Community Spotlight: Adam’s biggest investing mistakes and lessons learned

Bryce: [00:01:10] Welcome to Get Started Investing feed in this podcast, we cover all the basics that you need to start your investing journey, but are you joining us for the very first time or is this the very start of your investing journey? Well, before you dive into this episode with us, our feed is designed to go from the very beginning. So we strongly recommend you scroll up and started episode one. However, if you are feeling brave and just want to dive in, don't let us stop you here. Get Started Investing feed unpack all the jargon and confusing bits he or investing stories with the goal of making investing less intimidating. And we want to have a good time along the way. My name is Bryce and as always I'm joined by my equity buddy Ren. How's it going? [00:01:45][35.2]

Alec: [00:01:45] I'm very good. Bryce excited for this episode because we're going to be speaking to someone from the Equity Mates community, but he's a member of the Equity Mates community in more than one sense. Absolutely. Because well, I hope he listens to the show. I'm not going to presume he does, but he's also a fellow podcast host. [00:02:02][17.2]

Bryce: [00:02:03] He is. It is our pleasure to welcome Adam, who is the host of Comedian The Economist to the show. Adam, welcome. [00:02:09][6.1]

Adam: [00:02:10] Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me. Yeah, great to be here. [00:02:13][2.8]

Bryce: [00:02:13] So, as I said, Adam is one half of the smash hit economics podcast. Comedian, economist Adam is a stand up comedian having played shows around Australia, and he's responsible for the famous Port Adelaide v the bye YouTube video that we remember watching back at uni. He also does have a day job as well, in I think cyber security or something along those lines. [00:02:34][20.5]

Adam: [00:02:34] Serious, serious. I can neither confirm nor deny my employment [00:02:39][4.5]

Alec: [00:02:40] Now for people who may not be familiar with the famous, well, as Bryce said, famous Port Adelaide verses the bye. This is a video that we did the rounds back when we were at uni, and we only found out recently that you were the one that actually made it. So if people had no idea what we're talking about, they should go and check that out. [00:02:58][17.7]

Adam: [00:02:59] You're going to have a look at it if anyone know want, because that was the video that kind of got me banned from from YouTube. But I didn't get banned. I got banned from making money on YouTube. So we made these videos put out like this is the bar where they put a footy club. They played a game against nobody and they lose. Spoiler alert. And we then started getting a few hits. We started getting some traction. And the guys working with Nick, we're like how we should try and monetise this, that we made a website literally off the back of this one video, set up some ads through Google ads and started telling all our mates to go to the website and click on the ads. And yeah, we were in line to get a check for like sixty bucks in the first month. And I was rubbing my hands gleefully and and yeah, instead of a check for sixty dollars, I got an email from Google saying you're banned for life from I think any ad. So that was an investment. That was, that was a terrible in time investment to make money anyway. But it's good fun. [00:04:01][62.5]

Bryce: [00:04:02] Well, speaking of investments, the purpose of this episode is to walk through your investing journey at and really understand where you're at. And we've just come off the back of a couple of episodes talking about investing mistakes, those of which Alec and I have made, as well as plenty of others in the Equity Mates community. So we'd love to talk to you about that. And by no means is this a conversation about, you know, expertise or anything like that. We just like other conversations with Equity Mates community. It's all about, I guess, helping you discuss where you're at in your journey and a bit of a conversation. So looking forward to it. [00:04:35][32.5]

Adam: [00:04:35] If you're not looking for expertise, then I'm not. [00:04:38][2.8]

Alec: [00:04:40] But before before we get into that, Adam, we do like to play a bit of a game. We just it's a true or false game. We'll throw out some statements or some questions. You tell us whether they're true or false for your investing journey. So we'll kick it off with this one. True or false, your very first investment has been your most successful. [00:04:58][18.1]

Adam: [00:04:59] Absolutely false. My my very first investment was a complete disaster. [00:05:04][4.4]

