Afternoon everyone,

After 5-6 years of saving and investing I have finally accumulated (at time of typing) $100, 841.32 worth of ETF's.

My journey started back in 2017-2018 when I was using Raiz (the micro investing app) out of curiosity. Despite having a very limited portfolio it acted like training wheels for the stock market. Back then I would get nervous over tiny $20 swings but over time I gradually got used to market volatility. Nowadays I don't even blink at thousand dollar swings. The pocket change round ups was also a nice feature since I wasn't so savvy about saving back then.

When Raiz increased its fees I sold out of the market and at the same time I had discovered my new found love of travel and decided to put everything in a HISA to save up future adventures. Investing would be put on hold until I finished uni and got a steady salary from a full time job.

Then 2020 hit. Back then I had no idea what was going to happen and initially was very hesitant on the idea of starting investing as I was still in uni working casual and genuinely thought that great depression 2.0 was just around the corner. However the market made a rapid recovery off all that money printing and like everyone else I finally made my entry in the market. Besides not like I was going to go anywhere anytime soon.

As we all remember people were making money on almost anything due to the low interest rate environment, hype and mania. I was foolish enough to think I knew better than the market and truly believed 'tech was the future'. Like I bought ETF's like ACDC, ASIA, FANG and ATECH and luckily I sold them all before the market finally came to its senses and the tech bubble eventually deflated. The lesson learnt is that according to share sight had I invested in only IVV or DHHF I would have made more money than my current portfolio. I only invest in DHHF nowadays to keep it simple but still hold VGS and NDQ from my original portfolio because they are all in the green (NDQ barely) and not the worst investments.

I want to add that was living at home with my parents paying no rent at the time and only moved out last year so that helped a lot. Might as well be honest about it. To the normal people on this sub, saving 6 figures as a normal person on a single median income is a lot more harder than this sub and ausfinance would like to make it. You either have to be getting paid really well, living at home paying no expenses or live like a turbo tight arse.

What now ?

I intend to use my portfolio as a future house deposit and before you pull out your pitchforks and torches I won't be thinking of buying for a minimum of 5 years. In the medium term I want to work as a casual nurse and work and travel whenever I want. I have a goal of '10-20 countries in a decade by the time I turn 40' and in the mean time I still intend to invest my money therefore I have plenty of time. I get to speed run my bucket list and DHHF can steadily grow and fund my future apartment in Sydney.

Anyway thank you for listening to my incoherent ranting. Take care and have a nice day.

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Edit: Forgot to mention I am 29 turning 30 tis year.