In June the average prudential balanced portfolio returned -1.21% (May: 0.21%). Top performer is Momentum (-0.72%); while Namibia Asset Management (-2.12%) takes the bottom spot. For the 3 month period, Momentum takes top spot, outperforming the ‘average’ by roughly 1.17%. On the other end of the scale Prudential underperformed the ‘average’ by 0.55%.

Money market, smooth bonus or prudential balanced?

Looking at investment returns over the past the time of reckoning has finally arrived and will shadow us for some time to come, as we have expected and written on in many previous columns.

Annualised returns of the typical prudential balanced portfolio over the past 3 years just managed to match the money market returns over this period. Over shorter periods, although quite volatile, the average prudential balanced portfolio has mostly underperformed the money market portfolio.

Since the beginning of 2009 I commented that bourses are likely to perform sluggishly in the face of rising interest rates. If I had then acted by moving out of a typical prudential managed portfolio, where should I have shifted my money to and what does that experience tell me about the alternatives I should consider now?