March is already over, daylight saving time is on and by the time you read this, it will be "liberation day". Let's see what Mr. Trump does today at noon. But that will probably be the subject of April.

For now, let's take a look back at my March 2025.

I posted a loss of 3.09% in March. With my portfolio size, this corresponds to a value of almost €4,000. The Dax (-1.72%) beat me again, but compared to the HSBC MSCI World (-7.88%) I am still doing very well.

Over the year (YTD), I lost ground to the DAX, which remained fairly stable, but at the same time I was able to extend my lead over the MSCI World. After all...

Overall, however, I am also satisfied in March. As in February, my portfolio is quite stable compared to the MSCI World. Yes, in good phases I forego profits, but I don't have so many losses now. Volatility is supposed to be a real mental challenge for some people. I'm just glad that things are a bit more subdued for me.

My high and low performers in February were (top 3):

$EOAN (-6,15 %) EON +13.45%

$UNH (-2 %) UnitedHealth +7.15%

$ALV (-8,43 %) Allianz +6.60%

$RACE (-3,06 %) Ferrari -12.35%

$LLY (-7,56 %) Lilly -13.04%

$MC (-4,14 %) LVMH -17.71%

Funny that UnitedHealth was the second worst performing stock in February and now the second best.

Dividends:

In March, I received a net €165.60 from a total of 22 distributions.

Compared to March 2024 (€128.38), that was an increase of 28.99%

Investments:

As I mentioned in February, I am still building up my nest egg again. This is also not yet complete.

A special payment is due in April, but this will go into the $XEON (-0 %) as I am saving all the special payments for the loan repayment in 5 years' time.

I have actually stopped some savings plans in order to have more money for individual purchases or to build up cash. More on this later.

Buying and selling:

There were no sales this month.

I bought Ferrari, and there is still room here until the position is full.

As I mentioned above, I stopped some savings plans. Realty, STAG, Gladstone Investment and Hercules Capital have been stopped. I would like to add to Realty again to fill the position (I'm still €300 short). The price of the others is moving sideways, so I imagine that I will be able to buy them at a later date at the same price.

Savings plans (total €175):

• Cintas ($CTAS (-6,69 %) )
• LVMH ($MC (-4,14 %) )
• Monster Beverage ($MNST (-3,46 %) )
• Microsoft ($MSFT (-2,36 %) )

Goals 2025:

My goal is to have €130,000 in my portfolio at the end of the year. The goal is to be achieved by reinvesting the dividend, making payments and, of course, increasing the share price. The share price increase is of course impossible to predict in any way, so the motto is: if the share price falls or does not rise enough, more cash is needed.

This comes from the sale of useless items on eBay, additional income from e.g. "neighborhood help", etc. The worse the share price, the more additional cash has to be raised.

Target achievement at the end of March 2025: 21.05%

So I'm on the right track (so far), although I would have needed a bit more in March to maintain the average. Well, everything is still open at the moment.

Now I'll wait and see what tariffs come in today (or not), look forward to the dividends and just wait and see. "Because doing nothing often leads to the very best of something."

How was your March? I have the latent hope that, for once, I did better in March than my usual 50% or so of the getquin community.

#washbaerreview

(see @Epi )

The TIPS indicator is extremely positive, but the S&P 500 is clearly below its SMA.

This makes the first month with this strategy the worst since 2000, nice.

Previously the maximum drawdown was -18.9%, now it is just over -20%.

I have already warned that the strategy may not be as robust as expected, but I will continue to stick with it. I have also experimented a bit to limit the drawdown (e.g. selling at -15% within a month directly in the month and not at the end). However, this led to a significantly worse performance, as it was surprisingly often the case that the index was higher at the end of the month.

I probably have a few more months now (on average SPYTIPS is 3.88 months out of the market), maybe I can think of something else.

Here are the general stats again:

CAGR: between 16-18%pa (with money market funds)

max drawdown: -20%

Beta vs SP500: 0.91

Alpha vs SP500: approx. 8%pa

Avg time in market: 5.96 months

Avg time out market: 3.88 months

Profit probability of an in market period: 79%

Avg profit in an in market period: 15%

the money now goes into $XEON (-0 %)

My son is just graduating from high school and wants to go to university. The difficult question now is how he can invest his reserves (gifts of money, prize money, jobs) sensibly for the next few years.

