Haha in the original draft of this post I had "make more money/work on yourself" as one of the points but took it out - most people seem to know the big stuff like don't make big purchases you can't afford. What seems to be less common knowledge amongst my friends at least is how much little things like eating out often has a financial impact on them since it's harder to see. We aren't programmed to understand compounding very well so I wanted to highlight that in the post somehow. This could just be my very young self talking since I haven't seen very many different financial profiles out there.
You're a 100% right - having an emergency fund is extremely important and I'd like to add an appendix that mentions it - do you have any good resources for learning about what goes in to building one?
I didn't comment on it because I'm living at home right now and am young/commitment-free enough to move back in with my parents if I ever need to - I don't have one so I feel I'm not qualified to discuss it.
It's simply just putting money into a checking or savings account that you use to cover unexpected expenses. The amount varies by your life situation and risk tolerance, but a couple months salary is a good start.
Think of the sort of "adult expenses" your parents have - refrigerator failed and too expensive to repair, need to buy a new one - that will be $2,000, right now. My teeth need to be fixed - that will be $3,000. It's winter and the furnace broke - that will be $7,000. You want to be able to have the money on hand to deal with those situations. Those were not random examples - those are things that have come up for me in the last two years
You probably shouldn't have more than a few hundred dollars in an emergency fund if you're paying off high interest loans (10%+)
Typically it’s as simple as saving cash enough to cover 3-6 months or unexpected expenses. Fixed income investments are almost so low as to be ignorable but you can put it in a high yield online savings account. The key is for it to be liquid.
Yeah totally fair point - bought those cards half because I'm an nba fan, half because I thought they'd pump - I def don't think this makes me a good investor I just got lucky. I put in less than 10% of my net worth in for fun - it just ended up growing. Verify here if you don't believe me: https://evaluate.market/accountValuation?externalUserName=aa...
As for the rest of the portfolio, don't emulate it! Do what works for you, that's what the section below is for - I'm just being transparent. Most definitely consider more credible people, I just hope my suggestions might save people from the devil that is inflation.
It makes you a terrible investor - 10% was already a bad move - but holding them now that they are 35.5% of your net worth is insane. Yes it might work out again but so does playing the lottery.
A. They are young, that makes all the difference in the world. You should take more risk when you are younger.
B. You don’t immediately sell your risk bets when they start making you money, it completely mitigates your upside. Knowing when to say when is hard, but the general philosophy of removing the risk bets when they are making money is a bad one methinks.
Sell half once it doubles. Then you can tell yourself you're playing with the houses money and you never sell unless you realize it's a bad investment.
This doesn’t add to your credibility :). Your net worth is peanuts right now but as long as you are thinking about it this hard you will have a whole truckload of peanuts in 20 years.
