The old year is over, the new one has long since begun. It's quiet outside again, no more flash-bangs to be heard. The only thing missing is snow and something that used to be called "winter". Time for a depot review of the past December 2023. As always, I will proceed in the usual order.

➡️ Shares

What a month it was! Even after a strong November, December went really well! The stock market tailwind that started in November continued in my portfolio. Great!

With the refund from the credit balance from the utility bill and some Christmas money from the family, I had $LTC (+1.57%) and $VNA (-0.83%) made additional purchases. I am firmly convinced that both stocks, which have certainly taken a battering, have upside potential again. This is not investment advice, a recommendation or anything similar, but merely my opinion. Both stocks have suffered from the interest rate environment. Personally, I expect a gradual reduction in interest rates in the future. As a result, I expect REITs and real estate stocks to recover. These will not be price rockets, but stocks that recover slowly and steadily. Vonovia has already been given the fight upwards. The portfolio has been slimmed down and the debt burden is falling. I think my speculation will work out. With $LTC (+1.57%) the same way, this stock is still interesting for dividend strategists as a monthly payer, even if $O (+1.58%) is certainly the better known stock. I'm sure some have also bought in.

At the top of my list of the largest positions in terms of volume are still $AVGO (+1.3%) , $MSFT (+0.08%) and $FAST (+0.67%) . $FDX (+2.71%) has fallen compared to the previous month. But that was to be expected for me, in times of inflation people are a little more cautious when shopping online and business customers are also trying to save money. Perhaps one less package? Perhaps a USB dongle with contents can be omitted and the contents can be sent digitally from A to B? Otherwise there are no major changes for me here, the usual suspects of the last few months are leading the portfolio in terms of volume and there is now some calm in the varied competitions of the previous months.

In the cellar, sorted by volume, I still have the $DHL (-0.87%) and $CVX (+0.88%) . They are definitely both hot buy candidates for me. I won't go into any more detail now, as I have made my opinion on oil known in recent weeks. 🛢️🤑

Incidentally, DHL is back on the plus side for me with a directed entry price; my very first tranche was also very high here before the fall. That makes me happy, step on the gas dear "yellow giant".

Now has also slipped $NKE (+3.29%) to third last place. It's a shame that I don't have any spare cash right now to buy into the dip. I firmly believe in the company, even if the competition here is fierce, there is a certain amount of pressure from the counterfeiting industry and consumers are perhaps more likely to opt for a cheaper brand or generally consume less due to inflation and cost of living pressures.

By the way, there is still $CP as a real corpse in the depository cellar, simply because #TR no prices are displayed. I only see a price for #getquin
$VLTO WI (+1.53%) but I don't include it in my analysis; the position will be sold in any case as soon as the minus suits me. Proceeds are currently going into the $DHR (+1.44%) position.

If I look at the performance, the picture is similar to that of the previous months. $AVGO (+1.3%) with +90% and $NVO with +80% and more. The tide lifts all boats, so the worst performance in my portfolio has now finally slipped over the -20% mark with $GIS (+1.51%) . Very close by $CPB (+2.3%) . Again, these are both great stocks for me, readers of my posts know that I also have a soft spot for the food industry and retail. In general, I'm finding that the Red Lanterns of mine are less and less dark red. I'm wondering whether this is just an effect of the end of the year, whether I've already reduced the price of my entries by purchasing savings plans, or whether my long-term savings are already bringing my performance closer to a long-term average. I'll be keeping an eye on this over the coming months.

Now for a first. For the very first time, I am also giving you information about the number of dividend payments. I was able to record 25 dividend payments in my share portfolio. That's a great thing, something I could never have dreamed of 3 years ago (and more).

As usual in December 2023, the dividends (including ETF distributions) were again somewhat more generous and showed an increase of 152% compared to December 2022. I am very satisfied with this. For me, December 2023 was the third-strongest month for passive distributions in the past calendar year. That fits! Of course, everything will be reinvested to accelerate dividend and portfolio growth.

➡️ ETFs

The clockwork is running! ETFs naturally also felt the tailwind of the stock market. They do exactly what they are supposed to do. "The easy way" for independent retirement provision.

Saving a portion of your net salary regularly in broadly diversified ETFs is the least everyone should do. This is no longer an option, but a lack of alternatives. Anyone who relies on the state pension is a fool, there is no other way to put it in view of the serious situation and demographic change! Even if you only start with $25 a month, that's a crucial start.

I started small myself, like everyone else. My first savings installment, back in May 2020 in ETFs, was €125. And I increased this quite quickly so that I reached the €500 region. With further salary increases and cost savings, I kept increasing the savings rate because I quickly realized how important it is to get compound interest going. And I didn't start building up assets in my early 20s, as in the "investor picture book example", no, I wasn't far away from my 33rd birthday and asked myself at the time how I could still manage to build up at least a million-euro portfolio by the time I reached the statutory retirement age, taking into account the sample calculations. And instead of failing perfectly, I simply started imperfectly and I can already see that it's worth it. It was the best decision of my life.

Back to my ETF portfolios: Three ETFs paid out in December and these are my largest securities by volume ($VWRL (+0.87%) , $VHYL (+0.84%) , $VUSA (+1.05%) ). Two clearing accounts were pleased to receive payments. Looking ahead to the new year, we will continue with the $ISPA (+0.76%) in January.

