Category: Investments

Make a plan and stick to it! (Or change it?!)

Make a plan and stick to it! (Or change it?!)

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In my Goals for 2020 I outlined my plan to boost my Total Balance in 2020, by diverting funds from my mortgage payments towards my Total Balance (investment account) instead.

Unfortunately, “The Universe” had another plan.

Sometimes it’s simply easier to “take the path of least resistance” (go with the flow?), than to “fight the system”.

In this case there were several reasons that ultimately made me change my mind, about using my mortgage as leverage to boost my Total Balance (and ultimately speed up the pace of making new investments). Allow me to explain:

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If it sounds too good to be true

If it sounds too good to be true

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It probably is (too good to be true)…

In case you missed the latest development in the Baltic crowdlending industry, let me give you a quick recap;

Two of my (previously) best performing platforms have turned out to be fraudulent (nothing is proven yet, but I think the writing on the wall is pretty clear).

In December it became apparent that Kuetzal was more than a little dodgy around the edges – and last week another bombshell dropped, when it became apparent that Envestio was also in fact a highly dubious operation. I am reluctant to use words like “scam” and “ponzi scheme” (oops, I just did) about Kuetzal and Envestio, as nothing has been proven yet. Although, in the case of Kuetzal it seems that the majority of their projects simply did not exist, and thus it would not be in-appropriate to use the word “SCAM” to describe Kuetzal…

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Lessons from the past (analyzing my returns from 2007-2019)

Lessons from the past (analyzing my returns from 2007-2019)

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As is the norm when we enter a new year, I like to look back at the returns of my (Pension) portfolio from the previous year(s).

Is it time to change my AA (again)? I was quite conservative with my AA last year when I opted to move a great portion of my portfolio OUT of the stock market. And Boy was I wrong to do that! The stock market hit an all-time high (again), gaining close to 30% in 2019, which ultimately left my portfolio returns in the dust in comparison.

You win some, and you lose some – I’m not regretting my decision to change my AA, but the events of last year has made me reconsider my overall strategy for my Pension portfolio (which is part of my 3 Pillars of Wealth).

I’ve actually said it many times before on this blog, but allow me to repeat myself: Don’t do what I do, kids! 😛

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Boy, was I wrong!

Boy, was I wrong!

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2019 is drawing to a close, and as is the norm on the Total Balance blog (easy now hot shot, this is only the first full year of blogging!) it’s thus time to take a gander back at this years major events – good or bad!

My wife asked me yesterday, if I had a “highlight reel” ready for the year of 2019. I didn’t/don’t. I actually had to read through some of my old posts, just to remember WTF had actually happened this year – this is EXACTLY why I started blogging; To help me remember shit!

I fell over a post from December 2018 in which I highlight 3 events/problems that had occurred to me/us (because all bad things come in 3’s?!), and it dawned on me that all 3 “problems” actually resolved itself since! This just goes to show you that sometimes the best action you can take, is NO action!

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Crowdestor gets a facelift and adds 2FA – yay!

Crowdestor gets a facelift and adds 2FA – yay!

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Quick update from your friendly neighborhood Total Balance guy!

Crowdestor announced last month that they were gonna give their website an overhaul, and it has now arrived.

Why should you care, you ask?

Well, I think it’s noteworthy when a young company decides to completely re-vamp their website and add extra security features at the same time. Kudos to Crowdestor, for taking security serious, unlike some other folks out there! It tells me that they are serious about their business 😉

Lets have a quick look at some of the new features!

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Crowdlending platform (in)security check

Crowdlending platform (in)security check

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On Oct 14, I received a disturbing E-mail from one of the Crowdlending platforms that I currently have investments with. This was the exact message:

Kuetzal website was attacked this Sunday, it was successfully reflected by Kuetzal, but for security reasons, some passwords may be deleted. If you can’t sign in your account, please use “reset password”, or contact Kuetzal support team.

Ahem, WTF?

I obviously immediately attempted to logon to my account, but couldn’t. – So I had to use the “Reset Password” feature. I then received a new randomly generated password, in clear text via E-mail. Forgive me if I’m being too technical here, but this is a huge no-go! It was not a temporary one-time password that I was forced to reset after using it, so that only made it worse.

When someone sends you a password in clear text to your E-mail, you should be worried about your (or your data’s) safety! (You should receive a unique link to reset it via a web-form!)

This experience prompted me to run a few common security-related “tests” (no systems were harmed during this test 😉 ) on all the platforms that I’m currently using (14), to uncover whether this poor security hygiene was a widespread issue.

What I uncovered was fairly shocking!

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Why consistency (and time) is the only thing you need to become a decent investor

Why consistency (and time) is the only thing you need to become a decent investor

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That’s right. You heard it here first (not really), people! The main trait you really need to become a decent investor, is time and consistency.

We’ve all heard (or read) the term “Time in the market beats timing the market”. I’m not a big fan of this saying to be honest, but I understand the message that it’s supposed to convey;

If you have money that you are willing to invest, do it now rather than later.

It doesn’t matter which asset(s) you choose to invest your money in – as long as you believe it will yield a decent return (and compound on a regular basis, preferably). As long as you invest in something you’re better off than if you invest in nothing (or worse; buy new cars and expensive gadgets on a regular basis 😛 ).

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Why you shouldn’t invest like me

Why you shouldn’t invest like me

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I’m going to be the devils advocate today, and explain why I think you shouldn’t invest like I do. It might be a bit counter-productive, but I think it’s important to own your investment strategy, and in order to truly do that, you need to explore alternative options.

My (current) strategy is based on two elements:

  1. Predictability
  2. Accountability

 
I (currently) have a set goal to reach a certain amount of money, within a certain amount of time. This means that I can track my progress (closely, as you know) every month, and make adjustments accordingly, if I somehow fall behind. My (initial) goal is outlined in this post, where I calculated that in order to reach my (current) Total Balance goal of DKK 3 mio (€400.000) in 15 years, I need to average a yearly return of 8.3% (after tax).

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Why I invest (heavily) in properties

Why I invest (heavily) in properties

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Faithful followers of the Total Balance blog will know that I mainly invest in properties. I recently sunk the better part of my nest egg into a single property. It is not uncommon in the FI community to invest in properties, but most FI bloggers that I follow, tend to be more invested in stocks and bonds (and crowdlending).

The reason to favor stocks, over any other asset class is quite simple: The admission ticket to this asset class is very cheap. It is also a very liquid asset class, meaning that you can “withdraw” your money from the stock market within minutes (provided that someone out there is willing to buy your shares).

Having this amount of liquidity comes at a price though; volatility. One single tweet from you-know-who, and the worlds stock markets plummet.

Having learned from past mistakes (I owned a few stocks prior to the previous financial crisis), when I decided to re-enter the investment-sphere last year, I was pretty determined, not to repeat those past mistakes.

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How to diversify your crowdlending portfolio

How to diversify your crowdlending portfolio

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We all know the famous quote from Warren Buffet: Diversification is protection against ignorance.

Well, admitting ignorance can also be a strength…So there! – I admit it: I’ve invested in 10 different crowdlending platforms, in hundreds of different loans to hundreds of different people/businesses of whom/which I know very little about. All I know is what the platforms (and the community) tell me. How much of this information can truly be trusted? I’m hoping the majority, but I’d be a fool to blindly trust “strangers on the Internet” 😉 – And so would you!

So don’t take my word for it! When investing in crowdlending, you need to protect yourself against (your own) ignorance. How can we best go about that, then? Well, I’ve got a few ideas that I will share with you today, dear readers 😉

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