Hello dear Quinies,
in addition to all the posts about blatant investment successes / failures, ambitious goals, ingenious strategies and diamond hands, I would like to write a personal post on a topic that, in my opinion, has not been placed here very often:
What happens when personal circumstances change to such an extent that all decisions up to that point become virtually null and void?
TL;DR: Get up, straighten your crown, carry on.
Longer story:
Briefly about me. I'm in my mid-30s, live in the suburbs of Berlin and work in IT for a large corporation. I started investing in September 2022 and have already written a post about it here, in which I explained my strategy etc.
Well, this old post is a good starting point for this one, because about a year ago, many of the premises and goals were turned upside down relatively suddenly because my relationship and marriage ended after just over 17 years. It was a major turning point that also pushed me to the absolute limit mentally.
As part of the separation, of course, liquid assets were also divided up, which meant a complete sale of shares and ETF units. Before anyone asks: It was a joint custody account and according to ING, a transfer from a joint custody account to an individual custody account is not possible. Due to the relatively small amounts invested (< EUR 10 k), the tax issue was negligible. Nevertheless, it was more or less a reset to 0. No more units / shares, the old goals for which I had invested had become worthless and the future was uncertain.
3 months after the separation, in September 2024, I had my first ETF savings plan executed in a new custody account. Initially it remained with the ETF and some crypto, but in the meantime some individual shares have also been added.
Today, almost exactly a year later, my life is basically back in order and I am currently investing without any direct goal, except to make provisions for old age and generally optimize returns. Of course, there should be more strategy again at some point, but for now that's enough motivation for me. My portfolio is now worth more than ever before and I'm still really enjoying the topic in general.
So what is the purpose of this post?
I would like to wish all investors here, young and old, who have ambitious goals and long-term plans, all the best and still show that life sometimes turns out differently than we had imagined in our strategy. Between all the cheering posts about achieved goals, I would like to make it clear that sometimes factors that have nothing to do with investing force you to start again and start all over again.
And I would like to tell everyone who finds themselves in such a situation that they can move on and that, based on the experience they have already gained, they can usually get back to the previous point more quickly than before.
With this in mind, cheers to new beginnings. Because there is magic in every beginning.
