I’m a 28-year-old educator with modest resources — here’s my investment portfolio in 2022.

I enjoy personal finance — watching Youtube influencers discuss their personal finance goals, listening to podcasts, critiquing terrible TikTok advice, etc. The advice is always a mixture of good intentions (usually) and bad expectations (sometimes). The person will then share how they make $20,000 per month or how they grew their $10 million portfolios. While that is fine and well, this isn’t the reality for the vast majority of us — or me specifically with a modest portfolio working as a young person in education. For clarity, I work at a nonprofit private college as support staff. Below, I thought I would detail what my investment portfolio looks like heading into 2022, at the age of 28 with very modest resources.

For clarity, I work

As of January 2022, my portfolio currently sits at just over $40,000. As you can see this is split between many categories, but the majority falls in retirement accounts such as a 403b and a Roth IRA or in cash. I also have some alternative investments such as cryptocurrency and trading cards (yes, very millennial, I know), as well as conservative assets such as bonds.

That image may be a little hard to read, so below we will break everything down — including each category and my thoughts.

I. Cash

Currently, 23.3% of my portfolio is in cash. This amount is mostly held in a high-interest savings account earning about 0.5% interest. That percentage would have been closer to 1.5% pre-pandemic.

Now I know what you’re probably thinking…that’s a large percentage to keep in cash versus the rest of your portfolio…but remember, modest resources. For the vast majority of people, needing quick access to your assets can be a necessity. More than half of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck today, so having easy access to cash is more important than ever.

This cash is mostly an emergency fund in case something disastrous happens — a medical bill, car repair, etc. I am also keeping additional cash because I would like to own a home in the next five years. While I have locked some of that downpayment money into other assets, it still feels right to keep some of this in a basic savings account.

II. Retirement Accounts

I am a big fan of compound interest — who isn’t. I also know that the earlier I start stacking money away for retirement, the more time that money has to compound. That’s why I expect moving forward, my retirement accounts will dominate my portfolio and will continue to gain a larger share. Currently, it represents 37.8% of my portfolio.

If you’re wondering why compound interest is so important, here’s an estimate of how much your retirement savings will grow based on when you start investing. If you save $250 per month and we assume an average 8% rate each year, here’s what you’ll have:

Starting at age 25: You’ll accumulate $878,570 by age 65

Starting at age 35: You’ll accumulate $375,073 by age 65

Starting at age 45: You’ll accumulate $148,236 by age 65

Per month, I set aside approximately $300, with an additional $150 in an employer match. This has allowed me to grow my retirement accounts from about $1,000 three years ago to nearly $15,000 today. I expect to continue this growth and step up my investments in the years to come, too.

I don’t just have my retirement funds in one place though. I have my funds split between an employer-matched 403b (basically a 401k) and a Roth IRA. What’s the difference you ask? The 403b is pre-tax income, which means this is money that’s pulled from my paycheck before federal and state taxes are taken out. This means that my taxable income actually decreases. Depending on how close you are to the next tax bracket, this can be a good thing.

I also have some of my retirement in a Roth IRA. This would be post-tax income, meaning this is money I transfer from my checking account into my Roth IRA after my paycheck has been deposited. The great thing about this being post-tax is that the money will be able to accrue over the next 35 years tax-free. Because of this, you’re capped on how much you can save here annually, but this is the number one account you should max out if you have the money.

If you took away anything from this section, remember this:

• If your employer offers a match, max it out! Don’t leave free money on the table.
• Choose a Roth IRA (post-tax) over a Traditional IRA (pre-tax) if you have additional retirement funds to invest

III. Bonds

Let’s be clear right now. This is way too large of a percentage of bonds for someone my age. Traditionally, you’d want this to be a very small percentage of your portfolio in your twenties, as you’re able to take on higher risk for higher rewards early in life. You would then start adding to your bond position as you approach retirement.

These bonds are mostly U.S. Treasury EE bonds, which were a common gift by my parents and uncle as I grew up. These bonds have a 20-year maturity date, which means I have a large number that are just now maturing. This would also be considered inherited wealth, which I’m accutely aware that many people my age do not have access to. This is a luxury and I’m appreciative of my family for having thought ahead and had the resources to provide this starter fuel. I’m also intending to pass along this same type of resource to my younger relatives so that they may benefit from this when they’re my age.

Over the next five years, I will begin adding these matured bonds to my positions in other areas — such as retirement funds and individual stocks or ETFs. This will allow me some starter fuel for these other investments and grab a much higher annual interest rate versus the modest EE bonds’ annual rates.

