2019

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).

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.

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.

Hello fellow wealth seekers.

The short month of February has come to an end, at it is now time for my second portfolio update of my All Seasons Portfolio. The fact that I am already on my second post, is a huge sign for myself that I am actually doing this project and that I am committing to keep sharing my investment experiences. Should be easier for each month as we will be setting the structure more and more.

Anyway, the cold month of February is behind as, thankfully, as my hometown Stockholm is a very cold place this time of year. Perhaps I should use my investments to retire to a warm country one day once I am financially free? Not that it will happen the next few years anyway, as I am just getting started here.

What have I done in February?

As you may already be familiar, the first step towards managing a All Seasons Portfolio is to buy the different asset types that the portfolio is built on.

2018 has come to an end, and I am very excited for 2019, now that I am beginning to implement my All Seasons Portfolio from scratch. During January, I have made my first investment, and can also share one lesson of this experience which teaches the value of diversification and investing in index funds. Let's also take a moment to think about how to invest if you can only spare small sums each month. But more on that further down in this article. Let's begin with my first investment.

When starting to implement a portfolio strategy containing several assets, it may appear a challenge to decide where to begin - i.e. which asset to buy first. When making additional purchases down the road when the portfolio is up and running is more straight forward, but how to make that first purchase?

So, I am looking to have portfolio split into the pie chart here below, containing intermediate-term and long-term government bonds, stocks, corporate bonds, gold and commodities. In the long run, it will not matter where to begin, as the most important part of investing is getting started.