Alec: [00:05:05] Can get a lot worse. [00:05:06][1.1]

Adam: [00:05:08] So, yes, I was. This is back in the 90s, so I'm getting old now, I realise. But back in the 90s and I got I worked with was like, dude, I've got this, I've got a really great investment for it. You should get on. And so I had I had a thousand dollars that I wanted to invest. But back in the 90s when I remember it was really hard to invest. It wasn't it wasn't just like you go onto a web or, you know, an app these days and make a trade. You had to go into an office. You had to go to a broker, you had to make an appointment. You had to do all this stuff. And I was working at the Apple store at the time. And it was before that in the nineties before Apple was cool. Right. It was like during Apple's time when they made really ordinary products. So by all the tools like Steve Jobs was coming back and all the talk was Apple's got all this cash in the bank and they're going to do well. And I really wanted to invest in Apple, but because it was so hard, like you could like making a domestic trade was hard enough, but making an international trade was like you had to be some sort of high. From what I could tell, though, I worked with this guy and he was like, he's like now there's this company and they're making they're making a website, it's going to be amazing. And I was like, I didn't really understand what they did, but he was like, it's going to have, like, flash video. It's going to have all this cool stuff on it. It's going to they're going to sell sell this website somehow. And I was like, wow, that sounds pretty cool. So I invested in this in this company. I can't remember what the ticker code was, but I do remember that they changed to I think ticker code will be at one point when they got bought out by a retirement village company. So I ended up with shares in a retirement village after wanting to buy Apple shares in the nice. And yeah, and this was before retirement really did well. So I took a thousand dollars. I remember talking to my parents about it because I was about 16 and I thought a thousand bucks. And Mom said, as long as you're prepared to lose it. And I remember saying to mom, I'm like, Mom, this guy is supremely confident. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to lose any of this money. And I end up selling them for 60 dollars on a switch, which just Covid the brokerage through the broker I had to go through to sell them. So. So, yeah, absolutely false. [00:07:23][134.6]

Alec: [00:07:25] Well, it's good that we're talking about investing mistakes because I think we can come back to that story and talk about some of those. But we'll continue with this game. True or false? You had a strategy in place before you started investing. [00:07:38][13.2]

Adam: [00:07:41] False? No, that was my strategy, was to make money quickly, it turns out. [00:07:47][6.2]

Alec: [00:07:47] Terrible strategy. Follow up question. Do you have a strategy in place today? [00:07:50][3.2]

Adam: [00:07:51] Yeah, I do, actually. Yeah, I'm probably the best early experiences, maybe kind of shy, but yeah. Now I've got I do have a strategy now at least very broadly. So I you know, I tend to stay towards ETFs and and dollar cost averaging and things like that. Just putting in my money, although I'm really kind of I'm still a kind of a schemer and a scammer and a gambler. So I do tend to I do tend to sometimes take on speccy. But broadly speaking, I've got a more kind of tempered approach to investing. [00:08:22][30.9]

Bryce: [00:08:23] We'll get into that in a second. True or false? You have stayed with the first broker from day one. [00:08:28][4.8]

Adam: [00:08:28] Not false. Yeah. [00:08:30][1.0]

Bryce: [00:08:30] Yeah, no, [00:08:30][0.3]

Adam: [00:08:31] I think that was, that was, that was the opposite. I forget who it was but yeah they, I think they got bought out themselves. Maybe Morgan wasn't Morgan Stanley does that right. [00:08:41][9.5]

Alec: [00:08:42] You tell us. [00:08:42][0.4]

Adam: [00:08:42] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That was me. It was crazy expensive compared to today's prices. It was about sixty, seventy, eighty dollars per trade maybe for a local trade. So yeah I think I made one but now I've moved on since then [00:09:00][17.7]

Alec: [00:09:01] and then final true or false question, true or false, is investing as hard as you thought before you got started. [00:09:07][6.4]

