I pulled the trigger a bit late in the year on starting the fund. Truthfully, the idea to start the fund didn’t come to me after the new year, it came sometime in late January.
In October of 2023 I had taken a break from investing. With inflation combined with a low income I needed to adjust to current circumstances such as high grocery prices.
However, it wasn’t just inflation that encouraged me to take a break, it was also the fact that I have been on autopilot with investing over the last year. $100 was put into a SP500 ETF every month automatically. No other investments were made during that time.
It made me realize how much I missed researching quality businesses, being active ( Active in this sense means buying quality companies for the long term) in managing my money and growing it. Collecting dividends. I felt lost without it.
When I first started investing in 2020 it was all great. I started from zero. Building out my first portfolio was a game to me. Each new share was a brick added to my empire, also known as my financial portfolio.
This perspective challenged me in a good way until I had hit a wall. Soon I became stagnate because I wasn’t used to seeing higher dollar figures staring back at me and it created a sense of comfort that had been desperately needed for so long thus complacency.
And it wasn’t until I had a conversation this year I realized it was time for a change and that it was time to put those portfolios off to the side and forget about them within reason and start fresh.
Starting My Private Investment Fund
I created a whole new brokerage account and I started with zero invested in it. And right away I knew this is what I was supposed to do, what I needed to do.
I put $53 into last month (Feburary 2024) and have put another $50 into this month, it’s all I can afford to invest right now, but it makes me happy. I am building something from scratch again and this time for a bigger purpose.
I want this to be something I can leave behind. Something I can work on for the rest of my life. The goal is not to be the richest person in the world or to beat the greatest investors at their returns. Instead, I plan on this being a private endeavor.
I like the idea of people one day walking by the office space I run the investment fund out of and no one knows who I am or the balance of assets on the balance sheet. Stealth wealth is what it is called.
Don’t get me wrong when I say the goal isn’t to beat other investors at returns. If you are going to manage your own investments, returns are at the forefront. However, instead of focusing on how I can beat another investor’s return average or gain as much wealth as them, my goal is to simply be the best investor that I am capable of being.
Scraping the bottom of the barrel as a college student
Investing $50 is going to be rough knowing how much I fall in love when I find a good quality investment or know something is on discount, but the fortunate thing is, college provides resources that will allow me to save some money.
My college will pay for my bus pass which is the only transpotation I have. There is also a food pantry on site and a mobile food truck every Tuesday in the one of the parking lots.
My local library also has Morningstar for free! Now called the investment center, on their website, plus the college library has free business and marketing sources for students last time I checked. Often these kinds of subsciptions cost hundreds annually.
The value in itself is priceless. I am starting to figure out healthy college staples and meals that I can eat on a weekly basis that I won’t tire of or at least quickly get tired of.
Right now a favorite is whole grain rotini pasta, chucky garden spaghetti sauce (whatever brand on is sale) Italian sausage, spices and chopped peppers. I then steam broccoli and cauliflower add some shredded cheese, let it melt.
I plan on bringing this with me to campus as much as possible. Heat it up in the student microwave, and if I can get a few more meals down, I will be able to scrape the bottom of the barrel ( budget) for some extra change.
The Broke College Student 
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