They contained no marijuana stocks and no bitcoin, but the Couch Potato portfolios put up another good year in 2017. Once again, investors were rewarded for simply following a disciplined, low cost, broadly diversified strategy and ignoring the blather of market forecasters. Before we get to the portfolio performance, here’s an overview of how the major asset classes fared in 2017:
- What a strange year for bonds. How many more reminders do we need that guessing on interest rates is as futile as trying to time the equity markets? The Bank of Canada raised rates not once, but twice during the summer, and for the 12 months ending September 30, the FTSE TMX Canada Universe Bond Index was down 3%, the biggest 12-month decline in two decades. But for the full calendar year, the index was up 2.5%, which is almost exactly the current yield to maturity on broad-based funds such as the BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF (ZAG). Had you just tuned out the noise and held on to your bond fund for the whole year you would have enjoyed a respectable return—again.
. - Canadian equities followed up their banner 2016 with another solid performance: the S&P/TSX Capped Composite Index returned 9.1% in 2017.
. - Donald Trump’s first full year as POTUS seemed to stoke the already red-hot US market, which climbed more than 21% in its local currency. The strengthening loonie reduced that return for Canadians, but US equities still returned over 13% in CAD terms during 2017.
. - International developed markets (Western Europe, Japan, Australia) rebounded from a poor showing the previous year to deliver over 18% in 2017, despite a Canadian dollar that rose against most foreign currencies. But the big winner for the year was emerging markets (primarily China, Korea, Taiwan, India, and so on), which soared by about 28%.
Now let’s put these pieces together to see how the three versions of my model portfolios performed in 2017. A reminder that these returns include all dividends and interest, which are assumed to be reinvested as soon as they are received. (This is the way all mutual fund and ETFs calculate and publish their returns.)
Option 1: Tangerine Investment Funds
The Tangerine Investment Funds offer a one-fund index portfolio with three choices ranging from the conservative Balanced Income Portfolio to the more assertive Balanced Growth Portfolio:
| Fund | Asset Allocation | 2017 Return |
|---|---|---|
| Tangerine Balanced Income Portfolio | 30% equities / 70% bonds | 4.6% |
| Tangerine Balanced Portfolio | 60% equities / 40% bonds | 7.8% |
| Tangerine Balanced Growth Portfolio | 75% equities / 25% bonds | 9.5% |
Option 2: TD e-Series Funds
The TD e-Series funds, which allow you to customize your portfolio with any asset mix. Here are the 2017 returns for the individual mutual funds:
| TD e-Series Fund | 2017 Return |
|---|---|
| TD Canadian Bond Index – e (TDB909) | 1.99% |
| TD Canadian Index – e (TDB900) | 8.74% |
| TD US Index – e (TDB902) | 13.30% |
| TD International Index – e (TDB911) | 16.65% |
And here’s how the returns look for the five different asset mixes in my model portfolios:
| Model e-Series Portfolio | Asset Allocation | 2017 Return |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 30% equities / 70% bonds | 5.3% |
| Cautious | 45% equities / 55% bonds | 6.9% |
| Balanced | 60% equities / 40% bonds | 8.5% |
| Assertive | 75% equities / 25% bonds | 10.2% |
| Aggressive | 90% equities / 10% bonds | 11.8% |
Option 3: ETFs
Finally, these three funds are building blocks of my model ETF portfolio. They posted the following returns in 2017:
| Fund | 2017 Return |
|---|---|
| BMO Aggregate Bond Index ETF (ZAG) | 2.29% |
| Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap Index ETF (VCN) | 8.46% |
| iShares Core MSCI All Country World ex Canada Index ETF (XAW) | 15.88% |
Put these funds together and the portfolio returns look like this:
| Model ETF Portfolio | Asset Allocation | 2017 Return |
|---|---|---|
| Conservative | 30% equities / 70% bonds | 5.6% |
| Cautious | 45% equities / 55% bonds | 7.3% |
| Balanced | 60% equities / 40% bonds | 9.0% |
| Assertive | 75% equities / 25% bonds | 10.6% |
| Aggressive | 90% equities / 10% bonds | 12.3% |
Understanding the differences
When comparing the returns of the three model portfolio options, investors often believe the only difference is fees. Certainly one would expect the ETF portfolios (with an average fee of just 0.14%) to deliver higher returns than the comparable Tangerine funds (with a fee of 1.07%). But there’s more to it than just costs: some of the differences are random and short-lived and should be ignored by long-term investors.
