I trade mainly currencies, but I only hold a small portion of my savings in currencies as I believe that all fiat currencies will eventually revert to their intrinsic value, which is zero.
If I keep savings at the bank, then I will certainly lose on my savings in the long run. Therefore I only hold short-term savings at a bank. These are savings I keep for expenditures such as holidays, house maintenance, tuition fees, etc. These are expenditures, that I know are coming. Besides that, I also hold savings at a bank for known unknown expenditures and emergencies.
I invest my long-term savings in:
- stocks
- precious metals
- cryptocurrencies
Investing in Stocks
As an investor I invest mainly in ETFs that hold and re-balance a large portfolio of stocks. I used to invest in single stocks in three main categories:
- Dividend stocks
These are blue-chip stocks that I intend to never sell and that pay me dividends. I will reinvest these dividends to grow my portfolio. - Growth stocks
These are stocks of new companies that have the potential to grow their revenue as they are breaking into new markets with a lot of growth potential. These companies typically do not pay dividends as they reinvest all of the profits in growing the business. I hope to grow my portfolio as the value of these companies increases over time. - Mining stocks
These are stocks of companies that mine for precious metals.
I currently just buy and hold ETFs that follow the MCSI World index. This gives me exposure to the stock markets in developed countries. An easy way to do this is in a Wise account.
A slightly more advanced way to invest according to my backtested investment portfolio. I do this at Trading212. If you wanna see how I am doing, go to Invest with me.
Investing in Precious Metals
I hold some long-term savings I have in the form of precious metals. To read more on Why I buy Gold and Silver, please see this post.
Gold and Silver have been a store of value for thousands of years. Fiat currency may be government money, but Silver is Gentlemen’s money and Gold is God’s money. Gold and Silver have proven to store value throughout history.
I do not keep Gold and Silver at home, because of the security risk. And I also do not keep my precious metals in safety deposit boxes in banks, because these are not accessible at all times and are not insured.
I hold positions of allocated Gold and Silver in a professional vault.
Hold Gold and Silver fully insured in a Professional Vault.
You can do this through companies that act as a custodian.
Here are some companies you can check out:
- Bitpanda Metals (Operates out of Austria, Bullion held in Switzerland)
- GoldMoney (Operates out of Canada)
- BullionVault (Operates out of the UK)
- Gold Republic (Operates out of The Netherlands)
- Bullionstar (Operates out of Singapore)
Also, many local bullion dealers will offer vaulting services. Most custodians offer vaulting services in different countries, like:
- UK
- USA
- Canada
- The Netherlands
- Switzerland
- Singapore
- Hongkong
You can also buy Gold-backed tokens on the blockchain. I am currently aware of these options:
- Mintx (Gold is stored in Hong Kong)
- Pax Gold (Gold is stored in London, regulated by the state of New York)
The interesting thing about tokenized Gold is that it is low-cost and flexible to hold and transact. You can use it to buy a cup of coffee.
Investing in Cryptocurrencies Bitcoin
I hold, or HODL cryptocurrencies Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin is incredibly volatile. I believe that in the long run, a small holding of Bitcoin and other coins can have the potential to grow into a significant holding. I see it as insurance against another potential failure of the financial system as we know it.
Averaging in
Because cryptocurrencies are Bitcoin is so volatile, I rather not try to time the market. Instead, I buy a fixed amount in Euro every week. This is known as averaging in. I do this via a Bitcoin exchange. At this exchange I have set up weekly recurring buys. It is all automated. Every now and then I transfer Bitcoin from my exchange wallet to my non-custodial wallet.
Here are some exchanges that offer easy recurring buys of Bitcoin:
Questions?
I have outlined some of the most useful resources I use for trading, investing, and saving myself. I hope it is helpful. Links on this site can be affiliate links. If you use them to open an account or buy something, then I might receive a commission. This is at no additional cost to you. If you have any questions about these resources or the site itself feel free to get in contact with me.
Here is a list of my latest investing related posts:
- Building my investment portfolio: a first look This is the first video in a series I plan to do on my investing journey. I will try and do regular updates as the portfolio progresses. Currently, I have 5000 EURO invested in Gold, Silver, Cryptocurrencies and dividend stocks. My goal is to grow this to 20.000 […]
- Finding the right stocks to invest in For a long time, I have been hesitant to invest in the stock market myself. The main reason I told myself is that I am already heavily invested in the stock markets via my pension plans. The thing is I have no control over my pension plans. I […]
- So, you want to buy Bitcoin automatically every month, week or even every day? In this article, I will show you three ways to automate your recurring Cryptocurrency buying from very easy, which will require no technical skills, to more complicated ways, that will require some technical skills. Let’s have a look at how to […]
- No, it’s not because of the Ferrari I am a coder by day and trader by night! Coding is my day job. I am fully aware that only having a job will not allow me to provide for my family and myself consistently in the long run. This is because most of the western societies […]
- I have been researching strategies to invest money for my retirement in a smart way, that does not take a lot of time and does not keep me up at night. After many, maybe hundreds of hours I finally came up with a very simple strategy. In this video I show you what my back […]
