At the age of 28 I am finally taking control over my financial future.
It is ironic that it has taken me this long as I actually have about 5 years of experience working in the financial industry. My first job after my military service was working at an Investment Banking firm in Stockholm, Sweden where I worked the phones contacting CEO’s and CFO’s of big Swedish companies and advising them to come in for a meeting with our Investment Advisers. I worked my way up and eventually became a trainee adviser myself before I left the company and began working for Santander Consumer Bank at their Swedish headquarters in Solna, where I worked with the credit and loan side of the business.
I have read a multitude of books and material on the subject of money management, investing and best practice, I have listened to audio programs, watched video’s and attended seminars and courses while also being mentored by some of the top earning financial minds within the industry in Sweden.
I have followed blogs and news stories covering the great investors of our time such as Warren Buffet and Ray Dalio, been a member of a young investors group and preached the gospel of long term saving and investing; and yet here I am, almost 30, and only now am I mature enough to live my own gospel.
I think it took the death of my Grandfather and the discussions that followed in regards to pensions, widows inheritance and the like which finally kicked me into gear.
Last week Jojo and I sat down and actually worked through my numbers and created a plan of action. I shared with her the exact extent of my debt and the re-payment plans that I have in place.
I also did some investigating into my own pension and learned that I could gather all of the various plans I had gathered through working into my own pension fund of choice.
As a self-employed actor, musician and entrepreneur I no longer have the luxury of a company pension scheme so it is even more important for me to make sure I have my own plan set in place and that I begin managing my money for the long term so as to create stability and freedom for the future and so that I have something to leave behind.
That last part may seem morbid, and in a way I believe that a lot of people, myself included, put off making a proper long term financial plan and private pension scheme because we do not want to face our own mortality and the fact that life speeds up mighty quick the more it passes.
In hindsight there are many things that I would do differently in my life.
One of the main things is that I would have invested the majority of my earnings when I was working at Vision Express and still living at home with my mother, I would have also invested the money I received during my military service and done some proper research into how I could make that money work for me. I would invest the majority of my earnings when I was earning on average £7k/m working at the Investment Bank, instead of partying and trying to keep up with the guys earning 10x that amount, and most importantly I would not have allowed myself to get a credit card or private loan just because it was a “company Perk” while working at the bank.
With that said, some of the debt I have accumulated has been good for me. For example back in 2014 when I made the decision to self-finance my album “My Dreams, My Rules” for my band Our Untold Story which set me back around £35k or so all in.
For me I see that debt as an investment in my career and the journey I have been on because of that choice has been invaluable to my personal growth.
My long term financial goals now are to get onto the property ladder and invest in property development projects that I can then rent out to generate cash-flow. I also aim to create a diversified and dividend paying stock portfolio and make monthly payments into a variety of low or zero fee index funds that follow the index of certain markets which will be my private long term pension investments.
My current holdings are 20 shares in Nokia Oyj, 20 shares in Nordea Bank Abp, 15 shares in KappAhl, 10 High dividend yielding preferred stock in Quartiers Properties and 5 shares in H&M B stock.
I also have holdings in the Swedish Trading Bank Avanza’s own index funds following the Swedish, Global and Emerging Markets as well as holdings in Öhmans Ethical S&P 500 Index fund that follows the US Market index.
I also plan to increase my loan payments to quicker get myself out of debt and thus pay less interest on them, while also continuing to invest in my own self improvement in the form of courses, workshops, books, audio and video programs etc. as I have found that the highest ROI (Return On Investment) per invested $/£/€ is that which is invested in your skill set and wealth of knowledge, your ability to earn and increase your own value and the value you are able to provide to others.
I will share with you a list of resources that have provided me with the foundation on which I am now beginning to build upon.
Books:
YouTube Channels to Follow:
These are just a few of the resources available and of course there are seminars and workshops you can attend as well. Another good place to start is blogs as well as Financial and Business media outlets.
I hope that my journey, my mistakes and my new outlook and goals may help and inspire you to take control of your own financial confidence.