Adam: [00:09:08] Uh, true. Yeah, true. Early on. But now I think investing is really easy now. I mean, you know, it's easy to invest. It's harder to make to make money by literally investing. [00:09:19][11.0]

Alec: [00:09:20] Oh, I was going to say that could be the episode title right there. Episode investing is really easy now. [00:09:25][5.0]

Adam: [00:09:27] Is it is it easy to back horses? Well, yeah, it's easy to back off, yeah. [00:09:33][6.3]

Bryce: [00:09:33] There's no doubt that it has become easier to put money into the market. [00:09:37][3.5]

Alec: [00:09:37] That is so too easy. [00:09:38][1.2]

Adam: [00:09:40] Yeah. Yeah. I mean I talk about on the show this week talking a little bit about, you know, AMC and GameStop and things like that. And just that maybe it is just so easy now, that little bit extra money in the in the market, in the economy, putting, you know, just being able to quickly buy the latest thing with GameStop or AMC or crypto or something. It's it's crazy easy. So that's, I guess, why we're seeing some of these things fluctuating all over. But yeah. [00:10:04][24.7]

Bryce: [00:10:06] So for those of our community who have no idea who you are, which would probably be ninety nine point nine percent more or less [00:10:12][6.9]

Alec: [00:10:14] old, they should all be listening to comedian economists. Yeah, I'll take that back. I am surprised Bryce is going to come hard at you in this episode. [00:10:26][11.9]

Bryce: [00:10:27] Oh yeah. My mistake. But are you able to you're able to show who you are, what you do and where you're sort of at in your investing journey to sort of couch this conversation going forward? [00:10:39][11.8]

Adam: [00:10:40] Yeah, cause I get on that on our podcast. We do. I do with my brother. Comments on. I'm the comedian, half of comedian versus the comments I get. It's a label I suppose that I still carry with me, although I don't, I don't actively do Stand-Up anymore at the moment. Or there may be some shows coming back next year. I think the big idea with podcasts maybe so. Yeah, I started off doing comedy about five or ten years ago now and when I did some real comedy stuff, I made it through the National Farmers, the. He did a few fringe shows in Adelaide and some other shows all around the place and then and then found myself on on steam with steam, some triple whammy in Adelaide and of them at various times, though I've always loved I've always loved comedy. I've always loved trying to make people laugh. You often hear me laughing at my own jokes, which is ridiculous. But at least at least someone's laughing. So, yeah, that's my I guess my comedic background. But I never I never gave up the day job, as I say. So I do work, I do work for the little as long as the work of the night and then more recently in cybersecurity. So yeah, that's that's kind of me. [00:11:46][66.5]

Bryce: [00:11:47] And where where would you. So you've got a couple of kids and where would you say you're at in your investing journey. [00:11:54][7.4]

Adam: [00:11:55] So I think I like to look at it, I guess investing it from a few different angles. You know, I think about the fact that we own a house now, and that's probably pretty nice. Yeah, I hear that's how they get into now. Yeah, well, I'm married. Well, that's the thing. I like a lot of comedy about my wife. She came with a unit already that she'd been investing in for a long time. And so when we got married, we we managed to contribute my salary and her existing investments and we bought a house. So I'm very lucky in that regard. But that's definitely I look at that as the biggest investment and then things like super, you know, I'm really I'm really like a bit of a super nerd, like in superannuation that I try and attract that way more than I should like. And I look at my my super almost kind of every month or so, whereas I'm told. Yes, but it's the only look at it like every five years or ten years. But but I like to kind of track it and sometimes they get me into trouble. But um. So yeah, I guess there are two really big things, big picture things. But as I said before, I'm really just kind of trying to be disciplined about it and dollar cost averaging to the mates that I've got. I've got a space ship thing which I quite enjoy and I even set one up for my kids. Well, actually, one of them sounds to me like I've only got an investment account but one of my children. But yeah, it's my my youngest daughter, she she just loves the idea of putting money in this rocket ship, which is going to go somewhere. So, yeah, that's her and that sort of thing. And she puts it. I haven't I haven't I haven't got five years old. I haven't told her about capital gains tax and a quarter of. Yeah. So yeah that's kind of where I'm at. [00:13:41][105.8]

