Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.
Welcome to my first portfolio update or the year 2024, I hope you still enjoy them. Now let’s get into things!
On the professional side, things are looking good: after a reorg in my company, I got to keep my team and my leadership position. We are now in the middle of the anual compensation review process, and I am expecting a considerable raise. I am also testing the market and there are indeed opportunities that pay 30-40% more than my current position, but nothing materialised with an offer so far. The market is not in the best shape at the moment, like it was in 2021, but things start looking better.
Personally, nothing much happened. We managed to have some nice family vacations in Switzerland and Romania, the latter being very nice for the kids, as they could spend more time with the grandparents. We re making plans for the summer, some vacation time and some small improvements to the house and garden.
That’s it from the personal side, let’s see how my investments performed:
My investment account was at €21,647, with €1,818 more than previous update, broken down in NO cash invested and €1,818 gain due to assets appreciation. This quarter was not so bad as expected, having a gain even though I’ve paused my investments is a feat. Things are still not looking good on the investment side, the fear sentiments for a recession are still there. 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: it increased by about €5,000 compared to last year (savings + investments). The increase can be attributed to saving, stocks & ETFs appreciation and paying back my mortgage (and increasing my own capital share in the house). I need to increase my income first, before thinking of future investments.
