My Journey to Unlimited Freedom
The Easiest Way to Invest in the Stock Market
Generating a passive income stream
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In a recent article, I talked about generating multiple income streams. In this one, let’s talk about investing.
I started investing halfway through 2019. Investing had had my attention for a while, but I had no idea how to get started. While I scrolled through my Instagram feed, I saw an ad for an investing app called Peaks. I was hesitant but decided to download it and check it out.
Peaks
The app is easy to use and seems to be transparent about what’s invested in. At the time, I had never ever transferred money to an app. That seemed hella risky. What if they just stole my money! (Luckily, that didn’t happen.)
Portfolios
To start investing, you have to choose a portfolio based on riskiness. All portfolios consist of a percentage of stocks (a.k.a. equity funds) and bond funds. Stocks can usually give you higher returns than bonds, while bond funds are generally much safer than stocks. The difference between the two is better explained in this article by Gareth Henry or this one by Baruch Silvermann.
The app also tells you what time range the portfolio is most suited for and the expected return per year. The available portfolios are:
- Mild
• 30% stocks — 70% bonds
• 3.2% returns per year
• 2 > years - Spicy
• 50% stocks — 50% bonds
• 4.5% returns per year
• 5 > years - Hot
• 70% stocks — 30% bonds
• 5.4% returns per year
• 10 > years - Flaming
• 90% stocks — 10% bonds
• 6.5% returns per year
• 15 > years
My experience
I chose the ‘mild’ portfolio and added about € 20 to play it safe. That’s all I had to do. The app takes care of the rest. It’s surprisingly easy.
When I started in August 2019, my investments were going up. I got excited about every cent extra, not going to lie. I ended up adding about € 900 in December, which quickly became € 950. I also changed my portfolio to ‘hot.’ But around March 2020, Covid-19 kicked in, and the investments crashed, which caused me to lose about 80%. I left my money on there, though. There’s one thing I have always been told:
Don’t just withdraw your money when you get scared.
You haven’t lost anything until you withdraw your money. I am now back at a 4.25% profit and looking into other ways to invest. While investing doesn’t seem to be very profiting right now, I hope it will be in the future.
Alternatives
- BUX— https://getbux.com
- DEGIRO — https://www.degiro.nl/
- LYNX — https://www.lynx.nl
- E*trade — https://etrade.com
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