Where to from here?

Hi all,

Note sure where this belongs but here seems good enough for now. As a bit of background and to help you understand my mindset, this is my investing journey thus far.

1. Started with VAS/VGS in late 2014 after getting over my unfounded fear of investing.
2. After my 2 initial purchases I then did nothing for 2 years. Lack of funds, motivation, other interests etc.
3. I got dragged into Crypto by my brother. This took off like a rocket and within a month I was mining, manually trading, and using bots. I even wrote my own code and learned more about technical analysis than I ever thought possible. I lost count of how many exchanges I had accounts with, was doing arbitrage trading, and was generally doing OK apart from the odd day here and there that wiped out weeks of gains. I got out after chart watching started ruining family time but I got lucky and sold all bar 1ETH in January. Holding that 1ETH just in case lol.
4. I didn't make life changing money from Crypto sadly, but I made enough that I quadrupled my VAS and VGS investments in one go and added 10% VAE as well. So I think I put my Crypto gains to good use (VAE maybe not lol).

And here I am. Staring at my "Vanguard fan club portfolio" day in, day out wondering where the hell I should go from here. On one hand I started investing as an alternate future source of income to my super, but now given my experience with Crypto I feel like I could do more.

I do want to add VISM (when it finally launches) but once again that is a "safe/smart" option that would only solidify my boring portfolio. I am in my early 30s and my risk tolerance is high. The thing that is stopping me throwing little bits of cash here and there at riskier individual stocks is brokerage costs in Australia. I'm not financially comfortable enough to spend thousands at a time. I have some cash in stake at the moment which - if my understanding is correct - should be free to trade as much as I want once the initial conversion fee is paid. Other than I have no idea. I'm not a fan of borrowing money to invest because it equals more debt.

I also don't know what the point of this post really is but it's been written and feels a waste to not post it.

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

there's nothing wrong with a portfolio comprised solely of VAS + VGS at all. it's a popular combination (VAS + VTS + VEU is another popular mix) amongst the FIRE movement, most of whom would be in their 30s as well, and that's pretty much all they hold - nothing else.

i am a follower of FIRE, but unlike the majority of the movement i don't fully rely on ETFs. i do hold IVV + VEU for international exposure to help mitigate home bias, but like many here i take direct positions in ASX securities (i trade options on the ASX as well) rather than rely on an index ETF for my Aust exposure.

if you want to trade more frequently (or throw little bits of cash here and there as you say) you're going to want a more competitive broker than the rip-off local brokers. i use IB and am quite happy with the service i get from them, but people seem to like SelfWealth as well. you could read thru the brokers forum for some ideas there.

if you don't want to buy individual stocks and would rather use an ETF for Aust exposure, an alternative to VAS you could consider is the Betashares offering (A200). it has half the MER (0.07% vs VAS 0.14%) and is still based on the ASX200, but they use a slightly different index provider (not S&P) which probably explains the lower MER.

Thanks for the reply Sharkman! I guess that's my problem. I have the FIRE basics down but it's a little boring. I am trying to make investing my number one "hobby" so I stop blowing cash elsewhere, but the buy and hold part is putting me to sleep. I use SelfWealth myself but recently opened a nabtrade account to get free trades for 3 months, so might take advantage of that and pop a few hundred here and there on some speculative picks (yes, there is a $500 minimum). Maybe I should just chuck my Stake balance on VIXY lol.

Hi just came across your thread while sitting here at screen, hope you don't mind my two cents worth?
another idea would be to open an FX account if in Aussie. You can use the demo account learn about trading until consistent (at least paper trading that is ) . Then start with small deposit (expect to blow up a few times ), make sure you are happy to blow up because it will happen.
If you haven't spent a lot of time here reading the threads I suggest you do as will give you idea at how different everyone is at how they trade and what they trade.

I read in a book don't remember which but the comment was
there are many ways to skin a cat , but he doesn't like any of them.

Thanks for the input willoneau. FX trading seems like it would be similar to my experiences with crypto. Maybe I don't understand it well enough, but that's something I want to avoid if I can - a few trades a week is more my style at the moment I'd say!

I have never looked at the crypto so hard to compare ,was told it had little liquidity so was very volatile ,
FX is great for trading with small account you only pay by the spread .Biggest thing to watch is how big you can have your position size relative to capital at risk. MY greed factor blows most newbi accounts out the water.

Have a base ETF portfolio (a) which you build over time. Invest consistently over time

Have a second account which is a trading account (b) - trade whatever you like (forex/futures/stocks/crpto/whatever)

Allocate funds to (a) or (b) based on your expectancy. At present i think you should be 95% (a). The goal should be to build a skill so that (b) is a legitimate investment option

Other:

- Save hard
- Understanding truly what a long term investment horizon (portfolio (a)) is and if you are comfortable with this process.