I'm 32 now and I have a goal to save one million dollars by the time I will turn 60. That's 28 years to go.
In today's article, I will review the past year and take a quick glimpse at the New Year.
For me, 2017 was a year of peer to peer lending, dividend-paying stocks and starting with the second part of the year - cryptocurrencies.
Investment Portfolio 2017
At the start of 2017, I planned to invest about 31% of my annual net income, the planned amount for 2017 was $8,561, I made it up to $12,057.41 at the end of the year. Isn't that Awesome? In 2017 I was investing at the pace of about $1,000/mo.
You know what's even more awesome than that? I ended 2017 with a 33.34% value growth, putting the net value of my investment portfolio at $16,077.05. I should mention that most of the value growth happened in December and because of cryptocurrencies. Soaring prices for bitcoin, litcoin, ripple, and ethereum being the main driven force behind.
Here is what I said a year before:
Now, I believe that I wont make probably any profit at first year, thus it's tempting for me to write down how much possibly I could make if that 12% annually might work out for me. $8,561+12% = $9,588.32, that's more than $1,000. Amazing.
Technically speaking I didn't make more than $1,000 in dividend payments (more on that below), practically I made $4,019.64 in value growth.
In 2017 dividend yield (on cost) for my investment portfolio was about 5.50%, here is the breakdown by positions:
- Mintos.com peer to peer lending: EUR 311.41 (yield 7.93%)
- Nasdaq Baltics: EUR 264.85 (yield 5.85%)
- Poloniex.com crypto lending: EUR 13.58 (yield 1.27%)
Now, in total in dividend income for 2017 Ir received EUR 589.94 / USD 663.99)
In general, it means that in a true passive income I made about $1.81 daily, by doing nothing much, just keeping stake at great companies and lending out money via peer to peer platforms. On the other hand, I spend about an hour a day to research, analyze, make future decisions.
Financial Goals for 2018
I'm looking to invest 42% (years + 10%) from income I've made in 2017, that's about $10,700.18.
For 2018 I plan to invest in stocks, peer to peer lending and cryptocurencies. More or less here is the plan for invested amounts:
- Stocks: $6,400
- Peer to Peer Lending: $1,200
- Crytptocurencies: ~ $3,000
Now, this might change a little bit, as I also have cash and mutual fund positions in the portfolio. I would love to keep at least 5% in cash. Also, I have thought a lot about investments in bonds, but right now they don't look promising to me, if, then most probably in 2019 I will buy some bonds.
For 2018 I'm looking on $1,200 annual dividend income (about $100/mo or 3.28 daily)
Also, I'm looking to reach 25K net worth value by the end of 2018.
Let's see if we can apply some math here:
$16,077.05 (portfolio value January 1st, 2018) + $10,700.18 (planned additional investment throughout the year) = $26,777.23
Now let's do some crazy stuff and imagine that in 2018 I would see another 30% year over year value growth:
$26,777.23 + 30% = $34,810.399
Holly cow. It's hard to believe in such numbers (and probably there is no need for that), but in general this is how compounding works (ok, it's both compounding and value growth in this case)
If there is even possible such massive value growth for 2 years in a row, then I believe it could happen because of crazy crypto. As a matter of fact, in 2017 investments in cryptocurrencies have generated a jaw-dropping 348.45% growth in my portfolio in just 5 months.
Anyhow, anything could happen (and it will definitely happen in 2018), I could actually lose some (let's hope that not all of my money), and this is my best advice to you - never invest more you can afford to lose!
Can I afford to lose my current 16K? Ouch, I better not!
On the other hand, 16K is just 1.6% from my ultimate one million dollar goal by the time I will turn 60 (2045), and currently compounding seems the one and the only way to reach this magical number in a kind of easy and slow pace.