Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.
First of all, I am very sorry for skipping the quarterly update, this year I promise I will post them on a regular basis again. Welcome to my first and last portfolio update or the year 2023, I hope you still enjoy them. Now let’s get into things!
On the professional side, things are looking good: I got my leadership position back in the beginning of the year, managed a big team and survived a busy year with no major incidents. I got a 7.5% raise in spring, but still not enough to cover inflation, as the increase in prices started to take a toll on the family budget, especially for the bigger things (like home renovations). I also managed to travel more business related, having four company trips in the last year.
Personally, a lot of things happened. We managed to get rid of all of our liabilities: the property in Bucharest, Romania for which we didn’t find a good way to rent in out profitably, we sold our car that required a lot of expensive repairs and bought another one, we changed our 25-year old heating system, that could break anytime. We managed to have some nice family vacations in Romania, Czechia and Switzerland and finally a vacation in two (just me and my wife), after many many year – in France, on the French Riviera. All these things took a toll on the budget, so I finished the year with a lower net worth that last year. But, we don’t plan major expenses in the near future. Or at least I hope, but probably my wife has other plans 🙂
That’s it from the personal side, let’s see how my investments performed:
My investment account was at 19.294€, exactly 5000€ more than previous update, broken down in 3100€ cash invested and 1900€ gain due to assets appreciation. This year was not so bad as expected, but it could have been better. Things are not looking good on the investment side, everybody fears a recession. I use Trade Republic as a broker and if you create an account using this link, we will both receive a bonus of 25€ after your first trades.
I had experienced investing into P2P lending with Mintos, but at the moment I am withdrawing all the funds. At the moment I have 354€ in the account and all the money are in the recovery phase, with little chance of seeing my money back. Most of the lending companies are either in liquidation or agreed a plan with Mintos to return the money by 2026-2028. I am sorry, but I cannot keep my money blocked for soo many years, with no compensation for it.
Finally, some numbers about our total net worth: as I said, it decreased by about 3800€ compared to last year (savings + investments). The decrease can be attributed to spending on replacing the car, home improvements and holidays. I need to increase my income first, before thinking of future investments. Looking back on what I wrote last year, that I will be more conservative with spending, it just brings me a big smile. It was a year of a lot of big expenses, so hopefully this year will calmer. Hopefully. Let’s see!
