One thing that seems to be consistently true for me each and every time I scroll through social media: I always throw my phone down with the sense that I should be further ahead. In pretty much everything. I should be renovating a house, I should be travelling the world and I definitely should be far more financially secure than I am. Everything in life that I enjoy, or I believe to be important, I want to feel like I'm ahead. And as I'm both interested in investing and I feel that it's important, I can't help but get ambitious.
Every time I scroll through social media, I put my phone down feeling like I should be further ahead. In pretty much everything.
Unfortunately, this does occasionally mean my intrigue edges towards envy. It's hard to avoid when I'm so often shown the successes of those five-plus years my junior with portfolios many times the size of mine. They're all very happily showing off their latest pre-revenue find that's "ten X'd" their investment. And I find it very hard not to focus on "What am I doing wrong?"
It doesn't take long to encounter those who are much further along the path to financial freedom than I am. I've spent hours discussing investing strategies with friends, the successes they might have had, and the less successful moments too. We have pretty candid conversations and I genuinely enjoy them. Then there are endless investing "hacks" as I scroll and success stories sent my way by the algorithm. Some of it can even offer quite valuable insight. But it's often difficult to escape the comparison trap - if everyone else is making it look so easy then maybe I'm just investing wrong, right?
I'm quite a logical and critical thinker so I tend to be able to sniff out the obvious scams and the blatant "pump-and-dumps". However, there's still so much information so readily available, it can feel like a full-time job just to pick out the good stuff.
You'll often encounter the same, sensible advice. And it's hard to argue against the data that says that, on average, you'll never beat an index fund, so why try? I KNOW that makes sense. But the reality is: I'm impatient. And I like a challenge. It takes considerable restraint not to fiddle with my allocation and try and optimise, optimise, optimise.
And it seems obvious that, if I'm lucky enough to be holding a position that's doing well, I should do just that: hold it. Hold it until the top and then collect my dues. But when is the top? I have no idea. And this inability to comprehend something seemingly obvious makes me doubt whether I understand what I'm doing at all.
One thing that I have managed, although it has often been a struggle, is consistency. For at least 2 years now I have managed, I think, to invest at least something every month. It is almost never as much as I'd have liked to invest that month but it has always been something.
Furthermore, as much as I enjoy researching companies and following my instincts with individual positions, I have always limited this to only a small portion of my portfolio with an index fund being the beneficiary of most of my regular contributions. And this has given me growth. My money hasn't been on performance enhancing drugs, but it has reliably grown. And the best part is now I can see the growth: the vaguest hint of a hockey stick just beginning to form. The encouraging sign that my portfolio is beginning to grow independent of my contributions.
I enjoy the process of discovering an opportunity, digging into a company's statements and interpreting the spin on their latest earnings. However, time has become my limiting factor - not intelligence or basic knowledge.
Working a full-time job whilst still trying to be an active and involved parent categorically does not leave enough left over for trawling through financials. And I'd love to discuss this with anyone who thinks it does over my fourth double shot of the day. Double espresso, that is.
Time, more than intelligence, has become my limiting factor.
However, what it does still leave time for is a simple, repeatable strategy. With automatic investments so common place in retail investing apps now it's possible to grow your wealth without giving it a second thought.
In fact, that this can be so straight forward means I haven't had to write off being able to indulge myself in some well-intentioned company research: I even have a watchlist. But the scope must be controlled, and the approach must be aligned with the time available to implement it. Not having the capacity I'd ideally like doesn't diminish my commitment to my future self.
When I finally noticed the growth, it started to register that whatever I was doing was, actually, working. As my family has grown and other commitments have arisen, my bandwidth available for investing-related activities has been on a steady decline. But to see my portfolio showing meaningful growth DESPITE this was honestly relieving.
I still find time to check in with what's going on with the companies I've invested in, add some new ones to the watchlist and I'd say I'm fairly well informed on global financial events. That comes mainly from adopting tools that make life a little bit easier. And the realisation that, whilst my individual positions are by far and away the most interesting part of my portfolio, the core driver of the growth I've seen has been my diversified index fund. And that requires the least thought and the least attention.
So the pressure's off. I've learnt that I don't have to recognise the ticker of every meme stock that blows up on Reddit. And I don't have to be an expert in 5-factor investing or covered calls - in fact I'm almost certainly better off for not having tried any of that. I also don't have to obsess over having cash sitting around to buy the dip or, perhaps by divine intervention, sense the top. The less I do, the better. Both for my future wealth and my current sanity.
I don't have to be in it to win it. Simply by staying in it, I'm winning.
Thankfully, the enjoyment is still there which helps maintain to consistency throughout life's challenges. But the pressure has been relieved. I don't have to be in it to win it. Simply by staying in it, I'm winning.