This is how my total portfolio looks. 30 years old, 29k salary.
Add roughly ยฃ200 per month to my ISA, similar amount to the pension (workplace salary sacrifice), and try to maximise full LISA allowance with a lump sum contribution once a year.
Started investing in November 2020.
3 years ago I had 4K in my ISA and was down 70% (you need a 233% increase to breakeven).
Wondering if it would ever recover was keeping me up at night.
Speculative highly volatile stocks were the culprit.
Fast forward 3 years and weโre very close to hitting 40k in ISAs.
Investing is an absolutely vital part of securing your future.
In the UK in particular, there is hardly any real education that teaches you from the very beginning and that can be tough.
It feels very much like a foreign language when you first look at the stock market and itโs totally understandable to be instantly put off.
This happens to so many people, it doesnโt make you unintelligent, it makes you human. The basics are really important, donโt try skipping them and jumping in the deep end.
Use resources available to you like books, AI and people who are already on the journey, to gather information so you can find your own path.
Start somewhere.