- The Tangerine funds hold only large-cap Canadian, US and international developed stocks. The TD e-Series portfolios include a broad-market Canadian equity fund, but they too hold only large-caps for the US and international developed markets. Meanwhile, the ETF portfolios track broader indexes that also include hundreds of additional mid-cap and small-cap stocks. During some years this will make a significant difference. In 2017, large caps generally outperformed small, which gave a modest boost to the Tangerine and e-Series portfolios.
. - The Vanguard FTSE Canada All Cap Index ETF (VCN) tracks an index of Canadian equities that is slightly different from the one tied to the TD Canadian Index – e (TDB900). In 2017, the S&P index outperformed the FTSE version by 0.54%. (Last year the FTSE index outperformed, and over the long term these differences have evened out.)
. - The ETF portfolios are the only ones that include emerging markets (this asset class makes up about 12% of XAW). Because emerging markets had such a big year in 2017, the ETF portfolios enjoyed an edge over the other two options.
Finally, if you followed Option 2 or 3 of the model portfolios, don’t assume your personal rate of return was the same as what’s reported here. That would only be true if you held the funds in the same proportion as the models on January 1 and didn’t make any trades during the year. The Tangerine funds may be more expensive than the other options, but they impose a valuable discipline on investors inclined to tinker: anyone holding one of these funds for the whole 12 months enjoyed the full return published above.
Note also that these are time-weighted returns, and if you made significant contributions or withdrawals during the year, your money-weighted rate of return could be quite different. See this post for more about how these methodologies differ, and for links to calculators created by my colleague, Justin Bender.
Longer-term rates of return for all of the portfolios are available in PDF format on the Model Portfolios page.
Hi there, I have a simple question but I couldn’t find the answer – hopefully someone can direct me to it. First off thanks for all the great resources – love the model portfolio (priceless info). I’m just wondering why you recommend such high Canadian exposure? Intuitively I would think that Canada is a very small part of the global economy so it shouldn’t represent 20-30-40% of your portfolio. In my own portfolio it’s a very small % but I’m sure there is a good reason why you recommend otherwise. Thanks.
@Greg: These should help:
http://www.moneysense.ca/invest/bias-towards-canadian-stocks/
https://canadiancouchpotato.com/2012/05/22/ask-the-spud-does-home-bias-ever-make-sense/
@Dave E: Thanks for the comment. I can’t explain TD’s rating. Assuming risk is defined as some combination of volatility and risk of a large drawdown I can’t imagine how ZAG ranks “Above Average,” even among fixed income funds, let alone a universe that includes equity ETFs. A broad-based bond index is, by definition, average in the fixed income universe.
Hi Dan. Have you seen the new “one-ticket” index ETFs from Vanguard (TSX: VCNS, VBAL, & VGRO? They look to me to be somewhat like the ETF equivalent of Tangerine’s mutual funds; slightly more expensive than your current ETF model portfolio, but potentially much easier to maintain. Curious what you think!
I think those new Vanguard funds Edward is mentioning (VCNS,VBAL,VGRO) look wonderful. The MER is just a little higher than the 3-fund CCP portfolio and no rebalancing/trades required.
I guess my only concern is a little tax inefficiency for portfolios spread between RRSP, TFSA and non-registered account.
Dan/Justin Bender – any idea what the drag on returns would be with just investing VBAL in all accounts (RRSP/TFSA/non-registered) vs trying to optimize funds within the 3 groups, i.e. US/Developed/Emerging in RRSP, bonds in TFSA, Canadian in non-registered? Obviously it depends on the size of the portfolio and size of RRSP…
I suspect it’s probably not massive but for now, unless I get to a place where I’ve maxed my RRSP/TFSA and mostly sitting in non-registered, I’ll keep them separate for now but I expect I’ll be getting to a place where VGRO is my new go-to fund.
Hi Edward, thanks for drawing attention to those one-ticket index ETFs! These seem like the Canadian equivalent of the Vanguard Lifestrategy funds: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/lifestrategy/#/
I’m aslo interested in hearing the Couch Potato’s take on these funds as a full alternative to his model portfolios.
