I agree with you and gambling is a very very bad thing that can completely capture the mind of weak-minded people. I have friends with gambling problems and have spent hours and hours trying to talk to them and figure out a way for them to stop doing it. Matched betting in essence is not gambling as you are not actually betting on an outcome of a certain game for the hopes of winning.
The problem when I think about it is that the border between matched betting and normal betting is very small and it can lead to people start betting.
It can be a useful service for certain people and it helped me make a good amount of money in a rough period for me.
I guess you are right and if that leads even only one person to gambling addiction it is not worth it. I will take down the article, the purpose of my website is not this in any way. Thank you guys for the feedback
I do see what you’re saying that if you’re very careful you might be able to hedge bets and make money (people do this in the stock market too) and the line is blurry. I’d rather stick with simple, boring investments because it’s really hard and risky to gamble well consistently.
I would count myself amongst those weak-minded people too. I’ve never gambled, but only because I actively avoid it, because I might be susceptible to being drawn in.
First time I came across match betting was 15 years ago.
The real way to make money with match betting it’s not by applying the strategy they present and explain.
The real way to make money with match betting is through affiliate marketing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if PA were an affiliate of all those online bookies.
Just saying
If you’ve held 75% in cash since before the crash you’ve lost out on a fortune. I currently have near 90% invested - they go up and they go down. Since I never sold anything during the dip I didn’t lose anything. What I had left over during the end of last year and in the new year - well i just ploughed everything I had to make the most of what were silly low prices and because of the rapid rise in the last 3 months some of those positions have made 25% in that short time. Unless you are expecting a huge crash at some point why have so much in cash?
It is a bit of a strange story. I cashed out all my initial investments when moving my portfolio to Freetrade, which happened to be at the October highs. I just simply didn’t want to get back into my initial investments at those prices. I am building my portfolio back up, but I am now doing more research and have certain criteria when getting into a new position. There are a lot of great companies, but their valuations are way too expanded and I don’t feel comfortable buying into them now. I have been reducing my cash position gradually, but it is not easy at those valuations.
Certainly having too much cash is not ideal, but hopefully I will be able to reduce this over time.
Are you tracking your portfolio against a benchmark like an index fund or S&P 500 and do you think your personal stock picks will be able to beat them over time?
I started tracking my portfolio since about March last year and so far I am up around 25% not counting dividends. The S&P500 is up around 8% for the same timeframe not counting dividends.
As for would I be able to beat the index over long period of time I would most probably not be able to do it.
I like picking my own stocks because it is interesting for me and I can control the dividend yield to a certain extent.
I plan on living off dividends and having some control over this stream of income is a plus for me.
I still plan to hold at least 50% of my portfolio in index ETFs as I do not believe in being able to beat the indexes over long periods of time.
Made an article on how can investing actually help you in different aspects of life. Things like long-term thinking, stock research or patience have actually helped me a lot in different moments of my life.
Loved the article - agreed with all the points.
Also great Walnut Tree analogy. I also feel that a byproduct of investing has seen me spend less as I care more about the value of the money and what the opportunity cost is.
Great read!
Thank you, appreciated. My grandparents have walnut trees and that made me see the similarities between them.
As for the money I feel like I am spending not that much less, but rather wisely. For example a couple years back my first priority was buying a car. Now my last priority is buying a car.
Totally true about the opportunity cost. Once you see that your money can actually make you money you start getting wiser with it.
That sounds awesome (the trees lol)
Yeah I hear you - A car is an interesting one - I wouldn’t ever buy a car just cos of the depreciation and hassle of selling - but I would most certainly lease one and have done.
It was even cheaper than my TFL commute to work (with petrol)
I think investing just forces you to be more savvy financially which is always a benefit.
Guys I am happy to announce that my blog is now in Top 100 Dividend Blogs and Websites for 2019
Hi guys, started editing some of my older articles. Just finished the one on starting in the stock market. Might not be very useful to the more advanced ones, but it should be a good read for everyone that is just starting out.
P.S. I cannot believe that Tottenham are actually going to play a CL final.
Fixed that for you 
Walk on 
Guys here is my portfolio review for May.
Spoiler alert: Freetrade is now a part of it
For anyone interested - https://zerotofreedom.org/my-portfolio-may-2019/
Finished an article about compound interest. Includes a description, some examples, what makes it so powerful and more. Any feedback is welcome as always.
Good stuff. Wonder if it’s worth adding a small caveat that no-one investing in the stock market ever gets the smooth compounding you see in a model. Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, like Buffett from the age of 43 to 44 or more recently. And that makes it a bit harder to detect compounding’s magic.
You get that smooth line only if you are looking at a long-term graph. Play around with different stocks or indexes and you will see that the longer the timeframe is the smoother the line is. Of course it will never be as those projections as the stock market goes up and down.
And of course in the short term the graph is going to have a lot of ups and downs. If you are investing in stocks having downs in your graph is just inevitable. For example Warren Buffett had multiple occasions of his portfolio being down 50%+. It happens to everyone, it’s going to happen to me and it is going to happen to you, no getting away from it.
yup agreed, that’s why I thought it worth adding the caveat for the novice investor who’s experiencing the first year or two and its ups and downs.
Hi guys, just finished an article on how much money you need to start investing. Includes how to start investing with little money, some examples and more, hope you like it.