Over the longer term, being on course to meet your financial goals is the true meaning of success.
The first aim is to grow or at least preserve the value of your portfolio after inflation over the medium term. This may not happen each year, but over a longer period, you would hope that to be the case.
What if something else did better?
It is not a good idea to compare your portfolio with other things that have done better. Cryptocurrencies or Gold are current examples of this. These results usually happen simply due to luck and hoping to be lucky is not a sound strategy.
What should I look at?
You should judge your strategy on how robust the process was when it was put together, and how robust it is now. A well-constructed portfolio should give you comfort that you are minimizing poorly compensated risks and unnecessary costs.
What if I underperform?
Sometimes returns will disappoint. Sadly, this is the way of markets. Have confidence in your strategy and try to keep the bigger picture of a long-term strategy in mind.
This is not always easy, but to do anything else would be to pretend that you, us, or anyone else can predict the future. Nobody can.
