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Coffeehouse Portfolio

Apr 10, 2007 – Sep 23, 2026, Rebalanced annually

Backtest it
CoffeehouseS&P 500
Final balance$33,114$75,807
CAGR6.35%10.97%
Max drawdown−37.69%−55.19%
Sharpe ratio0.560.63

Allocation

  • VVUS large-cap10%
  • VTVUS large-cap value10%
  • IJRUS small-cap10%
  • IJSUS small-cap value10%
  • VEUInternational stocks10%
  • VNQUS real estate10%
  • BNDUS total bond market40%

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Growth of $10,000

  • Coffeehouse
  • S&P 500

Metrics

ReturnCoffeehouseS&P 500
Final balance$33,114$75,807
Total return231.14%658.07%
CAGR6.35%10.97%
Calendar yearsCoffeehouseS&P 500
Best year18.99%32.31%
Worst year−18.64%−36.80%
Positive years14 of 1815 of 18
RiskCoffeehouseS&P 500
Max drawdown−37.69%−55.19%
Longest drawdown2.7 years4.9 years
Volatility (annualized)12.32%19.64%
Risk-adjustedCoffeehouseS&P 500
Sharpe ratio0.560.63
Sortino ratio0.790.89
Calmar ratio0.170.20

Worst drawdowns

DeclinePeakBottomRecovered
−37.7%Oct 2007Mar 2009Apr 2010
−23.6%Feb 2020Mar 2020Nov 2020
−20.3%Nov 2021Oct 2022Jul 2024
−12.6%Jul 2011Oct 2011Jan 2012
−12.1%Aug 2018Dec 2018Apr 2019

Annual returns

YearCoffeehouseS&P 500
2007*−0.15%+2.57%
2008−18.64%−36.80%
2009+17.78%+26.35%
2010+14.68%+15.06%
2011+2.80%+1.89%
2012+11.42%+15.99%
2013+15.45%+32.31%
2014+8.91%+13.46%
2015−0.91%+1.23%
2016+11.02%+12.00%
2017+11.19%+21.71%
2018−5.10%−4.57%
2019+18.99%+31.22%
2020+7.46%+18.33%
2021+15.24%+28.73%
2022−14.38%−18.18%
2023+11.76%+26.18%
2024+7.31%+24.89%
2025+10.97%+17.72%
2026*+7.51%+13.47%

* Partial year

About the Coffeehouse Portfolio

Bill Schultheis wrote The Coffeehouse Investor in 1998 and started suggesting this portfolio a year later. His advice is to save, spread the money across low-cost index funds and ignore Wall Street.

It puts 40% in bonds. The other 60% is split equally between US large, large value, small and small value stocks, international stocks and real estate.

The Coffeehouse Portfolio returned 6.3% a year from Apr 2007 to Sep 2026, against 11.0% for the S&P 500. Its biggest drop was 37.7%, against 55.2% for the S&P 500. It took 2.5 years to recover. It beat the S&P 500 in 3 of 18 full years.

Uses daily closing prices with dividends reinvested. Fund fees are included, but not taxes or trading costs. The backtest starts on Apr 10, 2007, the first day all seven funds have prices. The S&P 500 is SPY.

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