IV. Individual Stocks

In addition to my retirement accounts, I also keep a brokerage account for “playing around” with individual stocks. This currently represents about 5.5% of my overall portfolio, but I’d like to add to this position in the coming years. Currently, I add about $50 per month to this account.

In this brokerage account, I mostly hold blue-chip stocks that pay dividends, with a few growth stocks mixed in. I take on risk in other ways — i.e. cryptocurrencies. Instead, I use this account as a means of building some stable dividend earnings, which I hope to grow over time. Currently, this is very small at around $100 annual dividends.

V. ETFs

Held within the same brokerage account, I also keep small amounts in ETFs or exchange-traded funds. These are your basic S&P or DOW funds but bought as fractional shares, which are great for smaller investors like myself.

Currently, I have small holdings of VOO (S&P 500), VTI (Total Stock Market), and VXUS (Total International Stock Market). These will track these broader indexes. I intend to continue dollar-cost averaging into each of these, which simply means I put a little money into them consistently to even out my cost basis with the intention of holding them long-term. Currently, I devote about $50–100 per month to this account.

VI. Cryptocurrency

Here’s where things get interesting! Over the past year, I’ve dollar cost averaged into the cryptocurrency market. As many other retail investors, I missed most of the big gains early in 2021, when Bitcoin and Etherium surged to new highs. Instead, I bought in late summer when each of these coins dipped and I’ve continually added to my position since then.

I also hold two other altcoins — Solana and Cardano — as a hedge on Etherium. I’ve also previously held some Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and a few others, but have sold each as they hit highs and converted them into Bitcoin or Etherium.

Currently, my portfolio sits at 45% Etherium, 43% Bitcoin, 7% Solana, and 5% Cardano.

I intend to continue dollar-cost averaging into these coins over the next year, in hopes of reaping some gains on the rises I hope happens in the 3rd and 4th quarters of this year. I intend to keep this amount between 5% and 8% of my total portfolio. I would be lying if I said I was consistent in buying crypto and do not have a set budget per month. Instead, I will add $50 or $100 to these coins when I see a large drop to balance out my position.

VII. Trading Cards

I continually debate whether this is truly an investment, but I decided to include this in my portfolio recently as the market for Pokemon cards exploded in the last year. Pokemon cards represent the bulk of this percentage. In order to attain this estimate, I take the cards with the highest rarity and confirm their market value at TCGPlayer once a month.

As you’ve probably come to expect in this article, what I have in my collection is very modest. I actually don’t even own a base set Charizard, which continually goes for a lot of money. Instead, about half my collection is from the first five years of Pokemon and the other half is from more recent sets.

I intend to buy and sell cards in order to build this collection, but this is mostly just a hobby that I can justify spending money on if I include it in my investment portfolio. ;)

Conclusions

I’m sure you’re wondering by now — what about your liabilities? I gave you my portfolio in assets above, but I did not subtract out my liabilities.

Currently, my only major liabilities are student loans and a car loan. On the car loan, I owe about $15,000 and my student loan balance sits around $20,000.

With that being said, the value of my vehicle currently sits at about $22,000 thanks to the used car market increasing this past year. As long as the value sits above my car loan balance, I feel okay about this investment. As a rule of thumb though, buy used vehicles instead of new vehicles. New vehicles lose a lot of value as soon as you leave the lot. Buying something that’s 2–3 years old means you’re buying a vehicle that’s already balanced out from that initial cratering in value. I bought a used 2019 Jeep Compass, which has so far maintained its value.

My student loans sit at low interests rates — or zero interest rates during the pandemic — so I’ve instead built my positions in other areas as I’m able to earn a higher interest rate in those investments than I am paying on my student loans. However, if you’re debt-averse, it may be worth paying this amount down quicker and removing it from your front of mind. I have my student loans locked in sub-3.5% interest rates, so I feel paying the minimums and investing the rest in higher-yielding assets.

At the end of the day, my total net worth balances out at approximately $25,000. Being within a generation saddled with a ton of student loan debt (more on that in a future article), the fact that I’ve been able to get this back into the positive before the age of 30 makes me proud of the approach I’ve taken. This article is meant as a means of checking in on my progress and I hope to look back on it next year and see some small gains.

Whatever your portfolio looks like, focus on the little steps you can take to grow the successes you’re currently having. Maybe that’s paying those student loans down a little quicker or adding to your retirement accounts when you can or adding an extra $100 to your emergency fund to give yourself a buffer. Small gains create major wins in the long run.

Happy investing!

Want to dig even deeper into personal finance? Here are some basic financial tips: https://medium.com/swlh/5-financial-tips-for-us-broke-millennials-110dc02f39e8