He knows a little about the stock markets and has already gained some experience with precious metals and crypto. So he knows that the markets can fluctuate considerably.

Saving for retirement interests him just as little as the stock market or money in general. He looks at his portfolio from time to time, but doesn't want to worry about it. First of all, he wants to concentrate on his education and his studies. That's what he needs his savings for in the next few years (apartment, travel, equipment). I currently have his custody account with Zero in my name, but when he turns 18 he'll get it transferred.

His risk profile is somewhat special:

1. he doesn't want equity ETFs because of the medium-term volatility. He wants to be able to use the reserves at any time. If he needs the money in 2-3 years' time, he doesn't want such an ETF to be 50% under water.

2. he is also not interested in bond ETFs, as he does not want to grant loans in the current geopolitical situation. Moreover, the distributions would be peanuts given the size of his portfolio.

3. money market ETFs are more interesting because of the low risk, but only yield minimal interest. It should be a little more.

4. gold and Bitcoin are attractive because they tend to stand for security in uncertain times. BTC is also cool. However, both are also volatile.

5. he wants a maximum of 10% risk, but also the chance of >5% returns over the next few years.

So the profile is: low risk. Short-term availability, but still a return above the overnight interest rate.

My proposed solution, which he has accepted for the time being:

80% $XEON (-0 %)

10% $IGLN (-2,39 %)

10% $WBIT (+3,15 %)

So that's 80% safe liquidity. 10% risk/return with BTC and 10% security with gold (annual rebalancing). The volas of gold and BTC should balance each other out so that the influence on the overall vola of the portfolio is as low as possible. A short backtest since 2018 has shown an annual return of approx. 10% with a max drawdown of approx. 10%. Whether this will work out in the future is of course unknown, but the portfolio has obviously survived the sharp drawdowns of BTC well.

What do you think of this - admittedly unconventional - concept? Does it make sense under the given circumstances? Have I missed something? I would be interested to hear your views.

Your Epi

Are you also under the impression that the media landscape is changing? ProSiebenSat.1 $XEON (-0 %) apparently has major challenges to overcome. According to a report in manager magazin, the Bavarian television group is planning to cut around 500 jobs.

The company's CEO Bert Habets will present a cost-cutting package on March 6. These measures will primarily affect the television and streaming business, where around 4,000 people are currently still employed. ProSiebenSat.1 is struggling with declining market shares and high costs. An anonymous observer describes the situation as dramatic: "Digitalization is paralyzing and ratings are declining everywhere."

An internal power struggle between the major shareholders MfE from Italy and PPF from the Czech Republic is also causing additional uncertainty. This could even have an impact on the management level, as Habets may no longer have the trust of the Supervisory Board members. How do you see the future of ProSiebenSat.1? 📈

We currently have just under EUR 16,500, which was originally earmarked for an unscheduled repayment of the property loan 🏠. Until recently, the money was in a Trade Republic account with 3.00% interest, which is now being reduced to 2.75%. Combined with the APR on the loan and inflation, however, this amounted to a zero-sum game. Not particularly smart - but since the money belongs to both me and my wife, you have to make compromises every now and then. 😄

But now we would like to invest the amount in an ETF. Our current portfolio, in which the monthly surpluses are invested, looks like this:

• 50 % in the $HMWO (-5,73 %) (HSBC MSCI World ETF, distributing - until the exemption limit is reached, which will probably be soon 🫠 )
• 25 % in the $EQAC (-5,81 %) (Invesco EQQQ NASDAQ-100 ETF, accumulating)
• 10 % in $EWG2 (-0,53 %) (EUWAX Gold II, accumulating)
• 7,5 % in $EIMI (-4,57 %) (iShares Core MSCI EM IMI ETF, accumulating)
• 7,5 % in $QDV5 (-3,45 %) (iShares MSCI India ETF, accumulating)

In addition, my wife saves monthly in the $SPYI (-5,63 %) (SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI ETF, accumulating) with 155.00 EURto build up reserves for her private health insurance when she retires.

