4 months into investing: My full portfolio update

Jess (0:00)

We have 10 offsets, and I was like, 10 offsets?

Bryce Leske (0:03)

Nice.

Jess (0:03)

Ubank gives you that, and I was like, we can have 5 each, and he's like, I do not need 5

Not completely bad, like that. I've just been saving that. I've still been putting it aside for stock. Yeah, great.

Bryce Leske (0:13)

No, the worst-case scenario is that the market tanks 30% and you have nothing available, and then you're just like, damn it.

Jess (0:20)

Yeah, Ren's going to kill me.

Oh, I was wondering if you'd bring this up.

Welcome back to Get Started Investing, a show that helps you make the most of your money. I'm Jess and as a beginner investor, I have plenty of questions about investing. As it turns out, so do you guys. Each week, I get to sit down with an expert to tackle them, so we can all become better investors together. Today, Bryce and Ren are back to hear where things are at with my portfolio and they're going to answer a few questions that have been playing on my mind after speaking with so many experts this season.

Should I be dollar cost averaging monthly or weekly? How am I supposed to invest in a stock if I'm not dollar cost averaging into it? Why am I geared ETFs not performing like I thought they would? In this episode, I walked Bryce and Ren through the many changes since we last spoke, both in my life and portfolio. I give them a clear breakdown on my current investments and the performance, then we crack right into the questions. Quick note though, before we get into it, Australia's favorite investing festival, FinFest, is back in 2026 This year, we are partnering with Betashares, and we're going to make it bigger and better than ever before. Think 2,500 investors, five stages and 50 plus sessions with speakers like Joe Aston, Scott Phillips, Deanna Musina, Jim Bae Luu, Effie Zahos, Dave Allen, Luke Larative and plenty more. Tickets are on sale now at www.finfest.live and we'll also link it in the show notes for you. All righty, let's get into it. Thanks so much to MLC for sponsoring this episode and helping us keep all of our content free. Bryce and Alec, welcome to Get Started Investing.

Bryce Leske (1:57)

Thanks for having us, Jess. Good to be back.

Jess (1:58)

It's weird saying that to you guys.

Alec Renehan (2:01)

No, you've made the show your own now.

Jess (2:03)

Yeah. Welcome to my show.

Really excited to do a bit of an update with you guys today. It's been a whole two months since we've caught up again.

Alec Renehan (2:11)

Well, we've been following along and loving the journey. How I Got Started, a great new addition to the Get Started Investing lineup as well.

Jess (2:18)

So good meeting people from the community. I want to meet more, so.

Alec Renehan (2:23)

Well, that's a call out that if you want to come on the show, Jess wants to meet you.

Jess (2:26)

100%. I thought we'd do a bit of a life slash investing update.

Bryce Leske (2:30)

Okay, good.

Alec Renehan (2:32)

Let's start with your life. How's your life going?

Jess (2:35)

My life update.

So I've moved house. I've bought a dog.

Bryce Leske (2:41)

Where does the dog fall into the spending plan?

Jess (2:43)

Well, Ren's going to kill me. Oh, I was wondering if you'd bring this up. So do you remember that super bucket?

Bryce Leske (2:51)

Oh, yeah. The additional contribution.

Jess (2:54)

The additional contribution.

Bryce Leske (2:55)

That was 500, wasn't it?

Alec Renehan (2:56)

For people who are new to your journey, you were taking money and rather than contributing it to super, you were putting it in a separate account that would maybe be contributed at the end of the year.

Jess (3:07)

And you said that you didn't trust that and that I might spend it.

SPEAKER_4 (3:12)

And it went towards the dog.

Jess (3:16)

So that didn't work for me. But you have to try it.

Alec Renehan (3:20)

Did it go to dog costs or it actually, that's how much a dog, like does it go to like food and stuff or you mean-

Jess (3:26)

No, the dog was quite expensive. Yeah. Okay. It's like four and a half grand for a big meal.

Anyway, so that's a bit of a life update, but everyone's happy. The dog's called Bobby. Very cute. She can hang out with Penny sometime. Yes.

But yeah, moving on to more of the finances side of things. I've met quite a lot of people over the last 10 weeks. The key things I think to touch on. So I met with an advisor after the house move to understand what to do with my savings. Offset. Offset account. So he taught me what that was. So I decided to move the money that I was putting into like my high interest savings account into the offset account now. Yep. So still saving the same amount but just in a different account. But yeah, that's all on track. And then super, I don't know why I did this to myself. I did set up super salary sacrifice and then I canceled it a week later. Again, there's starting to be a trend here. But it was because the offer on the house got accepted and I just freaked out a little bit and I just want to see what the new normal looks like.