Bryce: [00:13:41] Just a quick follow up on what you said there about Super Adam. So obviously Alec and I, you know, early well, I'm just turned 30. I'm still in my 20s, late twenties, so I kind of [00:13:55][13.3]

Adam: [00:13:55] remember my twenties. [00:13:55][0.6]

Bryce: [00:13:57] That's a good thing. I guess I had fun when you say, but there are a lot of people in our community whose superannuation is probably more timely for them than than it is us. And when you say you look at your super every month, do you then actually take any action or are you just looking [00:14:14][17.5]

Alec: [00:14:14] at it just admiring [00:14:15][0.8]

Bryce: [00:14:17] and like. Yeah, like or freaking out in the market? Just like what what are you doing when you're looking at it so well? [00:14:24][7.4]

Adam: [00:14:25] My mum, my, my mum gave me some really good advice when I was young, which was pretty super and again, not financial advice. Don't take financial advice from a bloke to losing. My mum said like just put it in high growth early while you like, you can ride the peaks and troughs. And I was really lucky. I used to work for it when I first started working. I worked for university and actually worked for another university. So I was kind of working at the universities for about the best part of twenty years. And universities have like kickass super schemes. You get like twenty one per cent. I think if you don't, if you don't do anything so you get twenty one percent super. So I had twenty one percent of my salary going into super and then I, so I put that into like high growth, which is if anyone is not familiar with super you can, you can kind of choose how your super is divided up and invested. And so I've actually in high growth from a really young age, which means erm on balance now he's looking pretty healthy and so. Yeah. So that's why I log in every month and just basking in the glow. But that being said we Covid here. I was like I became really paranoid about what was going to happen to my super felt for some reason like this. But you know my mum's advice saying you can ride out the P, so now this is the trough, the end of troughs. So I started trying to time the market with my super fund, which is just terrible. It was like a terrible thing. But I don't know if you've ever tried to time the market with investment or the listeners have. It's really hard at the best of times. Right. But we've most with superannuation funds, you've got like a two and a half, three day kind of lag time from when you said with the change. So. Trying to time the market, effectively, trying to think about what it's going to do in three days time based on what, you know, some 15 percent drop. I know what happened last week was in March, in March 20, 20 minutes is the tank 30 percent. So I kind of got out about halfway down, bounced back so quickly that I didn't kind of get back in until about halfway up. So I think I've managed to kind of come out maybe a little bit behind, maybe close to even, but stressful. I wouldn't recommend it. And yeah. [00:16:42][137.1]

Bryce: [00:16:42] And are you making additional contributions in bits and pieces to max out? Super. [00:16:46][3.5]

Adam: [00:16:47] I know. So when you when I got set up initially I, I was making an additional seven percent contribution, but then I was like twenty five, maybe, maybe 30 and I found out that that was OK. You know, I didn't realise it was optional, like I just got set up by default and so forth and I had seven percent that I could turn into money on a Friday and Saturday night. I was just like, oh that's that's coming straight home. And I was twenty one percent. I was still going to get 14 percent super. And so I thought 40 percent is still kind of kind of taking above average anyway. So I took that out and then and basically, yeah. [00:17:23][36.0]

Alec: [00:17:24] I just want to make a note that this is the first interview since Bryce has turned 30 and always doing is asking about super. So I don't know if he's feeling his age or what's going on there, but I just wanted to put that out. [00:17:37][13.1]

Adam: [00:17:38] Most people. A retirement village, Bryce. [00:17:41][2.8]

