As I try to reflect back on how my personal finance journey evolved over the years there seems to be three main themes that seem to have helped propelled my personal net worth. Luck, dollar cost averaging, salary/income increase. I'm roughly in my early 30s now and it's extremely interesting to see how over the years due to change in mentality how my personal finance journey has evolved as well. Lets talk about the 3 factors that I feel are the biggest to anyone's journey.
1. Luck
Enough can not be said about this one factor, sometimes you can work hard and make the right choices but still luck was the deciding factor in determine whether you made $100 or $100000 or since we're on a crypto platform, the difference between owning 0.01 btc and 1 btc. Through my years I can probably count 3 major lucky events in my life that propelled my net worth.
a. In the work force and unaffected role during the financial crisis of 2007-2008. This was a massive event that saw many people lose their jobs and companies go belly under. The fact that I was in a relatively stable industry in my country (telecom) and I was already in the work force earning money allowed me invest a sizeable chunk of my income into depressed stocks / indexes at the time making massive gains after the crisis was over.
b. Bought a house prior to an explosion of housing prices in my country. This was another stroke of luck I just so happened to have bought a house at the time prior to housing prices really skyrocketing enabling me to make a bunch of paper gains on my house but most importantly giving me a place to live with my family. If I even waited a year or two I probably would not have been able to afford anything on the market.
2. Dollar Cost Averaging
While many investment advice out there will tell you to DCA, I still to this day have trouble doing this on a regular basis. The few stocks/pension plans/indexes I do DCA in are one of my highest performing parts of my portfolio. Its where I tried to time the market did I always get burned or didn't make as much as I could have. Take it from me, set up some automatic contribution and withdrawls and never look back. When you're bored one day maybe once or twice a year take a look at your investments and smile. This is way less stressful than trying to time something.
3. Salary/Income Raise
Know your worth, take some time during your career and do some researching on the going market rate of your job. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself if you are an amazing employee and are you fairly compensated for what you do. Don't be afraid to take the leap and leave your company if you need to right size your salary. While I'm sure less stressful and comfortable to just sit in a job you do day in and day out, you could be selling yourself short on your salary especially if you work for a company who aren't as generous with their raises.
As with everything there always a flip side of the coin to all of these factors, but as with everything else in life, just try to enjoy the journey.
