Not my proudest achievement.
For context, I started investing in early 2021 as soon as I turned 18 (I’m 23 now). I had a great job at that time, and was able to put a nice chunk into my investment account every month.
I made the same mistakes that many newbies make – chasing hype, improper research, following others. The real killer was a “high conviction” play I made, eventually it reached 50% of my portfolio, and it went into Chapter 11 after a few years. I wiped out a huge amount of my portfolio.
I went to university a year later, and my investment account remained mostly stagnant as I wasn’t working much. I became a bit wiser with my investing over that time, and in 2022 I invested a chunk of cash I had in some Mag 7 stocks.
They did very well, I sold out of them back in 2024 to pay for my first car. Despite this, I still haven’t recovered from my losses at the start. Apart from those 1 or 2 years, I have consistently underperformed the market. Meanwhile, I have some friends who reach out asking for my insights on certain stocks, as I’ve often posted my research and it clearly comes across as comprehensive to them. They don’t know my performance is beyond poop 🙂
The good news? I’ve just started a new job and will be able to put aside about $800 a month to invest (based in the UK).
I’m 23 – in some years I’ll be looking to buy my first home etc, so I think it’s really time to sort myself out. How can I not screw it up this time? I’ve always chosen my own stocks (evidently, not very well), is it really a case of just going for index funds and calling it a day? If so, how do you go about choosing the right ones?
Any and all advice welcome. Thanks!
I started investing 5 years ago, and I’m still in the red.
byu/maximalsimplicity instocks
Posted by maximalsimplicity
22 Comments
What was your high conviction play
Just buy broad indices and never sell. That’s all you have to do.
You are the reason etf/mutual funds were created
There’s a difference between gambling and investing. If you’re putting massive amounts of money into something that might shoot up in value, that’s gambling. If you’re putting massive amounts of money into something that is known to trend upwards over years and years, that’s investing.
I know nothing about stocks or investing. My all world ETF has done +75% in the last 5 years. Anyone who has done worse than that should be not trading or picking individual stocks
If you’re American, just VT and chill
Sell everything. Buy a spy500 etf. And keep buying or adding to it. Only use money you don’t need 5-10 years. No matter what happens in the market, Do not sell.
Welcome
ETFs bro. Put 800 a month into one broad ones. Automate it. In 20 to 30 years. Retire. You’ll make more than trading at the end.
Better to learn this stuff when you’re 23 rather than 53, I wouldn’t beat myself up too much if I were you. [r/personalfinance Wiki: Young Adult Financial Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/young_adult/)
The fact that you’re asking “is it really just index funds?” after 5 years of underperformance is honestly more self-awareness than most retail investors develop in a lifetime.
Yes. It’s index funds. Not because picking stocks is impossible, but because the edge required to consistently beat the market is something even most professionals don’t have — and they do it full time, with Bloomberg terminals and analyst teams.
You didn’t fail because you’re dumb. You failed because you played a game where the house wins 80% of the time, and nobody told you that at the door.
$800/month into a global index fund (VWRP if you’re in the UK) for the next 20 years will almost certainly outperform whatever your smartest stock pick would’ve been. The boring truth is that consistency and low fees beat conviction and research for 99% of people.
Your 23-year-old self losing money is actually the cheapest tuition you’ll ever pay. Most people learn this at 45.
Just to be clear, you’re not investing, you’re trading.
Go with an investment firm for the simple reasons, they are experts and have access to high yield funds that you don’t have access to.
In 2008-2009 I sold at 50% loss because that’s when I needed the money. It happens when you’re young. Just forget about that money. And start now with diversified index funds and over time you’ll be happy
It’s ok I was red for like 8 years before I caught up.
> I have consistently underperformed the market.
You can’t beat the market, that’s fine. Very few can.
Good news is you don’t have to, just buy the market using any of the broad market funds and you’ll stop underperforming.
Dont listen to these haters my man. I be honest, a negative return in the last 5 years is an absolute achievement in the current market.
But the best lessons cost money. Assume you have learned something is far more valuable than a $10k gain in 5 years. You are super young, so its good that these lessons came early.
Stop buying crap company or companies that are selling at historically high valuations and you will do fine.
I got scolded by some people reddit for saying google was a screaming buy at 100. Or that Meta was not dead at 90. Or that microsoft would drop close to 2.5T valuation. You just have to have patience, because good opportunities will come around. Dont be desperate to deploy your money
People throw around “high conviction” because they look into a stock and see a lot of people are hoping it up, I’d suggest looking into what true high conviction is and practice with a few companies before you throw any more cash into individual stocks.
Stop trading, buy etfs. Start a business, that is the only way to generate enough wealth to get ahead. Maybe 0.5% of people have what it takes to be a day trader and make money consistently.
Just stick with a global index fund.
honestly at 23 with $800/month and a long runway, just dca into a global index fund and let compounding do the heavy lifting.. your stock picking clearly costs more than it makes, the math isn’t complicated
Nice job!
You can still lose it all!
An MBA will cost you minimum of a year and tens of thousands of dollars. What you are doing is a real world MBA and you will learn more. Believe in yourself. Never stop learning. This is the tuition you pay.