Portfolio update – March 2024

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.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – March 2024”

Portfolio update – December 2023

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.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – December 2023”

Portfolio update – December 2022

Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.

Welcome to my third portfolio update or the year 2022, I hope you enjoy them. I’ve decided to post updates at the end of the quarter, as things are not so interesting every single month. Now let’s get into things!

On the professional side, things are looking okish: my team got dissolved, I’ve moved to a new team where I will have to learn new technologies and frameworks. It’s good in a way that I am exposed to other stuff, but again I will need to go through a learning period. I hope that I will get my former position back, I have strong signals on this path.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – December 2022”

Portfolio update – September 2022

Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.

Welcome to my third portfolio update or the year 2022, I hope you enjoy them. I’ve decided to post updates at the end of the quarter, as things are not so interesting every single month. Now let’s get into things!

On the professional side, things are looking better: I got promoted! The company is still reorganizing and finding its path to being profitable again. I am hoping that it will succeed, as I have some RSUs that will get vested soon and I hope in their appreciation in value.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – September 2022”

Portfolio update – June 2022

Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.

Welcome to my second portfolio update or the year 2022, I hope you enjoy them. I’ve decided to post updates at the end of the quarter, as things are not so interesting every single month. Now let’s get into things!

On the professional side, things are not looking good. I’ve got a small raise, but my company had to lay off 10% of its workforce, in an effort to “focus on being profitable”, rather that following growth with all costs. Fortunately I was not affected, but some projects got shut down, including one that I worked a lot in April and May. Oh well, we’ll see what future holds for me.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – June 2022”

Portfolio update – March 2022

Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.

Happy New Year 2022! Welcome to my first portfolio update or the year 2022, I hope you enjoy them. I’ve decided to post updates at the end of the quarter, as things are not so interesting every single month. Now let’s get into things!

On the professional side, everything is good. I’m settling in the position, getting to know the colleagues and IT systems. I am happy that I work for a global company, with distributed workforce, with no need to come to the office, only when it’s needed. In January I have received my RSUs (reserved stock units), but they will start to get vested starting January 2023, but also this is the time when I will need to pay taxes for them. I will write a separate article about how the RSUs work in my company and how the taxation works in Germany.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – March 2022”

Portfolio update – December 2021

Dear fellow investors, friends, family and future self.

Welcome to my seventh portfolio update or the year 2021, I hope you enjoy them. I’ve decided to post updates at the end of the quarter, as things are not so interesting every single month. Now let’s get into things!

October was my last month in the old job, so I’ve decided to use all my remaining vacation days and have a holiday in Alicante, before starting the new job. As I told you in the previous update, we had a semi-failed attempt for a seaside vacation at the Baltic Sea in the middle of July (!!) and we had to try one more time.

Continue reading “Portfolio update – December 2021”

What is my starting point?

I am starting this journey with not so much stuff. I don’t have rich parents, rich aunts from where I can inherit fortunes, I come from a country (Romania, in Eastern Europe) where salaries were low and very low when I started my career, but got better in the recent years. I don’t have financial education, my schools and my parents didn’t offer me one. All the knowledge that I have is my own education and research on the web. I have started to read more about investments, finance and asset classes in the beginning of 2020, so just almost one year ago. My sources of inspiration are books, internet articles, finance oriented websites or Youtube channels. I will talk more about them in the future, most probably I will dedicate separate articles for that.

I am a married guy and have two small children under age of 5, that require constant investments of money and time. But they also bring me joy and I want to raise them to be independent and happy. I live at the moment in a rented house outside of Berlin, Germany.

We own an apartment in Romania that used to be rented until a few months ago and we plan to rent it or even sell it in the near future. The rental market is not so great in Romania, there are not so many laws and you can lose money if you have a bad tenant. We have a car, some cash in the bank and few investments, around 7000 EUR. Almost nothing, compared to other people that are pursuing the same path. I’ve calculated our net worth at ~ 180K EUR. I will create separate articles each month with my (our) net worth and updates.

Let’s see how we can increase our net worth and invest wisely, so these investments will return a nice lifestyle, shall we?