Another financial year is nearly over, FY19 has been a very odd year.
It seemed like we were entering a bear market at the end of December 2018, but the local ASX and global share market have come roaring back.
But, can you claim to be a better investor than your superannuation fund this year?
According to reporting in the Australian Financial Review, Australia's superannuation funds are about to achieve positive returns for the tenth year in a row, which would be a record-breaking streak assuming nothing bad happens to the markets over the next few days.
How much would you have needed to beat the typical superannuation fund? The FY19 return for a 'balanced' fund is on course for a 7.1% return. However, the growth options of superannuation funds may achieve returns around the 10% to 11% mark.
But it's not hard to find some broad investments that have done even better, with most of them having an American slant such as MFF Capital Investments Ltd (ASX: MFF), Magellan Global Trust (ASX: MGG), Vanguard US Total Market Shares Index ETF (ASX: VTS) and iShares S&P 500 ETF (ASX: IVV).
On the ASX side of things there are various shares you could have owned to beat the market like Altium Limited (ASX: ALU), Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT), Appen Ltd (ASX: APX), Pro Medicus Limited (ASX: PME) and… Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS).
It has been a solid year for shares even though there have been various issues like trade wars, elections, a declining housing market and interest rate movements to deal with.
Foolish takeaway
What FY19 has taught me is that it's best to stay mostly invested, in high-quality businesses even if there are reasons to be concerned about the local and global share markets.
