How we invested 6 figures in 2 years

That might go down in history as my most clickbait title ever. Well, it is not.

We sold our home recently and were lucky enough to have made a little money after putting in quite a bit of work. So this post will detail exactly the timelines involved, and how we managed to get where we are today. I will also chat on my recommendations for anyone looking to do something similar, as well as address the blockchain elephant in the room.

Oh and um, I’ve made my workbook completely free. That’s right FREE. My heart has always been to help people, so I wanted to give you the workbook free of charge because I hope it can help you and your family. I am just working out the final details, however stayed tuned!

How it all started

I didn’t just wake up one day and I know everything about investing. Well, I don’t know much now… (most people don’t know much). See about 2 years ago I was sitting at my desk helping customers with their technical issues and I had an early life crisis. That’s a thing right?

I was quite frustrated at the prospect of working for someone else for 45+ years. When I was in school, I thought that college or university was it. When I was at university I thought that getting a job was making it. Well, it isn’t.

I read a book called Rich dad Poor dad which was recommended to me by my dad. This was the book that set me on the path I am today. Great read. In the workbook, I go into depth about some of my all-time favorite books.

By reading all of these wonderful books I realized that there might be a different way to do this life thing.

A different way

Having read enough books, and having a greater understanding of assets and what counts as an asset, I decided that investing in the stock market was going to be the primary vehicle that drives us to financial freedom. That being said, my brother-in-law suggested we look into buying a home together.

To cut a long story short, we bought the worst home in the best neighborhood. So we knew with a bit of elbow grease and sacrifice we would be able to add some value to the home which would lead to dollars in our pockets. So for a year and a half, every weekend we would dedicate our time and effort toward improving our home. We painted the house, replaced the kitchen & bathroom, redid the floors, and expanded the living room. Just to name a few minor tweaks we made. That's the house story.

Starting our investment journey

We knew from the off-set that it would be tough, but I had a wonderfully supportive wife who could see the long-term benefits of working hard now and investing in our future. She was on board immediately. To date, we have been all in, and we’ve been investing as much as we can.

Since we started this journey, the world has never looked more uncertain. The world was gripped by a global pandemic and virus that shut down entire economies for months. Some countries are still in lockdown…

We decided that regardless of this we are still doing to invest and stay on the financial freedom road.

Present-day

If you are a long-time follower of the blog, you would know that we weren’t quite a six figures yet, however, we managed to sell our home this month and now our portfolio has passed six figures! YAY! We consider ourselves very lucky and Blessed. We have also been working extremely hard to get here and we are very excited to see what the future holds.

That being said, I will stop showing everyone in the blog our exact portfolio breakdown. Instead, I will be sharing that with anyone subscribed to my bi-weekly newsletter list called ‘Campfire.

This email will include :

• Our portfolio
• Our monthly budget breakdown (Thanks to the Mad Fientist for this one, go check)
• My monthly book review
• Campfire Stories, where I share conversations I am having with people around FIRE and investing.
• Future things! I will aim to add more valuable things here in the future.

I am very excited to launch this side of the blog as it will be a more intimate space for anyone who wants a deeper insight into our investing philosophy and why we are approaching investing the way we are. I am still extremely passionate about helping anyone who wishes to embark on the FIRE journey. Sign up down below.

The blockchain elephant in the room

Alright alright. Here it is, my hot take on crypto. See I am torn, I am someone who loves technology and new inventions. Looking at it from that perspective, I seriously love crypto. I also have a very close friend who has made a very significant amount of money in the crypto market

BUT

I won’t be investing in it currently. (I can already hear people yelling and spitting at their monitors ). Now I am not saying that I won’t ever invest in crypto and I might even put in a little of my own milestone money in there. Here is a quickfire overview of why I don’t like it as an investment :

1. Too risky for my liking – the market isn’t mature enough and there isn’t significant data to back up trends
2. No broad adoption or use – But what about Tesla? What about Tesla, all major banks and governments are disincentivized to use it as it means they will give up control
3. Fiat current is dated – Listen when my primarily Index fund portfolio goes to zero, I think we will be pass the point of worrying about currencies. We will be shooting each other for toilet paper (we were close?). I am hedging my bets.

Please this and everything else on this website and blog is merely my opinion. Do your research

Final word

My wife and now 5-month-old daughter is so happy and count ourselves very fortunate to be in the position we are in. We are also on the path, however, we aren’t even close to being FIRE yet. I want to encourage anyone reading this that you can do it too. If you are willing to put in the work and learn how to invest in a way that works for you.

Also please sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already. I will share some helpful tips and thoughts with you every other week.

• Our portfolio.
• Our monthly budget breakdown.
• My monthly book review.
• Investor scenarios, where I share conversations I am having with people around FIRE and investing.
• Future things! I will aim to add more valuable things here in the future.

This also includes our completely free workbook! Where I will show you what I do to invest.