$100,000 invested in 17 months

This is the story of how we invested 100k in 17 months

In late 2019 we set ourselves a huge goal of investing 60k in 2020, and worked steadily towards this until March when COVID-19 put our 2020 travel and entertainment plans in limbo. With our plans in limbo we decided there was an opportunity to reduce our expenses significantly, side hustle , and invest even more so we upped the goal to 100k invested by the end of 2020.

When did we start investing?

We made our first share purchase (of an Exchange Traded Fund or ETF) on the 17th of July 2019 where we purchased 17 ETF units for $957.46.

We made our last trade on the 17th of December 2020 when we bought 126 ETF units.

Why did it take you 6 months to invest 10k as opposed to 12 months to invest 90k?

They say the first 100k is the hardest, but for us the first 10k was really hard. It was made harder by the fact we were a one income family until January 2020 (but didn’t get our first two income paycheque until February).

We also found our first 10k hard because we weren’t on the same page as a couple. My husband is very conservative by nature financially speaking, and was concerned about losing our hard earned dollars in the share market (which is a real risk by the way). So the first 6 months were really us finding our feet as a couple investing and becoming financially literate together. Initially to get my husband on board I convinced him to follow the path for 6 months without question as a trial, and after this time if he was still not convinced with the plan we would opt out.

6 months went past and although we still had a lot to learn (still do) we were more confident in the path ahead, and decided to push even harder in 2020.

What was your investment rate?

The investment rate of our regular incomes was 60% (we lived 100% off my husbands and invested 100% of mine). In addition to this we side hustled like crazy (read about it here) and invested almost 100% of these funds.

Full Disclosure – In addition to our regular and side hustle income over the last 17 months we had 6.5k in tax refunds, and 2.6k in dividend income which we reinvested into more shares (via DRP – if you want to know more about DRP check out this article I wrote called ‘What is a Dividend Reinvestment Plan’). The 100k doesn’t include any capital growth in our shares so our portfolio is over 100k – at the time of reporting it is 107k.

What side hustles did you do?

Casual Teaching – My husband took on an additional casual teaching class which resulted in an additional 6k.

Gardening – My husband has a side hustle doing gardening in our local area and made between $100-400 a week in additional funds (this is pre tax). He has run this business for 4 years, and has regular and adhoc customers. If you would like to read about in in our Side Hustle Series here.

Reselling – I’m an eBay reseller and although its not a huge money maker I currently average $1800 a quarter (before postage and fees).

Market Research – I started an account with Askable in 2019 and have on average made about $50 in vouchers a month. These go towards our food shopping which allows us to then transfer the money saved to our investment account. If you would like to start doing Market Research I have written all about it in our Side Hustle Series article (including all my top research companies to sign up with).

Flipping Trash – People throw out things all the time in our area and so hubby and I have flipped a tonne of things. Our latest item was a rabbit cage which we got for free and flipped for $120. It looked amazing when we finished with cleaning it up and painting it.

Plants – I’m an avid gardener and propagate my plants. I also raise from seeds to seedlings to sell. To find buyers I joined a few Facebook gardening buy / sell groups. I sell my plants for $5-$10. Its not a huge money maker but I do love it, and if I can make money doing what I love then I’ll take it.

What do you do for jobs?

My husband is a first year teacher who works 4 days a week, and I work for the government full-time in an IT role. Both of us have roles that are under an award, and therefore we no ability to negotiate our pay. Our award rates are also freely available to view online.

Does the 100k invested include retirement or superannuation?

No. The 100k invested excludes our retirement contributions. 9.5% of our income is invested into our superannuation (retirement) accounts every pay by our employer.

Have you wanted to quit whilst on this journey?

Yes. 100% it has not been easy. There have been many times I’ve questioned myself, the plan and have wanted to quit. Every time I wanted to quit I developed a bit of a routine to manage my feelings. The routine involved a walk, listening to a podcast, and reminding myself what we have achieved via our Goal Tracker on the fridge (Free Link to the Printable Here).

It hasn’t been all smooth sailing along the way, we’ve had some bad luck along the way. We were fortunate to have a fully funded emergency fund and without it we wouldn’t have met our goal. This bad luck included many unexpected events in the form of vet bills (5k), boat repairs (1k), home repairs (3k), and laptop repairs ($150).

How are you going to celebrate?

We plan on going out for a nice dinner as a family, and I’ll likely splash out on a bottle of wine over $20. We are also looking at a weekend getaway in early 2021 dependant on COVID-19 restrictions of course.

So what’s the goal for 2021?

With the first 100k invested we expect the next 100k to be a little bit easier. That said although we will be working towards our next goal of having a 200k portfolio we are not sure yet of the timeline. If you would like to read more about our current investment strategy and plan click here.

What we do know for certain is that we will continue to live off one income, invest our second income, maintain our investment rate of 60%, side hustle and live our best lives within our means.

Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions about our journey to 100k either here or via Instagram @frankonfire_

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