I would sum up my 2025 investment journey as the year of Chuck Norris. The wide monthly swings ment I had to have balls of steel. I'm ok with this, a number of my investments are growth stocks with crazy betas.
So I'm 55, if I had an investment advisor they would call me crazy. That's why I don't have an investment advisor.
2 years ago I had approximately $30k in retirement savings and $10k available to invest via tiger trade. My thinking back then was do I do what I should do and just invest in "safe" low yield stuff. Problem with that strategy was that at retirement age I'd be lucky to have $100k. No way was that going to be enough.
So I needed to go against the norm. But also needed to mitigate the risk somehow. So I've done just that. My total portfolio is now approaching $100k and over the course of the last two years I've pulled out approximately 30k. So I'm playing with only $10k of my money and $90k of house money. That's my risk mitigation strategy. if everything went to zero tomorrow, I'm down $10k. It won't go to zero btw, but as the pic below illustrates my portfolio does go up or down as much as $15k monthly.
So where to from here? My initial goal was to turn 10k into $100k. That goal has taken me two years. Ok it was 40k initially but remember I have taken 30k off the table. So 10k has become 100k. Next goal, turn 100k into $600k in the next two years. many of you mite suggest that goal is misguided. But I've already done it on my $100k demo tiger trade account, so for me that's totally doable.
I'm fortunate in that I have several business degrees and have spent decades learning about and practicing investing. But never had the spare cash or the time to go all in.
In the last two years, I have also learned massive amounts, from wins and losses. And am implementing those learnings going forward. I guess the pic below illustrates one lesson perfectly. If you are a growth investor you are taking on significant risk, with potential massive returns, but even greater volatility.
I'm fine with it, because knowledge mitigates risk. Two stocks that currently suck for me are $Venture Global, Inc.(VG)$ and $IREN Ltd(IREN)$ . But I just keep buying because my research very clearly indicates their short term headwinds are long term tailwinds. I expect both will double in 2026 at a minimum.
To be honest though, my retirement savings are way more conservative with 50% there in the S&P 500 index. So 30k has turned into 50k in two years. In tiger, using margin, buying calls and going hard on high volatility growth stocks. 10k has gone to $80k with 30k off the table Now. If I hadn't taken 30k out, I would be pushing over $200k right now. But you can't get a girl a little bit pregnant. So best to deploy a safety catch.
Happy trading in 2026 my tiger friends. I provided two examples of stocks I think will at least double VG is at around $7, I believe it will go to $15 minimum. IREN is around $48, it will go to around $100 I believe, based on what should pan out this year.
As always do your own DD, but I have put up cases for many other stocks in the past. Rocket lab at $3 was a buy it all, now it's $75. Pltr, asts, Blsk, NVDA, amd. all growth stocks that are all up well over 50%. the only significant losses I've had are actually ALL in "safe" dividend stocks that had decades of consistent dividend returns and dividend growth. And then they cut or suspended dividends and tanked. Amusing really. High risk has rewarded me, safety has smashed me.
I really get this, another lesson learned. I no longer get tied up with past performance. As the emotional investor, the past informs but doesn't influence. The future is the catalyst that leads me invest.
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