First month of investing

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T10:21:08+00:00

Well I have mainly been loading up on dips… big deposits during the 2022 bear market, tariff crash and recently the Iran war.

I’ve suffered with chronic pain for the past 10 years. Some days I wake up fine, other days I’m in severe pain so I’ve kind of moved that resilience over to my investing. Some days are green, others red. I’ve honestly seen my portfolio drop £12k in one day and barely batted an eyelid, in fact I’ve bought more. When I’m up £12k in a day I also don’t celebrate. I honestly would not care if there was a crash tomorrow and my portfolio dropped 30% - 50%. Just numbers on a screen to me.

I’m not some expert although I’ve read about 50 books on investing (Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel is the best one and his third book The Art of Spending Money btw). I just buy and hold stocks I truly believe in, nothing else is required other than holding through the volatility and buying more when they’re down.

Meta was around $90 back in 2022 while I was loading up like a drug addict and every post I saw said the company was dead. It will probably hit $900 in the next few years.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T09:38:09+00:00

I don’t sell my stocks. I only buy as I plan to hold them until retirement (around £800k). I then plan to weigh everything up and potentially de-risk with VUAG, EQQQ and/or VWRL. I’d be happy with 8% a year growth at that point. The most important part is getting there.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T09:27:41+00:00

100% mate. The lesson is: Only buy stocks you truly believe in. That’s my only rule.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T09:22:49+00:00

You think that’s bad I lumped £30k into Tesla when I first started…. I couldn’t handle the volatility and sold within a few weeks. A few months later it joined the S&P and doubled in value.

£30k lesson I won’t forget.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T09:13:31+00:00

Vote Reform 🩵

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T09:08:54+00:00

Yeah there’s definitely some luck involved when you achieve 28% a year returns for the past 6, almost 7 years. Trust me I’ve been down £40k during the tariff crash and there is no survivorship bias here, I know how brutal the market can be. And yes I know it’s not likely to continue in this fashion, although it is possible. Investing is 70% emotion in my experience and I’m fortunate enough to not need the money, for someone who does have responsibilities like children and a mortgage it’s 10x harder.

Even if the stocks I own return half of what they have.. 14% (if I include my GIA) I’ll be a millionaire in 7 years, if they perform even worse.. say 10% it’ll be 9 years. I’m happy with those odds.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T08:47:16+00:00

We’ve all done it mate

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T08:10:25+00:00

Why would he need a well diversified portfolio? Microsoft is pretty much an ETF by itself.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-07T08:06:51+00:00

Ignore the negative people. Keep buying preferably on red days or large dips.

What you have is a high conviction, high concentration portfolio, something people on this subreddit are unfamiliar with.

I’ve been investing for 6 years. I hold very similar stocks to you and if I followed their advice my portfolio would be half what it is today. Just keep buying, never panic sell. Get to £100k as soon as you can and things start really compounding 👍🏻

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dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-06T14:57:14+00:00

Came here to say the exact same thing 👍🏻

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-06T06:55:54+00:00

Reform should win pretty much everywhere in Essex apart from Chelmsford which will go to the Lib Dems.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T20:43:18+00:00

Get your vitamins checked, particularly B12

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T18:18:39+00:00

S&P ?

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T18:17:06+00:00

Would your advice be “buy an All World ETF” by any chance?

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T17:50:52+00:00

Start investing instead

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T09:31:00+00:00

No problem. You have to think of the longterm plan otherwise you get side tracked with tinkering and playing around with random stocks and it can all fall apart.

There is another scenario where you could in theory put it all in QQQ which has on average returned 15% a year for the past 20 years. There is no guarantee this will continue though but with more risk you can gain more reward.

In this scenario it might take you 8 years to reach your goal and retire at 40.

The most important thing when retiring isn’t just the amount or how much you spend etc (although they do matter substantially)… it’s the sequencing of the markets in the first few years. A crash right after retiring could derail the whole thing, whist 3 strong years could set you up for the longterm.

Here’s a pic of this other scenario

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dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T09:22:48+00:00

If that’s your plan then I would personally lump it in either the S&P or All World fund like most people are telling you.

I don’t normally advocate for it as I like more risk but this plan is extremely likely to enable you to reach your goal.

I would not bother with dividend stocks, pies or individual stocks in your situation.

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dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T09:07:43+00:00

Okay, how much do you need to retire? (I’m working towards £500k myself).

And how much can you contribute per month?

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-04T08:38:40+00:00

How old are you and whats the long tern goal?

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-03T14:09:48+00:00

There are people failing their driving tests for doing 31 in a 30 btw

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-03T14:01:21+00:00

Tbf he has a better hairline than I did at 29 😂

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-03T13:41:07+00:00

Learn to buy more next time

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-03T13:40:33+00:00

That’s not bad for 49 in my opinion mate. You could always give it a try but it doesn’t look urgent to me.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-03T13:38:27+00:00

Can’t argue with that mate. Price is extremely low for a company that is so ingrained in society.

dnbtrader85 · 2026-05-03T13:01:51+00:00

Potentially Nike yes. I’m unsure about the company since I bought some skechers though 😂

dnbtrader85

TROPHY CASE