Alec: [00:17:44] You're now doing this show with your brother Thomas, who's an ex Reserve Bank economist. And the premise of the show is Thomas is answering all your questions about the world of economics, explaining the the news of the day and the world of economics to to the layperson. So you've been doing it for, what, about six months now? About six months. What what's what some of the things that you've learnt in the last six months, or has Thomas just been a poor teacher? [00:18:16][31.8]

Adam: [00:18:17] Oh, yeah, absolutely. He he speaks well, but I don't think it makes any sense. I know it's been really interesting during the show with Thomas. So he's he's one of my brother, but he's one of the smartest guys I know. And it's just fascinating to learn about these external factors. I think I think especially when you're investing in shares, investing in stocks, you can tend to kind of focus on the companies themselves and you can tend to look at what their their balance sheet is, what their what their outlook might be. And you can kind of get stuck a little bit down in ways in terms of looking at that company in isolation. And I think what Thomas really is really good at is kind of helping to lift that up a little bit and going, look, there's all these kind of megatrends and big picture things that are happening in the world of money that are affecting, you know, the company that you might be thinking about investing in. It's not just operating in isolation, tik-tok operating as part of this kind of a bigger economy and is a lot of other a lot of factors that are moving kind of the whole the whole market. So so I think for me, it's been really useful to get that kind of lens and go. I like I said, I now understand, you know, some of the even some of the abbreviations like GDP and all this sort of stuff that you hear around the place and you don't really realise what that means, that a company is thinking about investing in, you know, realise what it means for the market as a whole. So, yeah, I think for me, that's been really a really useful takeaway to kind of go, yeah, you know, there is much more to investing in companies than just the companies themselves. [00:19:44][87.1]

Bryce: [00:19:46] I think for us, understanding the, as you said, understanding the macro environment and how everything is so interconnected is pretty integral to actually becoming a better investor. There's no doubt that, you know, everything is so linked around the world and, you know, there's plenty to try and get your head around. So you guys are doing a fantastic job overcommitting the economist. Pretty funny and also entertaining and educational as well. So, yeah, it's good what you guys are doing [00:20:15][28.9]

Alec: [00:20:15] and just Bryce thinking of it. No one in our audience listens. I'm pretty confident they do. But if if they don't, they should. So go check that one out. I've definitely learnt a lot. I had a few laughs along the way. We now have [00:20:26][11.2]

Adam: [00:20:26] we now have an Instagram and if [00:20:27][1.2]

Alec: [00:20:28] don't [00:20:28][0.0]

Adam: [00:20:30] get in the in the 21st century now. [00:20:32][1.5]

Alec: [00:20:32] So Thomas has Thomas has an endless supply of charts and you guys are sharing them with the world. [00:20:39][6.3]

Adam: [00:20:39] Now, some of them are actually quite interesting. Yeah. When he said, I reckon we should like share a lot of these shots and I was like, oh, that's really that, is that our launch platform? But yeah, they're actually really interesting. So they take it out on where [00:20:55][16.2]

Alec: [00:20:55] you've got a long way from making comedy YouTube videos to posting charts on Instagram. [00:21:00][4.6]

Adam: [00:21:02] Yeah, yeah. I'm just waiting to get it to get banned from monetising the job. [00:21:06][3.8]

Bryce: [00:21:09] Before we continue with the convo, I want to have a discussion about your kids. [00:21:12][3.4]

Alec: [00:22:01] So, Adam, you mentioned earlier that you have set up an investing account for your kids, and I'm just wondering, I know there's certainly people in the Get Started Investing feed community who are thinking about doing the same for their kids. So how are you actually thinking about investing on behalf of the kids? What products are you using? Is there a goal you're going to give give it to them when they're 18 and let them buy a car? [00:22:50][49.0]

Alec: [00:22:50] Also, how do you how do you set it up? Like, is there anything that you need to do legally to set it up? [00:22:54][3.9]

Adam: [00:22:54] Well, this is the thing, right? So I'm not really I haven't set up in their name. That's still all my money. [00:22:58][3.8]

