Started sometime around COVID (2020) with around $500 in hand (you ever heard that cliche story? 😆anyway…only this time its true) and absolutely no idea what I was doing. I’m talking buying random stocks because someone on YouTube said so, panic-selling during dips, holding bags I had no business holding- the full newbie experience.
Five years of watching my portfolio go red, recover, go sideways for months, and occasionally do something that made me feel like a genius (it wasn’t genius, I got lucky). I’ve sat through at least 4-5 proper “what is even happening” moments in the market where I genuinely questioned everything.
But somewhere between the bad bets and the boring stretches where nothing moved, something clicked. Started being more intentional, stopped chasing hype, and just… kept going.
Today the portfolio crossed $10K for the first time. It’s not life-changing money, I know. But for someone investing from India into US markets, starting with almost nothing, no finance background, no one around me doing the same- it genuinely feels like a big deal.
Curious- for those who’ve been at this longer, what’s a realistic next milestone to aim for? And roughly how long did $10K → $25K take you?
For those of you wondering my IRR has been 14.997% in USD terms and 19.743% in INR terms
Finally crossed $10K. Took longer than I’d like to admit, but here we are.
byu/Aut0-didact instocks
Posted by Aut0-didact
4 Comments
Slop.
Age?
It’s good to keep track of your returns to make sure your investments are at least in line with the market.
However, until you hit roughly 250k you monthly contributions will significantly outweigh any investment return on your portfolio (unless it’s a special case where one year you have massive returns)
So to go from 10k -> 25k will be achieved within a year if you invest $1250 a month a have a 0% return. If you can only afford to invest $125 a month it will take you 10 years with a 0% return.
If you can’t contribute anything to go from 10k -> 25k is a 150% gain. It will take you roughly 13.5 years assuming a 7% return. With a 7% return annualized and $100 a month you would cut that down to 8 years. So the power of shortening the timeline isn’t outsized returns, it’s just being disciplined and investing a constant dollar amount every month.
Well, I did from 4k Q4 2025 to 130k Q1 2026. Sadly lost 70K in beggining of Q2 for not covering shorts, still pretty huge profit. Now parked out in safely stocks