Discipline

I'm 43 today and each year, at this date, I always write a post titled "Discipline" to show how discipline can make a difference on a portfolio. It's usually a message of hope and trust in the american dream which could be translated as "to become rich as quick as possible with as less effort as possible".

The word "discipline" means to save money and to invest on a regular basis. However, this year, discipline is very deep into my ass because the market is down like fuck. I've always assumed that saving money would increase my portfolio's value, whatever the market does. It hasn't been the case this year.

Euphoria has been replaced by anxiety and even depression for many people. It was about time. When it's easy to make money, a lot of dumb people become rich and then try to teach us the true meaning of investment. 

I wonder how things are going for "investdiva", the so-called investor on Instagram who went from 0$ to I don't know how many million dollars with her crypto investments. I bet she managed to do well even if Bitcoin is down like a rock in the ocean, because these people always have the easy recipe to become richer in any circumstance. They're simply magicians. And they are very rich, even if they seem to need new clients all the time. 

Anyway, I'm not an "Investdiva" because of these numbers: 

Performance since may 16th 2021: -8% (portfolio value in absolute numbers)

Annual performance since may 16th 2009: 31% (portfolio value in absolute numbers)

These performances are related to the absolute value of my portfolio. In other words, it's a combination of increase of value and new money invested. That's why this post is named "Discipline". If I hadn't save money on a regular basis, I would never have reached that 31% annual increase of my portfolio. 

The decrease of 8% over the last year is not that bad because the decrease of value has been almost 27% since the beginning of the year. Let's be honest, even if marketing masters would tell me to avoid saying that.