Another year is coming to an end. I hope that you will get to get the chance to take a small break over the holidays. It’s been a challenging year, to say the least for me. Not only did the lockdown and Covid measures make work very demanding, my family situation has changed significantly in the last year. Hence I have taken some time off writing posts over the last year.
I hope to write some more next year. I really enjoying having the odd conversation with you guys. And it sometimes helps me to rationalise my decisions. So for now I will update you on my portfolio. I hope you had a merry Christmas, and have a happy new year.
Some Numbers
Everyone likes numbers- So here are some numbers for 2021-
- $17,900 deposited into my investment accounts in 2021- much lower than the $32,000 for the year 2020. I’ve also sold all of my AMP NZ fund ($19,000) due to the increase of fees from 0.33 to 0.78% and a buy/sell spread from 0.10% to 0.45%. Some of these fund will be transfed to Kernels NZ20 fund with a fee of 0.39% (with a 0.1% discount), and some will be use for a new (second hand )car purchase (I know- this should be coming from my emergency fund).
- $15586.02 return after tax for 2021. More than my 2020 return of $9,833 and $10,711 for 2019.
- 15.74% return before tax and after fees for my InvestNow account- which is higher than my 2020 retuen of 11.56% but still less than my return for 2019 which was 24%. (Average of 17.1% over 3 years)
- $2252.96 total returns before tax for my Kernel account
- 7.55% return for my Kernel account for the year. This is lower than the 13.20% for the year 2020. (Average of 11.01% over 2 years)
- 13.96% return for my superlife Kiwisaver for 2021, higher than 11.07% for 2020.
- Since starting this blog in early 2018, I have invested a total of $102K- see graph below, and withdrawed $19,000
My main investments are held in several accounts- with the majority being in InvestNow. In 2020 I started investing with Kernel as well. I joined Kernel to maintain some exposure to an NZ index fund since AMP had increased their buy-sell spread. And I felt that I wanted to diversify between investment firms. So right now I have money invested with;
- InvestNow
- Kernel Wealth
- Kiwisaver with Superlife
- Harmony Peer to Peer
- Lending Crowd Peer to Peer
- Genesis Energy shares
- Hatch
Investments in two startups– both went bust- but it was a great learning exercise.Bonus Bonds (not really an investment)– wound up in 2020
I’m slowly getting out of Peer to peer completely- with any returns and capital being invested into index funds. Winding up my peer to peer could take me through to 2023, as many of the loans had 5-year terms.
Fund Update
I’ve been slowly simplifying my funds over to Kernel-both by slowly selling shares on Investnow and adding any new contribution to Kernel. The reason for this is that Kernel offers me all the core funds I need at a price of 0.29%, and a few satellite funds, which makes everything very simple and easy to manage.
- Vanguard International Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund
- Vanguard Intl Shares Select Exclusions Index Fund – NZD Hedged
- AMP Capital Australasian Property Index Fund
- AMP Capital All Country Global Shares Index Fund
- Smartshares – US 500 Fund (NS) (USF)
- Kernel NZ 20 Fund
- Kernel Small & Mid Cap Opportunities
- Kernel NZ Property Fund
- Kernel S&P Global 100 Fund
- Kernel Kensho Electric Vehicle Innovation Fund
- Kernel Kensho Moonshots Innovation Fund
I have slowly diversified my funds between Kernel and Investnow- with Kernel holding 30% of my portfolio. This will continue to keep going down over time.
Generally, the funds above have a fee ranging from 0.45% down to 0.20%. Excluding any tax on dividends for my Vanguard funds, my combined fee overall share funds is 0.40%. I’m considering selling my Vanguard funds as I have a suspicion that it is closing me quite a bit in fees when you consider the tax on dividends. I still need to do a few more calculations to confirm this- but again- it will make my life easier with no extra tax requirements.
Goals to start 2021
Goals from 2021
In 2020, I wrote down some goals for 2021. They where loose goals- and with everything going on- I did not focus on them much. but here they where.
- Set an Investment/saving Goal– I set a goal to hit $200k invested. I hit $191k invested in October-21, followed by a drop after selling my AMP NZ share fund. So I did not achieve that, but I was close. I will carry this goal into early 2022.
- Top off your Emergency fund– I’ve still not strictly set up an emergency fund- but I have been keeping around $5k sitting in my everyday account as a sort of emergency fund. It’s been working well so far.
- Assess your KiwiSaver– I have not assessed my Kiwisaver- I’m still happy with Superlife, I wish that the fees were slightly lower. I have considered going over to Simplicity but still don’t think they are agressive enough. I
- Review your mortgage-We suceffully re-negotiated our mortage fixed for two years at a rate of 2.45%. That seems like a great rate considering mortage prices are increasing recently. We will have to see what happens in the next few years.
Over the small break I have I’m going to seriously think about what I want to achieve for 2022.
And Finally, Happy 2022
I want to sincerely thank you for taking the time to read what I have to say. I learn so much by writing these posts. I hope that they have helped you too. You have kept me motivated and accountable to reach my goals on the way to financial independence. And I hope that you have achieved some of your goals in 2021, and continue to work towards FI in 2022.
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