Last year was a pretty humbling year for me. After 4 solid years of beating the SNP500's results, the end of 2021 wasn't even close.
Several times during 2021, my India and Tech Portfolio rallied hard and was even ahead some times in the mid month, but eventually got crushed in the last two months. Even with a 7 figure personal portfolio and advising a much larger amount professionally at the time, it was pretty humbling indeed.
This year has been MUCH more humbling.
As I write this article, the SNP500 is down by 21.7%. Across the board, the China and Tech investments so carefully selected during 2018 to 2021, which made almost a staggering 40% annualized at a particular average - has been down 30.95% an 38.85% in the same period.
A quick picture summarizes my current personal track record and the current state of my investments for Unit Trusts vs the SNP500 ETF.
I considered including the written words of 'HOW I MADE MONEY DURING HIGH INFLATIONARY PERIODS' to save face but I'll save it for the next article, which details my personal fund switches and some of the considerations for like-minded investors and clientele.
I figure if Chris from Tree of Prosperity can be so humble, I shouldn't try to save face on this particular article and reserve rightful praise on the next one while taking my punches now, anyway my webinar that's coming out on this topic too.
Worse still, that's just the Unit Trusts portion (the bulk of my portfolio). Once we consider my portfolio as a whole, it actually gets even worse because I put quite a bit of money into cryptocurrencies during November and once more around late March, hoping for a DCA effect.
It's been quite rough for investors who share my long term mentality, and definitely hasn't really helped my short-term reputation.
I'll take the time to go over my portfolio and what went horribly wrong. As I mentioned in the previous article, I've excluded insurance and some other things.
Unit Trusts (-39.5%): This is the first year which I really felt fees get to me.
My net of fee return for several years was so humongous that I never even felt the effect of management fees or any additional recurring fees, but it certainly felt like the market kicked me to the ground and fees kicked me a bit more while I was down.
Still, I have good and fresh memories of fees cooperating with me for higher returns for many years, especially with no upfront charges and large bonuses into a low priced fund, so I'm just trying to bear with it. I rounded up this estimate from the last portfolio estimate, without including new lump sum or DCA injections since. Nonetheless, those injections are mostly significantly in the red too (with the exception of April -June onwards). I also included my SRS and CPF investments made at the end of last year, which I put into the riskiest, largest-losing funds since I'm not taking out any of it till 55 and 63, which increased the average loss size.
I'll be answering what actions I took with the new funds and adjustments I made with existing ones in another article, so you have a clearer idea.
READ ALSO: A (Very) Small Peek Into Money Maverick's Personal Portfolio - The Problem with FIRE Pundits
Businesses(-62%, +150%, +0%):
Business 1 is down around 62% from it's valuation in 2021. It's pretty rough because its my favorite business, especially because it really embodies my brand and being as a person. It only makes sense that inflation hit this business hard, making the costs of production high and profits shrink.
Business 2 is up a LOT because despite its debt/tech-base its been successfully marketed overseas and killing off labor there, which resulted in a whooping evaluation. I didn't formally own it until last month and I had to go through a lot of shit with regards to it, so I won't sell until it's up 20x. I like to think of this business as being part owner of the guys which came up with the machines to replace fast-food workers in America who demanded a ridiculously high minimum wage.
I try not to lose sleep over the jobs that I have put active capital to work in eliminating. Every investment does this to some degree.
It's just more prominent when you own something that was DESIGNED to do that from the very beginning, rather than focus on how profitable Youtube Reels advertisements will be.
Business 3 (NEW!) was something I got into recently, and I pray to God it's my unicorn.
Private Bonds [0% (so far]:
Having lived through the P2P/Private Bonds nightmare that was 2018 and part of 2019, I made it clear to my debtors in no small part that I better be paid regularly before anyone else or I would smack them with the legal hand of God. ...That's been going so well that I acquired two more private bonds during my depressed investment spree, for a 9.35% and 13% one-year guaranteed yield respectively.
Crypto(-68%):
Its weird to see that I've lost this much money in crypto DESPITE NEVER HAVING PURCHASED LUNA, unlike the cute lil Seedly people who started to read my rhetoric shortly after losing all their money on the fact that it's idiotic to call yourself unbiased right before giving tons of borderline actionable recommendations.
I've still not personally met or even read about anyone who's lost too much money from it though, with the exception of a particularly brave post from one financial blogger.
The major culprit in my case was like 70% this fella. That's all I'll say about it.
I'm really just staking and praying all the crypto bros who think 100 hard-forks will eventually make this stuff worth $10 by 2030. That's be like a 30%+ annualized return at least. O_O
Alternative Investments (-87%):
And finally, the kicker.
I gave away the land to Manow, which I'll be writing about in a future post.
Some Closing Thoughts
In my upcoming article about expenses, you'll know that I basically have little money on hand - I pay taxes, my employees, and that's it. I'm trying not to sell my investments, unless it's to do serious damage to incompetent and corrupt companies. What I didn't mention was that I was depressed for a period over my breakup, and spent 50 days finding myself. Before then, I recklessly invested almost all of my savings (a small 6 figure amount) in the first two months of 2022, believing that I wouldn't ever get into another long term relationship.
I've excluded those amounts and the DCA amounts from these calculations and will update the total for next year (and they're honestly a lot more positive).
So for those of you longtime readers or friends who've been following me on Facebook/Instragram when I wasn't blogging, and found it weird that my results are so abysmal, this is why. I'll be following up with the on the article I talked about above, 'HOW I MADE MONEY DURING HIGH INFLATIONARY PERIODS' .
...honestly, the last two years or so I think I've become somewhat more approachable, as the tone for this blog shifted with my maturity as an adult.
More prominent people were more open to talking to me, even if they had affiliations with Seedly - and I naturally rewarded this open-mindedness by smacking them around with the idea that most of their investments were not optimal (in my humble opinion) and shoving my options and returns in their faces. Its not (necessarily) to be a douche and it's obviously still something I believe was in their best interest. Much recent data backs this when it comes to me competing with a generic fan of Warren Buffet, or even people more qualified like Dr Wealth trainers. As they say, every dog has its day - and it's certainly a year like this that's left me wondering if I was the dog in the scenario the entire time.
99% of me doubts it. Especially when I'm reaffirmed by the last decade and a half of data showing that my approach towards investing has crushed value as a whole, especially in the local market.
It's not at all surprising that high inflation has resulted in cash-flow, fundamentally sound businesses being a bit more resilient. It's not like adjustments aren't possible - and have already begun to bear fruit. And DCA-ing on a monthly basis has been productive. I continue to have significant confidence in the future, just that I won't be spending as much time on global or efficient markets.
How about you?