Meanwhile, here is an interesting article from another UK financial blog I follow about the Lifestratey funds:
http://monevator.com/using-vanguard-lifestrategy-funds-life/
Hi, I would love to hear an assessment of the new Vanguard 1 stop shop ETFs. Specifically how they compare with “Option 3: ETFs”.
I guess some questions are regarding tax implications of having the same ETF on all RRSP, TFSA, non-registered accounts. How would performance compare and so on.
Thanks!
Hi Dan, love the blog keep up the good work. I follow your aggressive 3 ETF portfolio using my RRSP. I’m considering opening up a TFSA with the same 3 ETF portfolio. Does it make sense to have the exact same allocation in each (60 xaw/30 vcn/10 zag)? I’m struggling to understand witholding taxes and how to structure these two accounts. Any help appreciated
Thanks Mat
Hi Dan,
On March 10, 2017 I decided to invest my cash for the first time and I went with the Assertive portfolio since I’m still relatively young. I invested about $140,000. I haven’t touched it since then and can see that my returns including dividends were $4972.42. This represents less then 4%.
Now I have another $85,000 saved up to invest again. I already put $25,000 in the cryptocurrency market, which returned me over $4,000 in a few days. The remaining $60,000 I am supposed to invest in my couch potato assertive portfolio, I even already transferred the money to my accounts.
My struggle right now is this: the economy seems to be overdue for a big drop. The risk of a 30%(could be more or less) drop in the CCP portfolio seems much higher then the upside, which was a modest return of less then 4% for me in the last 11 months period.
I still haven’t encountered a way of thinking about this situation that makes sense to me. The typical “If you are far away from retirement is doesn’t matter” argument doesn’t really make it much better. I like considering both the long term future but also the immediate future when investing.
Do you have any pointers on how I should frame my thinking around this problem?
@Jay: I’m a slightly experienced sort-of-beginner CCP investor. Just when I think I’ve learned all I need to know, I stumble upon yet another insight that I had not appreciated earlier. Often these insights are psychological (rather than purely mathematical/financial) in nature Just to let you know where I’m coming from, as I offer my unasked advice.
I think you’ll find everything you’ll need to know just trawling through all the various posts in this site back through time, but focussing on the later ones, where Dan’s theoretical knowledge was tempered by seeing how real live investors actually behave and think in real life, and thus leading to a trend towards simpler and more likely-to-be followed investment strategies.
But your greatest asset would be time, firstly for the magic of compounding to average itself out over longer periods of fluctuation, and secondly for the maturity that comes with time to let the intrinsic truth of the Couch Potato principle truly sink in until it becomes part of you.
The first rule or principle I have distilled for myself out of Couch Potato Wisdom is that you can’t predict the future. If there was only one rule allowed, this would be it. Sure, you can make a prediction, and when it eventually came true, you could always say “See?” and re-frame your prior prediction in a way that makes it prescient. But you can’t actually predict the future precisely enough to make money on it (apart from the general rule of thumb that observes that over a hundred year duration, Canadian, US and world equity indices have trended towards 9%+ compounding nominal return). Nobel Prizes have been earned analysing the results of experts and common investors alike, to confirm this nugget of truth. If you want to avail yourself of the benefits of Couch Potato Wisdom (the only rational, sensible way of investing) you really have to swallow this one.
So, returning to you, violation number one — your speculation in the cryptocurrency market. I’m not necessarily impressed with your by-chance profit as evidence of a good decision. Why not go to the casino? I hear a highly reliable source emphatic that lower numbers on the roulette table are really hot for the next few days! You can’t be a true rational Couch Potato and keep on doing that. Sorry to be harsh, but just sayin’. Looking after your hard earned money is a serious undertaking, not for impetuous or half-baked ideas.
If the equities are “poised for a drop” (this is a prediction for the future, no?) and you are paralysed with indecision, you have not done your emotional homework. So, work out an asset allocation ratio that you can live with forever, or at least for this phase of your life, work on it sincerely, to see if you can live with all economic outcomes acting on your portfolio, and once you’ve decided on the right mix, invest all your cash in that ratio. Now. If you truly have a great lump in your throat doing this, you might consider Dollar Cost Averaging by making purchases in instalments, but consider the possibility that this fear may be based on the fact that you have not truly accepted all the possible economic consequences of your choice of asset allocation (see the recent CCP post on this).
