What age you started investing?
Here is a brief overview about me. I paid off all of my student loans at 25. Till the age of 28 I was just saving money to buy a home. So kept all my money in check in account as I was too afraid to invest in stock market. In November 2016 my uncle told to put all 401K from bond/money market to S&P 500. I had around $80K back then. In June 2017 I noticed that I got around $15K return and that’s the point I felt so happy and miserable at the same time. I felt that in the past 5 years after school if I had just put money in S&P 500 I would have saved a lot more money. I am really good in spending money wisely. I don’t even have net income of $150K at Yahoo but still ended up saving close to $250K. What do you think about my story? Also what age did you start investing? Would love to hear that I am not the one who was the last to start investing !
Similar. I finished school back in 2013 with 15k saved. Didn’t invest until 2014 where I put 10k in Bitcoin and 25k in Robinhood (Facebook, Google, Amazon, Square). My Robinhood money was doing better at the time so I sold my Bitcoin to buy more stock (I would be a millionaire today if I didn’t 😵). In 2015 I also put 10 in ETH which is worth 400k today. I estimate I made about 600k off a 50k investment over the past 3 years.
For investments, I believe you really need to look at long term growth (10+ years). In the grand scheme of things, you’ve still got a long way to go. Note that everyone and their mom will make money in a bull market. The challenge is beating the market over the long term across bull/bear periods. Hindsight is always 20/20. If the market crashes next year, would you still feel the same?
First, be happy with your $15k return! That's great and you can be thankful about it. There's no need to feel remorse because you can't change the past, so it's a useless feeling -- plus you got a great return, you won! I started investing when I started working full time (also at Yahoo coincidentally) in 2014. Through the next three years my return was totally flat, since I managed my portfolio way too actively and didn't know what I was doing. In early 2017 I finally realized that the only investments I made that had a positive return were in index funds that I never touched. When I tried to pick stocks, I usually lost, even though the market was winning! So I finally listened to the advice everyone had been telling me: that active management is pointless and that it's practically impossible to beat the market. I picked a mix of bonds, index funds, and cryptos that was appropriate for my long term strategy and risk tolerance. And I let it sit. This has been amazing for my peace of mind. The cryptos have done really well, so I have been rebalancing my portfolio to get it back to my desired mix (effectively buying low and selling high). So the point is that even though I started "investing" three years earlier than you, it didn't do much good because I was too actively involved. You can feel proud because 1. You saved a ton of money 2. Most Americans basically don't invest at all
I put 20k into bitcoin when I graduated in 2015 - it's worth just over 400k right now, but I still feel like I missed the best entry point (early 2013/2014). Also had some money in ETH, but given its more reasonable rise my Robinhood & Vanguard 401k has been doing well given the bull market. Started investing when I was 24, back in 2015 then, just after I graduated university.
Lucky you! Congrats!