Bryce: [00:23:00] So you guys really well, you won't tell them about it. [00:23:02][1.8]

Adam: [00:23:04] So they're going to pay my tax rate, which sucks. But I set about using space, which is the micro investing platform for anyone that hasn't heard of it. And the really great thing about spaceship is that you can there's no minimum that you can put in. And so they're quite young, but we have little jobs that we get them to do around the house each week. So let's set the table or whatever and take the rubbish stuff out. And then and then we pay them we pay them some money at the end of each week. And we use that to try and educate them really about money and, you know, and saving and spending and kind of trying to teach them what the value of money is. I showed I showed them both this investment and said, look, if you put money, you can use your money to make more money. Well, that's what I really want to do that. And then when I found out it was called the spaceship, which Amily now called the rocket ship, it's all on board with we're putting money in the rocket ship. So, yeah, we're really leaving out in that space. It's still in my name, but it's great that she can kind of, you know, I'm back or I'm. I've got to Dollars here. I want to put this to Dollars in the spaceship and see it grow. And we can track it over time. And I'll probably cover a tax payment when it comes when it comes time to take it out. But I think later on I'd like to move to something and then I start putting in, you know, I don't know, a bit more money. I think there's a couple of products I've looked at. One is from, I think, stocks, but do a kids investment platform. But if I have looked into it before, it gets kind of tricky with mining, with tax and things like that. But but I think know, I was I can tell you that if you're making money, then tax isn't the biggest of your problems. Like you want to try and pay them as little tax as you can. But short of setting up an offshore account in the Caymans, you're going to have to pay tax. And so you're making money and that's a good thing. And that's obviously what tax will be. [00:24:55][111.2]

Alec: [00:24:55] Well, if we ever hear that you've revoked your kid's Australian citizenship and made them citizens of the Cayman Islands, we'll know that that spaceship account is going very well. Very well. [00:25:05][10.0]

Adam: [00:25:07] Exactly. [00:25:07][0.0]

Alec: [00:25:08] So we we've done a couple of episodes of mistakes recently, and we wanted to have a chat about mistakes, not to not to shame you. You know, we we all make mistakes. That's part of investing. But there's there's always the lessons in those mistakes. You've shared a couple with us already, the investing in a retirement village over Apple, that that wasn't really [00:25:35][26.6]

Adam: [00:25:37] in the 90s. I don't think people quite grasp the concept of what Apple was worth in the 90s, but it was what Apple share price at the moment, you know that a lot more than [00:25:45][8.5]

Bryce: [00:25:45] what it was in the 90s, that's for [00:25:47][1.2]

Alec: [00:25:47] sure. It's one hundred and twenty five. Yeah, two point one trillion in the 90s. It would have been. Yeah. Yeah. In the sense I think it's probably split a few times. [00:25:58][11.6]

Bryce: [00:25:58] Well I'm looking at it now in the nineteen nineteen ninety one when I was, when I was born it was forty two cents [00:26:05][6.8]

Alec: [00:26:06] to rub it in. [00:26:07][0.6]

Bryce: [00:26:10] It's up twenty eight twenty nine thousand eight hundred per cent since nineteen ninety one. And that just, that's the way this stock splits so. Wow. [00:26:19][9.4]

Alec: [00:26:21] Wow. [00:26:21][0.0]

Bryce: [00:26:22] So you're on the right track but you had the right idea execution was it. [00:26:26][3.9]