➡️ ETFs and shares once again

I originally started the 70/30 strategy at the very beginning with the usual suspects as accumulators. I abandoned this last year and switched to distributors. I want a good combination of growth and cash flow! In old age, when the distributions should at best cover my living expenses but at least plug the pension gap, I don't want to worry about selling the shares. That is only planned if there really isn't enough.

In my opinion, the proponents of accumulators are also forgetting that selling the units in retirement will incur order fees again, whereas dividend distributions (should) be free of charge.

Of course I already pay capital gains tax, but in my opinion it is simply very important for the psyche to book incoming payments on all securities accounts in order to simply stay on the ball. Many of us have not yet experienced a real crash that lasts very long. And the next one will flush many players out of the market again because they only see falling prices and no current income.

In addition, there is the nice effect that the burden of the advance lump sum is reduced at the same time and, in the best case, I have to worry less about how much money I have to keep in the clearing account or by how much the tax-free amount will fall at the beginning of the year.

In the end, every investor has to do what they think is right. Everyone must be able to sleep peacefully with their investment. And I sleep well in the dreamland of the dividend strategy, whereby a moderate dividend yield that will continue to grow is important to me, in line with the dividend growth strategy. Of course, I also have shares that don't pay a dividend; these are selected companies that convince me.

➡️ P2P loans

This is the first asset class that I wish I had never entered. I've told you enough about my last default experience and the associated exit from the class, so I'll spare you that now. I was only able to withdraw a few euros from repayments. Interest? Hahaha... you can forget it. Months ago, I would never have thought that I would see interest on overnight money and that P2P interest would fail, but the tide is turning.

Only Bondora Go&Grow is still running and this vehicle was allowed to receive another deposit in December, which consists of the funds withdrawn from the other platforms. I'm particularly annoyed that I haven't finished with the deduction from Mintos and Peerberry yet. I actually wanted to declare these sources of untaxed investment income for the last time on my upcoming tax return. So this clog on my leg will be with me for a while yet.

➡️ Crypto

DefiChain is the second clog on the leg that I'll spare you.

At the beginning of December, the $BTC (+1.17%) reached a new level at the beginning of December and, with minor exceptions, moved sideways for the rest of the month. The others are similar, I'm not going crazy here, the last crypto savings plans were last executed at the beginning of December and then discontinued. I am sticking to my strategy of selling all holdings tax-free in stages from December 2024 to around March 2025. Accumulation will take place in the next bear market. I only refer to previous posts.

➡️ General information and a goal achieved

I am already announcing one success. I had set myself the target of raising €12,000 for 2023. I then raised the target to €13,500 in the summer. With paid-in capital from my net salary and reinvestment of the distributions of €13,898.44, I exceeded the target. I am very happy with this figure, but I can also see from my records that the success was achieved by investing the semi-annual bonuses from my job.

This year I want to put even more money into the stock market. The new threshold is €15,000. In the summer, I'll take a look at the interim result and if I'm well on track, I'll raise it to €16,000 - €16,500. I like to set myself high goals that I can also fail at. Because in my eyes, ambitious goals that are difficult but still achievable allow us to get out of our comfort zone and grow sustainably. And I would rather just fail at a high goal than achieve a goal that is too low too easily.

For the first time last year, I didn't set myself any other goals. That will change this year. I've already formulated some of them, but I'm still sorting them out. The number of projects should remain at a sensible level and largely meet the requirements of the SMART method. I'll write something about this in the next few days. I'm not rushing into it, but I'm giving myself time to complete the current year with great success on all levels.

Readers of my last review will also have read about the salary increase. For those of you who are also employed, this is now also on the agenda. I now know that there will be something, but still no specific amount. There should be some certainty in mid-January. Then, of course, I will make sure that a large part of the increased net salary goes towards increasing my savings plans.

Lastly: Threads went live in Europe in December. The platform differs from X, but is a good alternative. I remain active with both. I particularly like the link with Instagram on Threads. I've been thinking about starting a blog and reviving Instagram for a few days now, so YouTube will remain the only platform where I don't actively publish content, but just add my two cents in the comments (for now). Because apparently, although I've always enjoyed math more than writing and copywriting, I'm getting more and more into it. I'm keen to share my experiences, encourage people to take responsibility for their own retirement planning and wealth accumulation and disclose some of my figures to encourage people to make more of their current situation. And this despite the fact that not that many people will read it at the moment and there would be a lot of non-remunerated work to do at the expense of free time, or did you think that I would otherwise write such a long text on a Friday evening out of boredom 😉?

I want to make my contribution to financial education in our country, because let's be honest, as a society we are on average simply uneducated when it comes to this important discipline. Maybe a blog project has a purpose for me after all.

➡️ An addendum

I also see a positive development on getquin. The quality of users, posts and comments is steadily increasing. While there used to be too many pointless comments from immature users, they are now getting better and better and helping us to do what we are here for - to exchange ideas in our bubble, in our little financial world. 🥰#getquin simply has an influx of users who are really not just here to troll, but to learn, share and motivate each other in the long journey of building wealth. And I'm glad to be a part of it 😊

With this in mind, I would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy and successful New Year 2024! 🍀