There have been tons of economic predictions made in the public opinion arena during the past 5 year period that I have been trying to educate myself on this site. They all have been very plausible, tugging at the worst of our gut fears. Some have been sort of right. Others have been sort of wrong. With the benefit of hindsight I now see that all have been worthless as predictors of what best to do and when, except for the edict that one had to make an asset allocation that considered all possible outcomes, including the one under scrutiny. I’m starting to repeat myself, so I’ll end here. CCP investing is very simple. It’s not necessarily easy, especially at first.
@Oldie Thank you for sharing your wisdom. This helped me frame my thinking better. I miscalculated my CCP returns. They were more like 9% and not 4% as I stated previously, much better than I thought.
@Jay: I do this too, that is, constantly looking at short-term returns and obsessing over them, such as is the topic of this blog entry. Dan, who is wiser and smarter than all of us stacked together, arguably may still have committed an indiscretion (understandable though it would be) providing this breakdown of data in that it feeds an undesirable habit — the constant checking of short-term results, and worse, thinking that these results are of significance for the long term — that for a true Couch Potato is unhelpful (OK, maybe “not necessarily helpful”) to good practice.
So you gained 9%, not 4% over the course of 2017. Great. What if you had lost 15%? Would the jubilation of the first or the despair of the second be of any true informative value in the long term scale of things? The fundamental truth of CP investing is to be sure you’re invested into an acceptable asset allocation mix. Then tune out the noise, and hang in there for 15 or more years. I know what I should do, but my reptile brainstem still leads me to tune into juicy articles like this. I hope I’m disciplined enough not to fall off the bandwagon. I just have to remember that the magic definitely is there, but it doesn’t look spectacular, until you consider the long-term perspective.
Management fee on Vanguard Canadian Aggregate Bond Index ETF (VAB) reduced from 0.12% to 0.08%
@zwzlife: At long last! I was wondering how long I was going to wait for this to happen before I gave up and sold all my VAB to buy ZAG. Vanguard obviously figured out that there were thousands of Canadian investors in this same mind set.
Any comments or thoughts on the following?
http://www.macleans.ca/economy/money-economy/canadas-stock-market-is-the-worst-in-the-world/
@Link: Any time some smart financial guru tries to show me what the future will bring (and thus assist me in making more money, or not losing money, etc.), I try to remind myself that I’m a couch potato investor, and that means giving up the seductive notion that I (or anyone else, actually) can accurately and precisely predict the future. If I’m successful, it really helps in tuning out the noise, and trusting in my carefully considered pre-determined asset allocation. This single, simple central concept is becoming my number one go-to couch potato memory aid for comfort in volatile or calm times alike.
(BTW, it turns out that most, if not almost all the financial news, when viewed from the CCP perspective, is only noise).
i noticed in some of the older blogs that you guys were recommending currency hedged foreign etfs. How have those portfolios performed?
I am currently doing a portion of my RRSP and TFSA using the couch potato funds. Wife has some stuff in the RBF1350 series D fund from RBC. She prefers to stay in that fund because she says it is already diversified similar to the couch potato and has an MER less than 1 %. She doesn’t have to re balance it either. It has also performed similar so I can’t really think of a reason for her to change. Besides lower MER. Unless I am missing something?
I have been following your stuff for a few years. Your opinion would be appreciated.
@Henry: I always advise against pushing a family member to adopt an indexing strategy if they are comfortable with their current arrangement, except perhaps if their current situation is a disaster and they’re just not aware. That’s not the case here: RBF1350 is a low-cost, prudently managed balanced fund and she could do an awful lot worse than just sticking with it.
I am in the process of moving my investments from a big investment company to gain control of my funds as well as reduce costs and hopefully improve performance. I’m leaning towards “option 2”, TD e-series. But I’m wondering for all 3 options, how is it when you actually want to get your money out? I can find lots of info on putting your money in these types of investments but what about when you are ready to start spending, like retirement or your kid’s education? Are there easy transfers to your daily bank of choice, how long do transfers take and what if any fees are there?
Me too want to know response to Camrose question.
