My first ~5 years as an investor

[wxgenx]

Hello everyone,

A few years ago, I wrote a post about the beginning of my investing journey and another one after my first year as an investor. Currently, I am 27 years old and have been investing for about five years. This is an update on my current situation: I worked as an IT/Business consultant for my first employer for three years, and now I am a data analyst consultant at a new job. My current salary looks like this:

• ~€2650 net
• ~€160 meal vouchers
• Company car & fuel card
• Pension savings ('Group insurance') to which ~€130 is added each month
• The 'usual' (insurance, holiday pay, 13th month, ...)

Since the last posts, my investment portfolio changed quite a lot. The total amount at the time of writing is hovering around €149.000:

• ETFs: Invested €33.000, now it is worth €44.000+
• Cryptocurrencies: Invested €5000, now it is worth €45.000
• Cash: €10.000
• Retirement funds: €4.000+
• Personal Companies: ~€35.000
  • Used €30.000 to start a small real estate company with 2 friends. We've done 2 projects since (flipping 2 apartments) but I'm still waiting on the final year overview from the accountant to update the €30.000 to the actual value right now.
  • The other €5.000 was invested in a business I recently took over together with my girlfriend. This business is a fry shop (called 'frituur' in Dutch) which is now running for a little over a month. Of course, we took a loan from the bank as well. It is still too early to update the value of this company.
• Real Estate: ~€30.000 in equity. This is the building that we bought together with the 'frituur' business mentioned above. We are in the process of renovating the apartment on the first floor so we can actually live there as well in a couple of months.
• A personal loan from my parents - €20.000. I took this out the finance the real estate that we bought. In this way, I didn't have to sell any investments.

I also have a Google spreadsheet to keep track of my portfolio if you are interested in more details. I would love to have your feedback on my portfolio! Are there things you would do differently?

 

[ggg17]

@wxgenx wrench violet sink scale person voracious resolute depend toothbrush threatening

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

 

[starfruits]

@wxgenx That's pretty impressive!

Diversify the portfolio is very important and it seems you're doing a good job on that. But, it seems you might be splitting your focus on too many things.

Do you feel the fact you're working full time, plus running 2 businesses could affect the results?

Keep up the good work.

 

[wxgenx]

@starfruits It is something that I think about a lot!

The ‘frituur’ is mostly run by the girlfriend who is doing that full time! I jump in after work some days and during the weekend and also take up all the administrative work.

I don’t have kids (yet) so most of my time is spent working.

 

[bookdragon]

@wxgenx Nice hustle bro, keep it up

 

[urban_legend]

@starfruits If i was in OP, i'd like to sell some BTC to buy some ETF

 

[amazinggrace94]

@wxgenx I followed your blog for a while. Last week I remembered it and tried to find it but forgot the name. Now I found your post by chance
Just to tell you that your journey and knowledge helped me a lot. Ty and good luck with everything

 

[wxgenx]

@amazinggrace94 Nice go hear that you followed the blog! I really enjoyed it back in the day but don’t have the time for it anymore unfortunately. One of these days I’ll get back to it!

Thanks for the kind words!!

 

[jesusislord4ever1968]

@wxgenx First of all, congratulations on your projects!

I’m a bit surprised by the “small” amount of money that some of your investments require:

-30k to flip 2 apartments?

-30 k for the shop + 1 apartment?

Would you mind telling me how come the prices are so low? I’m really curious, I though these investments would be far from normal people’s reach.

 

[wxgenx]

@jesusislord4ever1968

• We are three co-founders of the Real Estate company, each contributing €30,000, resulting in a total starting budget of €90,000, along with bank loans when we find a project.
• The fry shop property is co-owned by me and my girlfriend, with both of us sharing 50% ownership (my part of the equity is ~30.000. The apartment is small and we had to take a normal mortgage for the building. Additionally, we acquired the existing business and secured a separate business loan from the bank for that purpose. To facilitate this, my parents lent me €20,000, which was extremely helpful since I didn't have to sell any other investments. However, I do have to repay the loan with interest.

 

[jesusislord4ever1968]

@wxgenx I see, thank you for your clarification!

Would you recommend to others to follow your steps? Would you redo your choices again?

I’d be happy to start a little side business as well, but I’m always wondering if it would be worth it in terms of time and money.

Was the effort and the risk worth it, so far?

 

[wxgenx]

@jesusislord4ever1968 The most important step is to start investing. For most people, a straightforward global ETF is the ideal choice. While you can diversify your portfolio further with other investment options, like cryptocurrencies, it's important to only invest in what you comprehend and trust.

The side hustles take quite a bit of my time as well. The fry business came on our path because my girlfriend wanted to run it and she already had experience working in one for some years as a student. It is still early to tell but I do believe this investment will be worth it in the long run. Do keep in mind the working hours are 'extreme'.

The Real Estate business is still in an early phase. We made some money but probably not worth it compared to the invested time. As with all things, we made some mistakes in the beginning and are trying to learn from them moving forward. We knew from the beginning that this was a long-term game!

 

[zinkaz]

@wxgenx Am I the only one, again, to think 35 Euros instead of 35,000 EUR because of the "." after it?

 

[wxgenx]

@zinkaz I am sorry, I guess the thousand separator is different depending on region.

 

[bubbles0023]

@zinkaz Yes, you are too american. Most people around the globe can understand both uses of "." and ",".

 

[moris]

@wxgenx How does this folio looks like in terms of maintaining it ? Where are the manual entries you need to put in ? I see the "Googlefinance" formula etc and the ones that are pulling directly from the internet but i will be interested to know how do you maintain it.

Cheers and great work!

 

[wxgenx]

@moris The current values of my stocks and cryptocurrencies are always up-to-date thanks to the Googlefinance formulas I use.

Whenever I purchase additional shares or coins, I update the amount I own and add the invested amount to the appropriate field.

If I save some extra cash, I simply update the relevant field.

My personal loan from my parents and the equity in my property are automatically updated each month based on the loan repayment table.

To keep track of the changes over time, I maintain a 'Ledger' page where I record the end-of-month values of everything.

Typically, I receive my salary and immediately save or invest the money, after which I update the spreadsheet. This process usually takes me around 5 to 10 minutes per month.

 

[moris]

@wxgenx Got it thanks.

Few other questions (apologize but im building my own one so it got me interested )

1. Where do you pull the data for the property value ? I see the formula but i somehow dont quite get it. In the hidden sheet do you keep some APIs to specific website ?

 

[wxgenx]

@moris Since English is not my first language, I hope the following explanation comes across clearly. Excuse me if this is not the case.

I assumed the value of the property based on what we paid for it. I also know the amount we used for a downpayment. I also know the exact amount of capital I pay back each month + interest. Based on this I can calculate the amount of equity I have in the property. This is the value shown in the dashboard.

For the personal debt (loan from my parents) it is kind of the same thing. I know the amount I borrowed (€20.000). I know the amount of capital I pay back each month + interest. Based on this I know the exact amount that is left on the loan.

Hopefully this is kind of clear?

 

[moris]

@wxgenx Yep - perfectly ... somehow i edited and deleted the second part of my question so if anyone is reading not to be confused.

Again - you're doing more than great.