubles my money in 12 years although it delays our goal achievement by 5 years!

I'm going to be thrilled if the bull market continued but doubt that would happen, unfortunately. A 6% return will get us to our target figure, even if with some delay. So that works out ok for us. I really cannot complain given how dire things have been this year. Ugh. Annus horribilis!

[jIM_MI]

I was just going through my financial records and noticed that our portfolio has doubled over the past 7 years. That made me curious how long the previous doubling had taken, and sure enough it was also 7 years. So 2006 to 2013, and 2013 to 2020. I will hopefully be retired before the next 7-year period ends, so may not see another doubling, which is okay because we don't need it to double to hit our retirement goal; we only need it to increase about 50% which should happen well before 7 years from now.

Have you ever looked at the doubling rate for your portfolio?

Rule of 72, if it doubles in 7 years, 72/7=10.2% return

Mine has more than doubled in last 7, however my balance is low enough that some of that is contributions... I have doubled twice in last 8 years including contributions

[LivingAlmostLarge]

So not counting home equity and I didn't count our EF in the early year, just retirement and taxable accounts
2005 $20k in portfolio 26 and 28
2006 $58k (doubled)
2007 $86.4k (lots of savings and market tanking)
2008 $78.6k (keep on saving and going down)
2009 $121k (finally doubled again in 3 years)
2010 $201k (just about doubled again)
2011 $236k
2012 $393.7k (doubled just about 2 years, maybe if I counted ef, bad recordkeeping)
2013 $660.5 (wasn't meticulous so maybe higher)
2014 $766k
2015 $1.01M (sold house and held cash) so this was the net worth
2016 $1.06M (no income for half of 2015 and 2016, not bad) this was net worth
2017 $1.083M (bought house and put down 20% cash and renovations which is why isn't not higher)
2018 $1.066M (bad market year)
2019 $1.44M
2020 thus far $1.863m 41 and 43

rule of 72 means it might double 7 years, but our savings rate will be almost nil in the next 2 years. So we'll see what happens. If we were to continue with DH's job we would double i bet in 3 years because our savings rate is high. Now if something good happens to DH's job I think we'd be blowing our savings out of the water and something crazy would happen.

[srblanco7]

I've been tracking our portfolio in the same spreadsheet since 2005. Our doubling rate has been from 4-6 years. Took a look at the change in value (returns + contributions) during one of the 4-year doubling periods, which was from 2012 to 2016.

2012 @ 24%
2013 @ 31%
2014 @ 16%
2015 @ 3.5%
2016 @ 17%

We are diligent savers, but there's nothing like excellent returns to accelerate the process. Certainly not anticipating these returns moving forward - I run our forward projections at 6-9% (including returns and contributions).

[Singuy]

Disney Steve: How long did it take your portfolio to double?

Me: Yes

[Scallywag]

Disney Steve: How long did it take your portfolio to double?

Me: Yes

Wait... You had only 300K invested in March, 2017? Am i understanding this right?

Also, how / where can I make a similar chart for myself?

Congratulations on making it to 3 million and long live the bull market!

[Singuy]

Wait... You had only 300K invested in March, 2017? Am i understanding this right?

Also, how / where can I make a similar chart for myself?

Congratulations on making it to 3 million and long live the bull market!

I started investing since March but definitely didn't have 300k I'm 2017. Started out with 12k, and then start accumulating massively in 2018 into AMD then Tesla in 2019. But you can see how the chart looks pretty flat during my accumulating period. And that dip is the Covid crash, which lead me to accumulate some fvrr.

This is just my Robinhood and have a similar chart in vanguard with the same stocks with 150k invested and now have hit 1.1 million.

[Scallywag]

I started investing since March but definitely didn't have 300k I'm 2017. Started out with 12k, and then start accumulating massively in 2018 into AMD then Tesla in 2019. But you can see how the chart looks pretty flat during my accumulating period. And that dip is the Covid crash, which lead me to accumulate some fvrr.

This is just my Robinhood and have a similar chart in vanguard with the same stocks with 150k invested and now have hit 1.1 million.

Your research really paid off! Well done! I think you're young so you'll be holding on to these shares for decades? Increasing your stakes in these companies?