Over a year ago, I shared about our investing plan for our kids. Since then, here are things I’ve learned, what have been re-affirmed, and what we’ve tried since then:
- Sort-of-Safe: Buy Well-Researched Single Stocks for Short Term
- Safest Bet: Long Term Index Funds
- Risk, Risk, Risk: My First Bitcoin Transaction
1. Short Term – Single Stocks
Lesson: Only buy single stocks that you have researched well, and have a set buy and sell price.
When my super smart and stock-savvy younger sister was still in the Philippines last year, we got to talking about the stock market. She advised me to purchase CNPF and ALLHC as she was also accumulating these stocks.
In around two weeks, both gained almost 40% in value. Wow!
Since buying short-term stocks was not part of the original plan, I was thankful with our gains and sold both promptly.
Stuck! (MEG and SECB)
We also discussed buying MEG as it had good fundamentals. My short-term plan is just to buy near 3.00 and sell at 20-30% profit. The plan didn’t turn out as expected, and we are already months in and not within target.
I also bought SECB with no research. My sole basis for buying SECB was because I had a good previous experience trading this stock. As a consequence, SECB has fallen into almost -20% territory, and am just holding and waiting for better days. Hope you can learn from the unwise choice I made.
2. Safest Bet: Still Index Funds
At the lowest part of the pandemic the paper earnings decreased significantly but it was not time to panic. Since everything was still on paper, it was more of an FYI for me and not a call to action. (Paper gain or loss in this context means not real earnings/loss since you haven’t actually sold your stocks yet).
If you compare between the two screenshots below, our portfolio went as low as –13,289.90 to a gain of 8,448.13 in a matter of weeks.
As of this writing, our total portfolio is on the breakeven side. To save your sanity, you don’t need to check your portfolio everyday since this is for the long run anyway.
3. Cryptocurrency: Buying Bitcoin at PDAX
We bought our first 0.0123rd of a bitcoin through PDAX.PH, one of the three accredited crypto trading platforms here in the Philippines.
What I like about PDAX is the security measures they take to make sure your account safe. There is two-factor authentication used with Google Authenticator, something that COL Financial unfortunately doesn’t have.
The site is admittedly not as easy to navigate through, so check out their YouTube channel. It has a lot of valuable information and tips as well as step-by-step tutorials for newbies like me.
Conservative Investment
While there are a lot of people who have made a living off crypto-trading, I wanted to be conservative and only put in cash that we could afford to lose. The general thought was: “hoping for the best, but if we lose it all, it would sting but a lesson hard learned.”
We put in around a low five-figure amount and got in at around the $37,000 price level. Surprisingly, we were able to earn around 15% in three days It was honestly shocking. No wonder people get hooked on this, you can be swayed by greed to keep putting more and more.
Take note though, that the price changes so fast in BOTH ways. The all-time high of bitcoin was $68,990 just last year and it has already tumbled down $33,076 this year. There are a lot of success stories and cautionary tales about cryptocurrency (buying at the peak only to see it go on free fall), so it is not for the faint of heart.
Bitcoin Experiment Done?
Would we continue to invest in BTC?
I would honestly say yes since we are still relatively young-ish, and can pass on this new form of asset to our kids.
I am in no way endorsing buying BTC or any cryptocurrency, and just sharing my experience. If you do want to get started, PDAX offers a P50 credit when you sign up for an account at PDAX.ph and input REF-41b1eec3a851 on the Rewards tab under your profile.
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