Hi all,
I'm new on the GQ community and started looking into investments roughly by the end of November last year. I’m in my early 30s and currently have a modest portfolio that I manage using a buy and hold strategy, focusing primarily on long-term growth with a small portion allocated to more speculative stocks I believe in (I'm in the field of AI myself).
The bulk of my portfolio is in a world ETF for simplicity and stability ($FWRG (-0.97%) , which I prefer since it's new and has a lower TER than the $VWCE (-0.92%)) with a smaller speculative portion for fun, like some positions in $NVDA (-3.63%) , $ASML (-0.72%)
$XAIX (-2.35%) ).
Beyond the numbers in my portfolio, I have also saved enough to cover around 1.5 years of expenses as an emergency fund, plus extra funds for legal fees and a potential down payment for a house next year. This is why my investment capital might seem modest for now.
For additional liquidity and some testing, I also use Go&Grow from Bondora to generate some extra cash flow at 6.75%, which is far better than my bank’s 1.8% after-tax rate. I briefly considered Trade Republic’s savings account, but the interest rate keeps declining, and since I may move countries in the near future, I decided against it. Based on reviews and customer support feedback, moving countries with TR can be complicated. Instead, I’d rather take a slightly lower return but keep my cash more accessible—the bulk of it in my bank account (even if below inflation) and a "testing" component in Bondora, despite it not being covered by EU deposit protection.
My current strategy for now is to maintain a 70-80% allocation in $FWRG (-0.97%) and keep the rest in speculative stocks / ETFs for "fun". I’m planning to contribute €800-1000 per month on average to my portfolio (just for ETF/stocks part, not for cash) throughout this year.
Since my investment horizon is long-term (retirement-focused), does it make sense to continue with this buy-and-hold approach? Should I consider any adjustments (like simplifying the portfolio further, I know it's not very diversified, or adding other speculative stocks by keeping the 80:20 allocation), or am I on the right track?
Would love to hear your thoughts.