2D·

Looking back to January 2025

January is over. The first month of the year was relatively quiet for me: one hike and two ice baths in sub-zero temperatures. The investment knew what to do by itself. Time for a look back.

I present the following points for the past month of January 2025:

➡️ SHARES

➡️ ETFS

➡️ DISTRIBUTIONS

➡️ CASHBACK

➡️ AFTER-PURCHASES

➡️ P2P CREDITS

➡️ CRYPTO

➡️ AND OTHER?

➡️ OUTLOOK

➡️ Shares

After a strong month in December, my heavyweight among the individual stocks has $AVGO (-0.46%) lost a bit of steam during the month, but is still up by over 250% overall. A performance that I did not expect when I selected my stocks.

On the other hand $NFLX (-0.04%) and $SAP (+0.37%) are performing well. Netflix with +179% and SAP now also in triple digits with +118%. Both are in 3rd and 4th place in terms of volume. $WMT (-0.1%) now with +105%, also a doubler. It gets exciting behind them, the financial stocks are rising. $BAC (+0.06%) ,$V (-0.19%) and $MA (+0.05%) continue to push forward. Is this now a sign that financial stocks will generally rise again? It's well known that profits are rising there. I suspect that the stock market will now price in Trump's deregulation of the sector.

The red lanterns will once again go to the usual suspects $NKE (+0.47%) , $DHR (-0.34%) and $CPB (+0.14%) . All stocks are now performing even worse at -35%, -29% and -22%. They are among the smallest positions in my main equity portfolio with the $DHL (+0.01%) . I'm not worried about the big drop yet, but I'm already taking a closer look. I would have expected Danaher in particular to be back in the black after the last split.

➡️ ETFs

ETFs are doing their thing as usual. What else can you say except the typical?

➡️ Distributions

I received 23 distributions on 12 payout days in January. I am grateful for this additional income stream. Everyone should build up their additional income this way.

➡️ Cashback

There was no cashback payment received in my accounts in January. The separation of REWE and Penny with Payback is making itself felt and I have to come up with a new system for continuing my "cashback pension". So far, I'm thinking about adding up the rebates on the receipts and transferring these amounts from the grocery account to the clearing accounts in order to invest them in one-off savings plans. However, I would only do this once a month because of the administrative effort involved. For DM, Payback continues as usual. But what I like about the REWE and Penny apps is that you can save the discounts in them, so I could use my old system there again. In the meantime, Kaufland is also coming back into focus for my weekly shopping.

➡️ Repeat purchases

There was a subsequent or new purchase of an ETF for my crypto successor portfolio, which was financed from a triggered BTC limit order. I invested in the $EXX5 (+0.15%) .

➡️ P2P loans

With my last P2P platform, Mintos, there was a redemption payment in the cent range, otherwise the platform continues to hang on my leg like a ball and chain. I will gradually withdraw everything here and hopefully end my involvement in this asset class as soon as possible.

➡️ Crypto

January offered crypto investors a BTC ATH on Trump's inauguration on the one hand, but otherwise we are more likely to be dealing with a sideways market on the whole. As mentioned, I triggered a BTC sell limit order on the day of the inauguration. And it was even very close to the ATH. Around 1/3 of my total holdings have been sold since the beginning of November. I am still far from satisfied. But I need higher prices for further sales. Is my strategy working? Or is the bull market already over? I think it will continue, but not for much longer.

➡️ And what else?

