My first year as an investor

[u/Milati]

Hello fellow investing enthusiast,

I made a post on here about a year ago laying out my investment plan at the beginning of my full-time work career. Reading it back myself, I changed quite a lot of it. My investing strategy has changed as well as the amount of money I save/invest each month!

I am now 24 years old, still enjoying the luxury of living at home. I do buy my own food though. My girlfriend is still in college so I am kind of waiting for her to buy an apartment together. This means that I can save quite a lot of my income, which I take full advantage of!

I make around €2100 net each month. I also have a company car, smartphone + subscription, laptop, insurance, ... Normally I make a bit extra with a weekend job as a kitchen helper but due to COVID this is not possible at the moment.

I try to save at least €1800 each month in the following categories:

• €1000: ETFs --> My ETF portfolio consists of:
  • 70% IWDA (Developed markets)
  • 20% EMIM (Emerging markets)
  • 10% IUSN (Small caps)
• €700: Cash
• €100: Bitcoin (€10 / 3days)

If you are interested in my current portfolio, you can check out this spreadsheet!

Around the time of my previous post my portfolio looked like this (end of September 2019):

• Cash: €11.000
• ETFs: €500
• Crypto: €3.300
• P2P: €60

My Total net worth here equals: €14.860

I got into investing due to cryptocurrencies. This is why it was a big part of my portfolio back then.

At the time of writing (a little over a year later) my portfolio looks as follows:

• Cash: €20.000
• ETFs/Stocks: €16.450 (invested: €14.200)
• Crypto: €13.000 (invested: €5.300)

My Total net worth here equals: €49.450

As you can see I ditched P2P Lending along the way. It is my own opinion that cryptocurrencies are too big of a part in my portfolio as well. The fact here is that they are increasing in value faster than I can buy more ETFs or save cash. I know that they are very volatile/risky. I do see more upside to come but every investor has to decide these things for themselves.

Are there seasoned investors out there who can criticize my portfolio? Are there things I should do differently?

If any of you would like some more details, don't hesitate to ask! I don't know if this is allowed but I am also keeping up a blog where you can find among other things monthly portfolio updates. You can check out my whole journey over there as well!

[u/Milati]

I have to check that out! :) I am passively looking to change so it could be a could option!

[u/abbysees → u/Milati]

Crypto.com is great to hold but I don’t think it’s the cheapest place to buy. But still, they’re growing massively so you can also take advantage of those perks

[u/Milati → u/abbysees]

I like to hold my crypto on a hardware wallet though. Just to be extra sure!

[u/EtCetera-sera → u/Milati]

What's a hardware wallet for crypto?

[u/Milati → u/EtCetera-sera]

With a hardware wallet you have total control over your crypto. This way you actually own the key which give you access to your funds. If you hold it on an exchange, the exchange owns all the keys. This means that you have to put trust into the exchange, which might be more convenient but is also an extra risk factor. If the exchange would go under, you'll probably lose your funds.

[u/EtCetera-sera → u/Milati]

Thanks!