In addition, some of our money flows into call money accounts as an emergency reserve, and there is also an amount in the $XEON (-0 %) (Xtrackers II Overnight Rate Swap ETF C).

Now we are considering in which accumulating ETF we should invest the 16,500 euros and the future savings installment should be invested in. I would like to keep it as a separate or new position in one of the custody accounts, as the money will be invested in 17 years - after the fixed interest rate expires - to (partially) pay off the real estate loan. I'm also a fan of having different pots for different occasions. Each month I expect to have 250 to 500 euros in addition to the 16,500 euros.

Which accumulating ETF would be your favorite under these conditions?

Or simply, in one of our existing custody accounts additionally $SPYI (-5,63 %) (SPDR MSCI ACWI IMI ETF) separately from my wife's savings plan, as a separate pot, because it's already a good ETF anyway?

I look forward to your opinion!

Position swap for the nest egg.

I initially sold $XEON (-0 %) completely and then added this high-yield bond ETF without currency risk to the portfolio instead. It pays out semi-annually and currently has a dividend yield of 5.7% according to Focus Money, which is at least a little more than $XEON

So now it's time for me to introduce myself. I've been reading your posts for quite a while now. And I've been able to glean a lot of knowledge here.

About myself, I am 47 years young, married and an employee of a medium-sized company. I have been working intensively on the topic of investing in shares since May 2024. Before that, however, I had already dealt with the topic of investing, but was dazzled by financial advisors etc.. I had invested a lot in investment funds and life insurance policies. However, the returns fell by the wayside.

Until I started looking into ETFs and shares. As is so often the case, the financial advisors naturally wanted to talk me down about the enormous risk I was taking and that a fund would bring much higher returns, etc. etc.

Long story short, I decided to go down this path anyway. I started with a Robovisor (growney). Here I was able to gain my first experience with ETFs.

But I quickly realized that I wanted more, i.e. I wanted to get more involved with ETFs and shares and find my own strategy that suited me. So I opened a securities account with an online broker and then, after intensive research on YouTube, getquin and Google, I started to create my own securities account.

In the meantime, I canceled all my funds and life insurance policies and reallocated my assets.

In May 2024, I then started to build up my own portfolio. So 2024 was more of a practice year. I have now built up my portfolio to the point where I feel comfortable with it.

Now to my strategy, I want to build up assets until I retire

My core is the

$VWCE (-5,52 %) This is where the largest monthly savings installment goes in

$EWG2 (-0,53 %) I see gold as a small security and stability for my portfolio, which will be expanded in small steps.

$XEON (-0 %) Money market ETF is our emergency fund, which will be expanded in small steps, as repairs etc. are also paid from here.

$BTC (-0,9 %) I see Bitcoin as a long-term investment, this will also be further expanded via a savings plan, but I would also like to realize partial profits in the future

Then I have decided on a few individual stocks, which I have selected so that they are not so highly weighted in my core and where I see growth potential in the future. These will be held for the medium to long term and expanded with savings plans.

$NU (-6,44 %)
$HIMS (-7,52 %)
$ASML (-2,09 %)
$SFM (-4,6 %)
$NOVO B (-6,66 %)
$SHOP (-5,55 %)
$SNOW (-6,11 %)
$SP20 (-5,32 %) The S&P 500 Top20 serves as a small yield booster, but it remains to be seen...otherwise it will be reallocated to the all World

That's it for now, I'm always open to constructive criticism and improvements. I'm looking forward to an exciting time here.

So, here's my monthly Sankey diagram. 2000 is net, always fluctuates a bit due to separation pay, but 2k is the average. That's why I don't pay taxes according to this thing. 300/900€ in ETFs are a nest egg ($XEON (-0 %) ). I pay so little for housing because I own the apartment. Do you see anything that bothers you incredibly? I'm open to any criticism/suggestions.

I've noticed that I'm putting all my leftover money into ETFs via savings plans. So $XEON (-0 %) set up as an asset with the largest monthly savings plan in percentage terms until I'm at the 3-5 monthly salaries. I opted for the money market ETF because I like to be tempted to make yolo purchases from time to time with Trade Republic "credit balances". Apart from that, the return p.a. is quite comparable to what Trade Republic pays in interest. What do you think? Rather cash balances with TR or money market etf?