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Meet Gav

What was your relationship with money like growing up?

I have always been a spender. As a kid it was toys and pens. As an adult it has become colognes, watches and gadgets. I have always loved collecting tech gadgets, if it charges, I probably want it.

That said, if I had my eye on something specific, would save for it. Growing up I would come up with half the money and then work on convincing my parents to chip in for the rest. I got quite good at that.

And what is your relationship with money like now?

My relationship with money has evolved a bit since then. I still love buying things, that is just part of who I am and I have made peace with it. But I am more deliberate now. I have a set amount that goes to savings and investing each fortnight, and everything else is fair game.

What was your first job? (And how much did you get paid?)

I was a kitchen hand at a restaurant in Manly, around $15 to $16 an hour. The job itself was fine, but the commute was not. I was living in Riverwood in western Sydney at the time, so getting to Manly meant a train to Circular Quay, a ferry to Manly, and then a 20-minute walk. All up, getting there by 6am meant leaving home at around 4:30. I lasted about two months before I decided a job closer to home might be a better idea.

How did you first come across investing?

It was around August 2021. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and it sent me down a rabbit hole of YouTube videos, then the Barefoot Investor, then a few Australian Instagram accounts that talked about ETFs. At the time there was not a lot of Australian investing content out there, most of it was American and not directly applicable. I eventually found Equity Mates, and that filled in a lot of the gaps.

What really pushed me toward actually doing something was realising how little interest my savings account was earning. The big four banks were giving me basically nothing, and once I understood there were better options, I wanted to act on it.

Was there a memorable early investment?

There are two, actually, one that ended okay, and one that did not.

The first was buying shares in Spotify and Apple, two companies I really love using. I eventually sold both when I decided to move entirely to ETFs, but the experience of holding individual stocks taught me something important: I was not sleeping well. I kept second-guessing myself, would Apple Music eventually kill Spotify? Was I reading the financials correctly? It was not worth the mental load.

The second was investing in the IPO of a company called Olaplex, a hair products brand that was listed on the NASDAQ. I put in around $500 and watched it fall to almost nothing, down about 99%. It was a good lesson in why IPOs are risky and why I should probably stick to buying the haystack rather than looking for needles in it, as Vanguard founder John Bogle would say. 

How are you currently investing and can you provide a breakdown of your portfolio?

Every fortnight when I get paid, I invest a small amount across my ETFs. I use Betashares Direct and I would love to automate all of it, but the platform only lets you automate their own Betashares ETFs. Since I hold a mix of ETFs from different providers, I have to do some of it manually. I just check my target allocations and top up whichever is furthest below its target.

Where do you see investing taking you?

Honestly, the main motivation is simple: if I do not invest the money, I will spend it. I know myself well enough to know that. So putting a set amount away each fortnight means at least some of it is working for me in the background.

Beyond that, I would love to be able to retire comfortably and early if possible. Whether that means buying a house, a car, or just having a solid buffer in retirement, I have never met anyone who complained about having too much money saved up. Whatever it ends up funding, I know it will be worth it.

What is one super extravagant and outlandish purchase that you hope investing will be able to buy you in the future?

A Tesla. I am more a tech person than a car person and a Tesla is basically a gadget on wheels. Nothing too flashy, just a nice, clean, electric car that charges itself overnight. The Cybertruck looks cool but I am not sure I could pull it off as a daily driver. A standard Model 3 or Model Y would do just fine.

If you only had 25 words to convince someone to invest, what would you say?

Keep it simple and automate everything. Do not collect ETFs like Pokémon cards. Try not to change your thesis every time a new ETF comes onto the market.

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We want to hear your ‘How I Got Started’ stories. Respond to this email if you would like to be featured and we’ll get in touch!

Tomorrow Gav joins Jess on the latest episode of How I Got Started. He’s a 28-year-old Financial Advice Associate that lives in Newcastle and is a self confessed spender. He once held 27 ETFs before cutting down to the 7 he owns today. Find out how in tomorrow’s episode of Get Started Investing. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

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Why Diversification Can Feel Boring

Ren joined Jess on Get Started Investing this week to make the case for keeping Australian shares in her portfolio, and to explain what true global diversification actually means. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

When everything in your portfolio is performing really well at the same time, that can be a warning sign. If you are properly diversified, part of your portfolio should be underperforming.

That is the point Ren made on a recent episode of Get Started Investing. The Australian market is up 3% in the past 12 months. The US market is up 20%. South Korea is up 113%. So the temptation is to look at your Australian shares allocation and ask why it is even there?

But diversification is not about owning the thing that is working right now. It is about owning things that work differently from each other, so that when the hot trade eventually cools, your portfolio does not fall with it.

The same logic applies to going all in on AI, all in on the US, or all in on any single theme that is currently winning. You are not diversifying. You are concentrating into the thing that has already had its run, at exactly the point when the starting valuation is highest.

Ren explains to Jess that nobody knows which market will outperform next decade. The Cambridge Associates study tracking market performance from the 1950s to the 2010s shows outperformance rotates constantly. Japan, Australia, Sweden, the US, Australia again. The only way to capture wherever the next decade of growth comes from is to already be there before it happens.