The Practical Investing Portfolio

Columnist Kathy Kristof put her real money into the market so she could help you be a better investor.

(Image credit: Thinkstock)

Kiplinger’s columnist and author of Investing 101 Kathy Kristof took approximately $200,000 of her own money and divided it into two pieces — $10,000 going into Vanguard Total Stock Market Index ETF (symbol VTI), and the rest going into individual stocks that she selected.

Kristof has ended her active management of the portfolio. In the table below, you can review the portfolio’s performance over its 7.5 year run.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
NameTickerPurchase
Value
Shares
Held
Current
Price
Current
Value
Total
Return
Ares CapitalARCC$10,037.681290.392$17.16$22,143.13120.6%
Apollo Commercial Real Estate FinanceARI10,018.751261.09017.9022,573.51125.3%
Apple Inc.AAPL16,076.73364.134170.4262,055.72286.0%
BoeingBA26,682.2382.387417.9734,435.2929.1%
Corning Inc.GLW10,003.92856.01234.5129,540.97195.3%
CostcoCOST10,953.6060.634216.4713,125.4419.8%
General MotorsGM15,719.00625.39139.0924,446.5355.5%
Gilead Sciences Inc.GILD13,621.50162.98867.5911,016.36-19.1%
Intel Corp.INTC9,996.30545.67951.6628,189.78182.0%
Invitation HomesSFR3,114.72190.00023.524,468.8043.5%
KKR Financial HoldingsKKR9,997.63962.43023.5322,645.98126.5%
Knowles Corp.*KN1,698.0083.00016.151,340.45-21.1%
Lazard Ltd. ALAZ10,174.03243.32536.738,937.33-12.2%
Seagate Technology Plc.STX16,304.81757.55745.7134,627.93112.4%
Spirit AirlinesSAVE1,158.6883.00061.675,118.61341.8%
Starwood Property TrustSTWD6,887.43837.98721.8218,284.88165.5%
Target Corp.TGT10,021.39243.14272.8417,710.4676.7%
Taylor Morrison Home CorpTMHC11,903.001223.00018.1122,148.5386.1%
CashRow 18 - Cell 1 Row 18 - Cell 2 Row 18 - Cell 3 Row 18 - Cell 4 9,799.93Row 18 - Cell 6
Portfolio TotalRow 19 - Cell 1 $189,998.009872.148Row 19 - Cell 4 $392,609.63106.6%
Vanguard Total U.S. Market ETFVTI$10,863.00187.741142.74$26,798.15146.7%

Stock prices are as of February 15, 2019. *Received through a spinoff.

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