@Camrose and Aslam: The specific process for drawing down your portfolio will be different at every brokerage, and with different account types (e.g. RESPs compared with RRIFs), but it’s straightforward. You simply sell some portion of the your investments to free up the cash and then request a withdrawal, which is usually sent to a bank account, and it takes a couple of days. There are no fees, except if you make an RRSP withdrawal before retirement: many brokerage charge a small fee for this.
Once you convert your RRSP to a RRIF in retirement, most people set up regular monthly withdrawals that go directly in to their bank account to provide income to live on. The brokerage will ensure that you withdraw at least the minimum amount.
RESPs are the only accounts that can be tricky:
http://www.moneysmartsblog.com/resp-withdrawals/
Thanks for the reassurance about withdrawals. I agree about RESPs being “tricky” – I have 2 post secondary kids right now, one started school then dropped. It has been a major headache trying to understand what we can/can’t do and to get the grant/earnings out while she still has lower income. My financial planner doesn’t understand the rules and they have to check with “back office” for every question – they didn’t even know about the 6 month rule… I’m hoping I can transfer my RESP, TFSA and RSP out to TD or Tangerine without too many issues.
Hi, I think I understand the basic couch potato approach, and how the different accounts (RRSP, TFSA, and taxable accounts) differ in tax treatment, but I wonder if you can verify that I have the details correct.
Suppose I have 400k to invest and I want to do 25% in ZAG, 25% in VCN, and 50% in XAW. So that’s 100k in ZAG, 100k in VCN and 200k in XAW.
Suppose I have 120k total in RRSP, 57.5k total in TFSA, and 222.5k in the taxable account. Suppose it’s all sitting in cash at the moment.
ZAG is all bonds, so that should all go in the RRSP account, so 100k ZAG goes there with 20k of room remaining.
VCN is Canadian equity, so that should go in the TFSA account first, so 57.5k goes in TFSA, with 42.5k going into the taxable account.
XAW is Global equity, so that should fill the remaining 20k of the RRSP, and the remaining 180k of XAW goes into the taxable account.
To summarize:
RRSP: 100k ZAG, 0k VCN, 20k XAW
TFSA: 0k ZAG, 57.5k VCN, 0k XAW
Taxable: 0k ZAG, 42.5k VCN, 180k XAW
Is this a tax-efficient and sensible way to initially allocate the 400k into the three accounts?
Thanks in advance!
@WH: This sounds fine, though one of the challenges of asset location is that you can’t set it and forget it.
Suppose in the future we have a downturn in equities, with Canadian stocks falling the hardest. You would need to sell bonds and buy Canadian equities. But all the bonds are in your RRSP, so you would have to add a new holding of Canadian equities there. Or you would need to sell bonds in the RRSP, buy global equities in the RRSP, and then compensate by selling global equities in the non-reg and buying more Canadian equities there.
As you can see, this is not straightforward. But there is really no optimal strategy, so don’t spend too much time worrying about the small details. Sounds like you’re on the right track.
Hello,
Is there a reason why you don’t recommend the Tangerine Equity Growth Portfolio?
As of now, all my money is invested in the Tangerine Balanced Growth Portfolio (RRSP, TFSA & LIRA).
In a few months, my RRSP and TFSA will be maxed out so I will have to open a taxable account and I was thinking of putting the extra money into the Tangerine Equity Growth Portfolio for taxe purposes. Would it be a better choice?
Moreover, I am also wondering if I am missing out by being invested in the Balanced Growth instead of the Equity Growth as my main Portfolio.
My horizon before retirement is somewhere between 15 and 20 years.
Any advice?
Thanks
@Michael: The Tangerine Equity Growth Portfolio is not part of my model portfolios because these do not include any 100% equity allocations.
Dan,
Right now Trump is talking hard to Russia, the worst I seen in a while. I had all my money in the S&P500 and sold everything just before the big decline (I made good money with that risk). Where should I put my money during these crazy times with Trump vs Russia? is it smart to keep in in cash while these noise goes away or invest it in what?
Thanks
@Manny: Good for you that you apparently saved some value by cashing out before values declined. But, speaking purely as a student of this blog and of the general principles of agnostic well-diversified passive index investing, I would say that, due to the fact of the market being completely transparent, your apparent transactional gain was purely by good fortune, counter-intuitive though it may seem.
