The Crossover Point

Grogged

Hope the job still going well.
Nothing wrong with a good desk! 😁
I must admit my portfolio seems to have done better for not being watched...

Zola.

Soon I'll in my new job for two months. Time flies!

I still feel like a total newbie, but generally, I feel a bit better now that I can at least participate in meetings. As I work for an American company it's a bit strange in the mornings, no one is online from my team until about lunchtime! When I am properly up to speed that may work to my advantage... having quiet time to work. For now, I am kinda waiting on them.... then all the back-to-back meetings start!

My numbers have surged forward again quite rapidly (maybe temporarily?), putting my combined gap to mortgage neutral into the 4 figures for the first time!  

I don't think the stock market has done anything too dramatic since my last update. The advancement for me this month (other than regular overpayments and ISA investing) is mostly due to having a modest hedge allocation in bitcoin (my only cryptocurrency investment), which has surged by over 30% in the last month alone. It sure is an interesting thing to follow. 


August update:

S&S ISAs vs Mortgage Debt: 67.72% (+1.7%) 

Investments & Cash Vs Mortgage Debt: 89.66% (+4.78%) 

Combined Gap to Mortgage Neutral: £9,923 (-£4,682) 

Grogged

Glad you're settling in at work, I must admit I do like quiet times to just get on and do.
I'm part of a "loose" team, we all have our own dedicated areas, we only really meet up as a team once a week.
The rest of the time you're working on your own projects, but these usually involve steering ad-hoc teams across the business.

You do like a side bet in your investments! 

I think I may also hold a small amount through one of my investments (SMT), but I'm not 100% sure.
My big alternative bet has been with a FinTech VC (AUGM), but that will only be 3% of my portfolio (wild and reckless, me! lol)

Zola.

Grogged said:

Glad you're settling in at work, I must admit I do like quiet times to just get on and do.
I'm part of a "loose" team, we all have our own dedicated areas, we only really meet up as a team once a week.
The rest of the time you're working on your own projects, but these usually involve steering ad-hoc teams across the business.

You do like a side bet in your investments! 

I think I may also hold a small amount through one of my investments (SMT), but I'm not 100% sure.
My big alternative bet has been with a FinTech VC (AUGM), but that will only be 3% of my portfolio (wild and reckless, me! lol)

Thanks @Grogged

I don't mind a load of meetings in the beginning as I am getting to know people etc. 

Another indirect way of holding Bitcoin is with the US company MicroStrategy, who holds 105,000 Bitcoin on their balance sheet since 2020 or so (and they keep buying more)... you can see what it has done to their share price.  Many are using that almost like a Bitcoin ETF. There are many filing requests for Bitcoin ETFs in the US, feels inevitable it will be much more globally accessible soon in traditional formats. 

I have gone down a rabbit hole of bitcoin research this year, read 5 or 6 great books which have "orange pilled" me somewhat. I do believe decentralised finance will only continue to grow from here, but I don't support or believe in any other crypto currencies really, as bitcoin is the only truly decentralized option (the rest have a figurehead or CEO who can change the rules on a whim). This is impossible with bitcoin.  It truly is a fascinating subject when you dive into it!

I plan to continue my strategy of index investing for the vast majority of my investments, but I will buy a small amount of bitcoin each month until I reach my goal. It's the biggest asymmetric investing opportunity going and it has the power to change global finance, especially for the unbanked etc! But it is one roller coaster indeed

Grogged

I do have a "naughty" side portfolio, in which I can run wild (for me anyway).
I invested £1,000 and that's all I will invest in it.
My crypto bet in that is with the exchange CME, at this stage I'd rather bet on the house than the players.
That's with fr33tade, which allows you to buy fractions of a share, otherwise it wouldn't be worth it on a £1k pot.
I think crypto does have a good future, I'm just shy at the moment!

LadyWithAPlan

Interesting to read your investing adventures and your mfw progress. 

I used to work in the City so I feel fairly comfortable and as you, I do like investigating  markets and companies.

There is a great book by Peter Lynch who ran the Magellan fund which is fascinating if you have not read it on picking companies. 

Having said that I have less than 8 % of my pension in single stocks and the rest is all index and Etf. Received wisdom is to keep any single stocks to less than 10 % of your portfolio to reduce risk. 

No single stocks in my isas as that all for my house. 

I also love my Vanguard Sipp and adding to it. 

Zola.

Thanks for the recommendation @LadyWithAPlan, I will definitely add that to my reading list!

LadyWithAPlan

Zola. said:

Thanks for the recommendation @LadyWithAPlan, I will definitely add that to my reading list!

you will love it. Some great tips including about looking at investing in businesses where you love and use their products. I should have done that with Apple back in the day as I bought all their early macs!

Zola.

LadyWithAPlan said:

Zola. said:

Thanks for the recommendation @LadyWithAPlan, I will definitely add that to my reading list!

you will love it. Some great tips including about looking at investing in businesses where you love and use their products. I should have done that with Apple back in the day as I bought all their early macs!

Isn't hindsight wonderfully annoying?! If we think about it long enough we will identify many lost opportunities over the years. To be fair I had no interest in investing back then. 

In my past life, I used Adobe products every day for about 20 years. Back then, and even now, there is no company like them for creative applications. They are the industry standard. I knew that all the way back then, and that's still the case today. Had I simply invested £100 a month consistently in them I would have made an absolute killing. 

There's definitely a lot to be said in investing directly in an area that you have real experience in and industry knowledge in, you'll know how they fit in the commercial world, who their competitors are without even having to look at their financials etc. 

Hopingforthesimplelife

Really interesting diary Zola, not least as there are quite a few similarities to my situation.

We found ourselves looking at a mortgage neutral position of 2025 even just over a year ago but reduced spending and childcare costs have seen us reach that milestone this month, a surprising yet very welcome 4 year acceleration from our original aim.

Your investments interest me, I am also keen to have a diversified portfolio yet have zero crypto (or gold) and wondering if this is a mistake. Then I go onto the saving and investment board and see most say it’s backed by nothing and will be regulated away, and then I don’t know what to do! If you were starting from scratch would you jump into Crypto at this point?