My financial goal, an assesment and some questions..

[POSSUM THE CAT]

Toast2success A kiwibank notice saver account might be a better bet unless your tax bill is well over 10grand

[elZorro]

Toast: in your bid for more capital backing and savings, you might like to consider the idea of running your own business. This also has a long timeline of 10 years or so before best results, but you never know, you might be able to employ others to do the work you're doing now, and you will have the added thrill of paying a lot more tax (hopefully) every three months or so.

However, instead of observing a business from the outside (seeing only what they want you to see usually), you will be a big part of one, something NZ needs a lot more of. It's very possible that if you get past the first 5 years you'll be doing better than most sharetraders, although I admit it would be nice to be able to profit in both enterprises..

[steve fleming]

That is inspirational Steve. How much time did/do you spend a week reading and researching. Just to get an idea of the kind of committment required. I may not have the intelligence or the balls to succeed even if I did make the effort but still interested to know. Also do you have a fulltime job as well?

Hi Aaron, I would usually spend two to three hours a night reading ASX announcements and doing other research and corresponding with company management.

I’m very lucky that I have a day job that also keeps me very close to the market and I am often dealing with ASX companies during the day. I also have access during the day to good research tools like CapitalIQ, Bloomberg, Thomson Reuters which allows me to access broker reports / forecasts and most importantly broker trading activity which I find invaluable.

This I guess gives me a relative advantage over many in the market, but the market is ruthless and you have to maximise any advantage you can.

In hindsight I made the right decision to buy large amounts of options during the middle of the GFC ( see this thread http://www.sharetrader.co.nz/showthr...t=options+long )

I doubt I will ever see the combinations of those factors occur again for many many years, but it certainly was a life changing (from a wealth perspective) time for me. But I backed myself, took calculated and well researched risks and it paid off.

[steve fleming]

Since we are being checky, how much capital did you put in to start and how much capital have you introduced over time (or has it all been from portfolio growth).

I built up a portfolio of NZ stocks of about 20k when I was a uni student paid for by my student loan. Then I moved to Aus and saw moreopportunities so sold my NZ portfolio and invested in Oz stocks. For the first few years I re-invested net salary savings into my portfolio. However over the last few years, as my portfolio has got larger, my wife (who is risk averse) has made me put my netsalary savings into non-sharemarket more conservative investments so for the last 5 or so years there have been no extra contributions – just dividends and realised/unrealised capital gains/losses

[Aaron]

Thanks for that Steve. 2 to 3 hours a night reading, impressive. I guess thats what you need to do to succeed.

[Corporate]

Thanks for that Steve. 2 to 3 hours a night reading, impressive. I guess thats what you need to do to succeed.

just don't watch any TV!

[steve fleming]

just don't watch any TV!

I can multi-task, just do it in front of TV on the ipad once the kids are asleep, while at the same time pretending to listen to my wife!

[Corporate]

I can multi-task, just do it in front of TV on the ipad once the kids are asleep, while at the same time pretending to listen to my wife!

Ah ha i've been thinking of getting an ipad and wondered what the were like for research?

So true though. My partner goes to sleep at 10ish and I've got the rest of the night to research.

Thanks for sharing your insights Steve.

[toast2success]

New plan, going to speak to Kiwisaver provider and see if I can qualify under 'financial hardship' to withdraw enough to pay off my hideous debts. Hopefully they'll view the situation favourbly given I don't want to take the lot out....

[buns]

New plan, going to speak to Kiwisaver provider and see if I can qualify under 'financial hardship' to withdraw enough to pay off my hideous debts. Hopefully they'll view the situation favourbly given I don't want to take the lot out....

Or you could have 2-3+ hours a night for more enjoying relaxing activities and live a real life i.e. talk to your wife, watch crap tv, eat takeaways, drink beers, throw money at your kids and/or holidays. As well as weight on your shoulders from holding risky investments. There is another post going around here from some other youngster who seems a year or two down the track you are heading on, and now feels constantly stressed, can’t sleep and seems overall not happy.

You might only come out with $250k in 10 years’ time, however I think you would have lived a much more enjoyable life and feel relatively more wealthy than a lot of others.

Do you see any posts on this board from people who attempted this and lost a lot if not it all? On average most attempting these kinds of returns would end up down that route.

Invest in yourself, and your career. It’s a much safer and worthwhile investment which provides the capital to underpin any other investment.

You need to keep in mind the real meaning of wealth, I know some $15 an hr slave type workers who are more wealthy than multi-millionaires. Extra money means nothing to them as what they want in life is very little, whilst the millionaires can’t stop wanting more.