In late June 1980 when I was 20 years old I entered the workforce after university all “bright-eyed and bushy-tailed”. On my very first day of employment – after observing people who had been in the workforce for decades – I immediately came to the realization that there had to be more to life than working for decades, retiring in my mid-60s, and dying in my 70s, 80s, or 90s.
On my VERY FIRST DAY of full-time employment my thoughts turned to ‘getting off this hamster wheel’ so I set out to extricate myself from the workforce ASAP.
I was all set to retire shortly after The Great Financial Crisis, however, I enjoyed my work and the people with whom I worked so I slugged it out for a few more years.
Fast forward to May 25, 2016 and I stopped the hamster wheel. I, however, still wanted to grow our net worth and figured I may as well devote time to building our investment portfolio. I, therefore, created this blog with the express purpose of publicly disclosing my investment decisions thinking this would be sufficient incentive for me to minimize foolish investment mistakes.
WRONG!
Since starting this blog in late 2017, I have made my share of errors of omission and commission. While I have learned from my errors, I strongly suspect my days of making errors are not over.
What has been the investment return (%) of the FFJ Portfolio? Since I do not compare my performance against any benchmarks and I have no investors to whom I must report, I don’t pay any attention to this. My interest lies in the extent to which our investments will appreciate in value over the very long-term.
On this note, in my first FFJ Portfolio Holdings report (December 2018) I report the value of the FFJ Portfolio as follows:
Core Accounts: ~$ 350,809 CDN and ~$ 715,363 USD
Side Accounts: ~$ 418,907 CDN and ~$ 496,590 USD
Total: ~$ 769,716 CDN and ~$ 1,211,953 USD
In my May 2026 report I report the value of the FFJ Portfolio as follows:
Core Accounts: ~$ 899,190 CDN and ~$ 6,025,991 USD
Side Accounts: ~$ 82,311 CDN and ~$ 1,285,302 USD
Total: ~$ 981,501 CDN and ~$ 7,311,293 USD
This growth has been achieved by deploying surplus cash, reinvesting dividend income, share price appreciation, and a lot of luck.
Could my portfolio be much larger had I invested differently? Undoubtedly. I, however, know my risk tolerance and at this stage of my life I am not trying to find ‘100 baggers’. I pay particularly close attention to the risk aspect of my investments since I have no interest in having to return to the workforce because of poor investment decisions.
Analyzing companies is enjoyable. Actually writing posts? UGH! They are time consuming. Given this, I plan to shut down this blog in the not too distant future. I will, however, keep my email active.
To all who have followed me over the years, I am truly thankful and grateful.
I wish you much success on your journey to financial freedom!
Note: Please send any feedback, corrections, or questions to finfreejourney@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: I do not know your circumstances and am not providing individualized advice or recommendations. I encourage you to make all investment decisions through research and due diligence. You should also consult your financial advisor where appropriate.
I wrote this article myself and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it and have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