Like many of you, I'm feeling the effects of the changes due to rising social security contributions and rising costs. My budget is set up so that my budgets and lump sums work on their own and I've managed well with my budget sizes too. The amount invested each month via savings plans was as large as possible. In the end, there was always an amount left over that went into my nest egg, the last bit, so to speak. This remaining €100 more than halved in January. On the one hand, it's not a problem, I could simply cut back on the savings plans, but I don't want to do that. I can't reduce my spending any further myself. I'm in a salary round, but it's very likely that I won't get a pay rise this year. I'm happy that my second income stream is growing steadily, even if it's not yet significantly noticeable. Now I'm thinking about how I can earn even more money, because taxes are set to rise further, not just social security contributions, the greedy state and greedy politicians are targeting our investment income and interpreting unfair taxation. Unfortunately, they are completely ignorant, because they do not understand that this is already taxed when it is taxed again for us investors (or has already been taxed twice - keyword withholding tax), or that social security contributions on it would mean a further entitlement to benefits from the funds for us as investors. And not just for us, but also for international investors. In contrast to rental income, for example, the deduction for capital income is immediate and not deferred. These are all considerations that are not taken into account by tax increase enthusiasts. Demanding tax increases in a high-tax country is proof of a lack of reality either way. For me, the entire state should continue to be slimmed down.

So you can see from the current political discourse that the state only wants to take away, instead of ensuring that citizens build up something for themselves with effort and sweat, which they then know how to look after and appreciate. However, a considerable promotion of private asset accumulation means that citizens may not need any or significantly fewer pension payments to ensure an adequate old age. I look with some envy at other countries that have much more sophisticated pension systems or sovereign wealth funds. I once wrote an article about the systems in Norway and Sweden.

➡️ Outlook

In February, I can expect reimbursements from the health insurance companies and the dental supplement, which I will invest in in the February review. Until then!

Links:

Social media links can be found in my profile, also feel free to check out the Instagram version of my review.

13 Comments

DerMartin@DerMartin

I love your reports. Thank you.
But instead of relying on cashback at Edeka, Kaufland and the like, I just shop at Aldi or Lidl. In the end, it's cheaper than the former with cashback.

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Saschko@WarrenamBuffet

@DerMartin although some of them are no longer that much cheaper for some products...

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𝒻𝓇𝓊𝑔𝒶𝓁 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝒾 𝓈𝑒𝒾𝓃 🗽@frugalfreisein

@DerMartin thank you. ☺️ 🙏I want to make them even better, especially the post on Instagram... hope I succeed.

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𝒻𝓇𝓊𝑔𝒶𝓁 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝒾 𝓈𝑒𝒾𝓃 🗽@frugalfreisein

@WarrenamBuffet I agree. At least when it comes to the own brands that I always put in my shopping cart.

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Solitair@Solitair

I like shopping at Kaufland. It feels like everything is a bit cheaper there than at Rewe or there are better offers via the app. My strategy is to wait until there are at least 16 points at Payback on vouchers. That's about 8% discount from which I then buy Kaufland vouchers.

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DerMartin@DerMartin

@Solitair Unfortunately, the 16-unit promotions are becoming less frequent. They were mostly run by REWE or Penny. I hope we can find another supplier.

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Solitair@Solitair

@DerMartin Sometimes they are also available directly from the Payback rewards store.

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T D.@T-Dax

There is no convincing strategy for the sustainable financing of pensions or social security funds. That is bad.

I'm just wondering whether the "half-knowledge" you criticize is not also to be found in you? In any case, you are expressing yourself somewhat ambiguously. There was never a proposal to increase the tax on capital gains. It was about social security contributions. In fact, wage tax should be reduced in return. The system is of course difficult to implement, as you rightly pointed out. And I'm still not completely convinced, as there is a lack of detailed information. But at least it has to be mentioned positively that a proposal for upgrading the social security funds has been put forward at all. The same investment income, the same contribution rates with the same benefits...it can't stay that way. I don't want to make any cuts to the existing benefits. That is a matter of personal judgment. That means we need more capital injection and/or increased contribution rates. But above all, we need one thing: proposals! And there are far too few of them.

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Cekay@CMustermann

@T-Dax Excuse me? To even mention this populist, undocumented and purely electoral nonsense a la "tax the rich" in a laudatory way shows a tendency towards typical German payola that borders on masochism and is completely incomprehensible to me. Even on the left-wing green house radio, Robert didn't manage to provide a single word of detail. When a Maischberger embarrasses a Green "top candidate" then everyone, absolutely everyone, should realize that this is simply a poster slogan for the culture of envy.

