So, I don’t have many people to talk about this with because most of my peers and family don’t believe in it and would rather just buy a house.
I got into short to medium term trading back in college. I needed cash for the upfront payment on a loan to buy an apartment, so I wanted to squeeze together a couple thousand dollars from freelancing and then almost doubled that by making a few medium risk, basically speculative moves.
Now, going forward, I’m saving money quite fanatically. Almost 40% of my salary goes straight into my investing account, where even if I leave it alone, I get about 3.3% APY yearly.
I want to distance myself from those risky moves and move into more secure things that still yield a great amount annually. I have to be honest: I know people raise their eyebrows and look at me sideways when I say that “I want 20% returns annually or even more,” but I’m going to be straightforward -> 5 to 10% yearly returns are not feasible in my mind.
We’re living in an extremely expensive world post pandemic. I live in Europe, we have VAT on everything, things have gotten really expensive, and my country takes almost half of your gross salary. The point I’m trying to make, even if it sounds childish or amateurish, is that 5 to 10% is too small to make sense when you’re dealing with investing and the stock market overall.
I’m heavily into tech. This is the field I work in, the stuff I consume daily, and the domain that genuinely interests me. I have somewhat deep knowledge about it. But whenever I do my due diligence and come up with a plan, I don’t follow it. I slip, and that literally shatters my confidence.
Let me give some examples:
* Last year was a rough year for Intel. The company was switching CEOs frequently, and the stock was trading at $19 per share at one point. In my mind, Intel is a major player. No way the US would let their biggest chip company collapse, similar to Boeing. Intel also has fabs under construction, so good things were coming. I bought the dips for a while and built a somewhat strong and solid position with an average of around $20. Then, out of fear, I got shaken out and sold at $22 to $23 for a tiny profit that made no sense for the effort I initially put in. Now? The stock trades at $44 per share, literally almost double in value.
* A similar story with TSMC. Tariffs were announced around April last year and the stock fell into the $140 range, close to where it was back in 2022. It looked like an immense opportunity to buy in and secure a position, which I did. Again, I exited not long after and made a little profit, but nothing worth the trouble. Now? The stock is up 107% since April.
I’ve reached the point where I get depressed looking at this. I feel like I’m some broken toy. The intuition and the plan are there, I have an idea of what I’m doing, but I fail to execute. Now I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. All tech is blown out, there’s war, tech right now is very risky as the AI bubble hits uncertainty, and I don’t want to buy high and hold for 1 to 2 years.
I’m sure some of you will tell me that this is not for me and I should just stick with VWRA and get on with my life, but again, that’s not feasible for me. I’m in need of bigger gains to fuel some personal plans, and 5 to 10% per year might as well mean leaving my money in the bank and watching the 1.3% returns from the economy account pile up.