Portfolio Update – August 2019 – Let your money work for you

This post is written far too late, in my own opinion, and I would have expected it to be posted about two weeks ago. But, I am sure you are familiar with the concept of daily life and its habit to sometimes get in the way. With this portfolio, I am working on my journey towards financial freedom, but I am not at my goal yet, and my work is, albeit it very interesting, also demanding.

Unless I have already written about it in the past, I work at a Nordic bank with syndicated loans, for which the short explanation is "so big loans to corporates and companies, that you need multiple banks to finance them". Basically, when you have two or more lenders to one borrower (with loans most commonly starting at €100 million and upwards), I am working with representing the group of lenders as their joint voice towards the borrower. Maybe it is more exciting in real life than it sounds, but it keep me happy.

Speaking of work, that is also what I wanted to discuss today before going into the monthly update. Today, most people work for money, and that is why they are not rich. Instead, you should make your money work for you by investing it. That way, your money will bring you more money, and you are on your way towards financial freedom. I think that this may be a quote from Robert Kiyosaki (my memory fails me this minute of writing). Regardless, I am sure you were already aware of that concept as you are interested in investing (I'd assume that is why you are here on my blog).

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Portfolio Update – July 2019

Hi there!

I hope you and your portfolio are doing well, despite the latest turbulence on the stock markets.

We have now seen July pass, and thus it is now time to summarize how my All Seasons Portfolio did on a month-to-month basis. This month, I have actually not added any funds to the portfolio, partly to compensate for my aggressive injections during the first half of the year and partly as I have had some one-off expenses in my private life to consider this month. I will get back on the investing track soon again.

So, all in all, there have been no dramatic movements that have caused so much change in the allocations since the June update. The splits are fairly equal, as the individual movements of each asset class have been rather small and aligned. For example, gold saw a huge jump in June, but has now stabilized in July at around USD 1,400/oz, although it has again increased some at the time of writing in August.

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Portfolio Update – June 2019

Hi! Great to have you back here.

Rather amazingly, I have now surpassed my first real milestone with this blog where I share my experiences with the All Seasons Portfolio investment strategy. I have now been doing this for 6 months and to me, that is something worth celebrating. Already in that short period of time, I have been able to accumulate a decent amount of funds into my portfolio, and with good progress at that.

June has been a great summer month here in Sweden. Good weather and people are coming out from their winter hibernation. Stock markets were a bit shaky though since we last encountered for the May update, and there are many reasons behind it.

Threats of trade war between US and China and its impact on Chinese and American companies, threats of actual war between US and Iran and its impact on the oil market, and uncertainty in Europe around the next British Prime Minister and Italy's budget deficit. Investors are therefore not certain of what the stock market will bring in the near future. Thus, there has been a great appetite for alternative investments and safe-havens, in other words, gold.

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Portfolio Update – May 2019

Happy summer, and I am glad to have you back here to the All Seasons Portfolio blog for another monthly update. This time, we will take a closer look at the development for May 2019.

I have decide to keep these monthly updates free from other topics as I have had in the past. For example, I have been presenting certain investment choices or tips, but I believe it may be more stringent to have such texts separated in their own blog posts. Do you agree?

The month of May was in general a rocky month for the equity markets. For example, the MSCI World Index fell from 2170 points to 2046 points - a fall of nearly 6% over the course of just month, which could be considered quite a big correction. Still, the index is in positive territory year-to-date.

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Portfolio Update – April 2019 – Investing in America

Hello, fellow financial independence seeker!

It is now my self imposed duty to go through my portfolio development for the month of April 2019. I am one ETF closer to have at least some exposure to each asset class that I intend shall be part of my portfolio - only Mid Term Government bonds missing yet. I will present my monthly update here below shortly, but I will also take a moment to elaborate of my choice of geographical exposure of my portfolio.

As you may notice in the list of ETFs further below, I have a great exposure towards American stocks and bonds. This is not because I have adopted the tips and hints you can find on the internet or in books, as most are written by American authors with a home bias, but there are reasons why I, an European investor, have chosen to fill my portfolio with American assets now early on.

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Portfolio Update – March 2019 – Invest your pay raise

Good day, saver. We have now surpassed March in what is my first year of utilising the strength of the All Seasons Portfolio. One whole quarter is behind me, and still feeling strong. Besides an update on my portfolio, I’ll discuss what you should do when you get a salary increase or a bonus from work, if you are looking to increase your investing. More to come further down.

Still quite sun burnt while writing this post. I was in Nice and southern France over the weekend in the end of March, and my Scandinavian pale skin didn’t cope with the Mediterranean sun. Naturally, I forgot to put on sun screen, because “hey, it’s only March – how bad can it be?” A lot apparently. Well, now back from 20 degrees to the usual -2 and snow (finally fed up with winter).

Invest your pay raise Anyway, the month of March has also been sunny for my portfolio. I have managed to put in more than the planned monthly amount of € 300, thanks to a bonus from work. This is a great contribution towards creating sustainable wealth, by investing salary increases and ‘unexpected’ income such as bonuses.

Let’s say you are struggling to find enough margin in your daily life to invest a good amount each month and at the same time make ends meet. This is not a too uncommon feeling. Anyway, you would have a certain salary and certain spending level each month (hopefully not more than you income though). You are used to a standard of living and feel like you cannot find anything non-essential that you can cut back on to invest that money instead.

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