"If we just pay a little more then it will work out!" Nonsense. Expenditure must come down, we are already among the world's tax champions. This has been clear to any normal thinker for a long time, but of course no one will touch it with pliers. Instead, there are now public defenders for detainees awaiting deportation. That is the essence of this party. At our expense.

Once again: Habeck did NOT say no to the question "does this also apply to people with €30,000 ETF". I don't understand why that doesn't set more people's alarm bells ringing here.

And on the subject of finally more taxes for the super-rich: once again, they are not affected. How many of them are still compulsorily insured? That's ridiculous. It affects me, you and the others here, we have to work several years longer because of it and it's still being praised.

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Cekay@CMustermann

@T-Dax and one more thing, because I saw that you are a lawyer and therefore actually have the IQ to understand why this is madness: telling people for years that they have to invest their double and triple-taxed net income so that they don't belong to the deposit bottle crew in old age, then sneakily increasing the taxes on the profits is perverse, antisocial and so lacking in solidarity that I'm surprised how such a thing can come from the lips of a Green.

Such levies become the new baseline and never disappear again because nobody wants to abolish them (for the then fatter budget). New taxes and levies should be rejected by any rational person until this country has solved its spending problem.

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T D.@T-Dax

@CMustermann uiuiui. You seem to be very upset. I understand your criticism (at least in part). So your solution is to prop up the social security funds even more with tax money? That would be possible without tax increases, of course, but only by making savings elsewhere. But do you really think that's the solution to the problem? Seriously? Simply by making savings? I'm already not a fan of co-financing the social security funds through taxes.

There is also an official statement from the Greens that explicitly states that they only want to tax assets above 1 million. I don't think that concerns you or me or most people here.

You seem to have misunderstood me. I'm not praising the specific proposal. We still know too little about it. I'm praising the fact that a party has dared to make a proposal at all that doesn't end in the populist phrase "don't worry, we'll just save it elsewhere".

PS: On the subject of populism. I don't think it would do your statement any harm to refrain from using populist fighting words such as "nonsense", "masochism", "paying slavishness" etc. if you want to credibly criticize the populist tendencies of others.

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Cekay@CMustermann

@T-Dax In their current constellation, our social security funds are huge Ponzi schemes, as we have an increasingly top-heavy population curve, meaning there are more and more old and sick people who are no longer productive. Throwing more money, from whatever source, into this system, which is already impossible in principle, is "delusional", as the Americans would say.

It would be healthy if we in Germany stopped using taboos. I would take a similar approach with a friend who is chronically broke and constantly claims that he needs to earn more money to be able to afford new stuff. So let's take a look at the budget: we have 445 billion at our disposal. An incredible 108 of that goes into pensions, 24 into ALG2.

These pots should have been invested in the capital market years ago. A system based purely on co-payments is bound to collapse at some point, and anyone who doesn't believe that is welcome to become Bernie Madoff's successor. But the socialist redistribution crew and their comrades are blocking this, because the stock market is gambling, not sustainable enough and unfair. Until this is implemented, a cap on further increases should be put in place as a matter of urgency. The "equity pension", which has been mutilated beyond recognition by the coalition colleagues, is a drop in the ocean of German profligacy and is well-intentioned but useless on this scale.

A further 17 billion goes to development aid, where a comprehensive cut is probably quite simple and unproblematic for us to implement at home. 23.2 billion goes into administration, where there should certainly be a 50% efficiency gain if you look at the working culture in the offices. Performance-based pay for the public sector would be a good way to reduce the cookie-cutter approach at our expense.

The 38 billion in debt, which is respectable by international standards, should also remain capped, but only the FDP seems to be interested in this at the moment; everyone else would like to abolish the debt ceiling.

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ddoc@ddoc

Mintos has been a drag on my leg since 2020 and I'm still waiting for payouts 😂

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