Consequently, by extending the same principles of agnosticism (that is, acknowledging that one cannot truly expect to predict the future with any precision), it is illogical to ask a true proponent of Couch Potato Investing how best to invest the cash you are now holding during “these crazy times with Trump vs Russia”, or in fact during any other time period perceived to be volatile in terms of economic outlook. In other words, in answer to your question:
“is it smart to keep in in cash while these noise goes away or invest it in what?”
…it always is totally noise, and it never will go away. Therefore your best strategy, as always, is to ignore that noise, and to invest only according to your own internally derived financial needs schedule and capacity for risk tolerance.
Just my two cents worth as a plodding student of Couch Potato Wisdom.
I am a huge fan of your blog. You guys have helped alot of people. I started index investing last year in May.
I have invested almost 25K in my RRSP using 60/40 portfolio. But when I looked at the numbers recently the overall value of my portfolio went from 25000 to 25636 that’s only like 1.9 % ROI. Can you explain that please ? I have been struggling to find the answer. Here are some details which would help.
Brokerage Account: Questrade (no fees)
Invested 1st and 15th of every month.
Here’s my portfolio.
VAB 40%
VCN 20%
VFV 20%
XEF 16%
XEC 4%
I would really appreciate if you can shed some light on this.
@Neo: Thanks for the comment. First off, over the last 12 months, a 2% return on a balanced portfolio isn’t far off. But it’s impossible to track your rate of return without knowing the dates and amounts of all the contributions. This blog by my colleague Justin Bender will help:
https://www.canadianportfoliomanagerblog.com/how-to-calculate-your-rate-of-return-at-questrade/
Questrade also calculates money-weighted rates of return automatically, I believe.
@CanadianCouchPotato thank you so much for the link. That really helped me calculate my Rate of return for 2017. So after the calculation my ROI for 2017 came out to be 3.08%. To me it seems a little less when I compared it to the market performance. I feel for the balanced portfolio like mine it should be little more. What are your thoughts ?
@Neo: My 2 cents worth as a beginner investor. You have a nice asset allocation geared for the long term outlook, with 40% in Canadian Bonds and 60% divided into Canadian US and World Equities. If you had $1000 invested on Jan 1st, 2017 it would have returned 9% calculated on December 31, 2017. But you didn’t have this amount. You had your small first deposit on January 1st, 2017, and in theory, if you were able to make your asset purchases when the markets opened that day, that first deposit would have returned 9% when calculated on December 31, 2017. The remaining deposits were all invested for decreasing proportions of the full year, and even that decreasing proportion calculation would not help you to estimate the return because all the prices fluctuated randomly in between the beginning of the year and the end of the year (rather than gradually rising in a straight line). In retrospect, the Canadian Equity index dipped a little in the first half of the year, then rapidly made up its deficit and more by December 31. But you can never predict that in advance, so your slow and steady contribution investment strategy is rational and sensible, although in the price curve I have described, the purchases made earlier in the year rose higher and contributed more to your 2017 year return than the purchases made towards the end of the year. Different Can$ price curves for the US and World Indexes, of course, and equally unpredictable.
But by 2018, all your 2017 contributions will be working for the full 12 months of 2018, and so on as time goes on. And if you have been paying attention, you will realize that you can trust in the long term future to look after your investments, so that checking your intermediate returns every day, or every week, or every month, or dare I say, every year is counter-productive, and even likely to drive you to make unwise changes in course. So don’t do it any more.
Enjoying your blog for the first time. I have recently decided, now that I am retired, to handle my own investing, rather than through a fund manager, but lack experience. As such I would like to start using one of your models in the TD E series. Am I too old to be starting to buy index funds? I am considering the assertive model as income is more important at this point than capitol growth. Thanks!
HI
I’m a little confused still though I have read all of your stuff and many books. I have a real return of 6% avg. over the last 8 years using my advisor after fees. I was about to transfer my money to TD e series but looking at the returns listed on the fund facts, it looks like 10 year returns have been in the 3 to 4% range. This is a lot lower than the results of your example portfolios? I did a real example using my money as if I had invested in the CPP over the same 8 years and I am much further behind (average 4% over the last 8 years). Am I missing something?
Thanks
Angele
@Angele: Any time you compare the returns of two portfolios the asset allocation needs to be similar and the time period needs to be exactly the same. Otherwise the results are meaningless. Without knowing the specifics of your comparison, there is no way anyone can determine whether it is accurate.