Adam: [00:26:29] Yeah. I went there, I think it was around 96, 97 and it was just before the iMac came out. So a lot of people obviously it's all about the iPhone now, but Apple really turned it around when they brought out that coloured iMac switch. So before that, they had they had a suite of BEIG products which didn't work very well. And so I was running I was running like tech support at the Apple in Darwin at the time. And so we had these products that were still really expensive. And that was always a criticism of Apple, was that their products were too expensive and they couldn't compete with Acer and all these new sort of Windows clone pieces that were making lots of money. And so you could buy Windows PC. I don't know if they'll get a Mac. It would cost you like two and a half, three thousand dollars. So it was the worst time to be doing support because like we were selling these products, which comparatively were hideously overpriced, then that didn't work. And people were like, give me my money back. I'm really outraged. And so I was kind of working to support. At the time, there was a real fear at that time that that Apple was going to go broke. And so people started saying people will start looking into it and going. Now, the company still has like pocket loads of cash, like they were successful in the 80s, but really successful in the 80s. And so they had bucket loads of cash reserves, which and I sort of heard this thing is one of those things. When you're in the industry, you hear this knowledge and you go, all right. There were heaps of money that just that just brought Steve Jobs back on board, which I'm sure most people know Steve Jobs is. And so I just brought Steve Jobs back on board, who is like this visionary, if anyone is going to turn the company around. So I was like, this sounds like a really good time, but I went looking and it was really hard. So it was really hard to do. And so, yeah, as I say, I thought this other I thought this other company which did nothing. Instead of making I am now still working. But but I think I think the real lesson there for me was that it really it really sort of. Exemplified sticking to what you know, like I if I if I had the ability, as you say, if I could have executed on that on that idea, then there was actually a reasonable basis there. Like I said, if any of my investments, I don't generally have a great thesis. It's generally it's I heard these things going like a lot of what my kids are using, products that they are using now. And I'll see all their friends have got it. And I'm like that. I might look into that as an investment. But I reckon the lesson for me that was like. I did know that there was a sound kind of backing to wanting to make that decision at least, and in the end been easier and and ended up with nothing because I was buying into something. I had no idea. I didn't even know what this website was going to do, really. I didn't look into it. It was just someone saying, I've got this great hot tip. We're going to make lots of money. And yeah, I guess if I if I'd pushed harder to work out how to make the US trade in the 90s when I was young, too, like I was like Chase, I started I left school early, like end of year 11. I got a job at Apple straight away. And so I was only probably 18. I guess it must be 18 or 19. So yeah, I was young. I didn't know the first thing about investing and walking into like Morgan Stanley or whatever they were in the city just going like, wow, these guys are all, you know, is down there wearing shoes. For a start, it was like, well, this is they're taking this seriously. I mean, it's kind of intimidating so and so. Yeah, I think. Yeah. Stick to what you know is is a good lesson. [00:29:58][209.2]

Alec: [00:30:00] There's a way that you can tell that story at home where you left high school early for a job at Apple. Like if someone told if someone said that in twenty twenty one you'd be like, this person is a is a certified genius, you know, getting a job at Apple at seventeen. So you should just start going around telling that story. Yeah, I left high school early for a job at Apple, [00:30:19][19.2]

Adam: [00:30:20] so it sounds way better than it was because I used to be a franchise. So these were all independent Apple stores or Apple centres, as I recall that it was Apple, Sentido and Apples and Adelaide apples in Sydney, whatever it is. And they were all they were all just franchises and owned until I think it was probably early. Two thousands of Apple kind of we're going to do away with that model and we're going to create the the Apple stores that we have today. So, yeah, it's kind of not as impressive. I basically just got a job at the local computer company. [00:30:50][30.8]

Alec: [00:30:53] It's all about how you frame it. It's all about out in front of it. [00:30:56][2.5]

Bryce: [00:30:56] I'm still looking at this Apple shot at iPad and I didn't want fifteen cents. Fifteen cents iPod. Now it's that's that's up eighty three thousand per cent. [00:31:06][10.2]

Adam: [00:31:07] Yeah. It's crazy. [00:31:08][0.8]

Bryce: [00:31:08] Anyway, so I think you've made a really good point Adam, around investing in what you know, particularly if we're not professional investors and able to dedicate hours and hours of research and filter filtering through the thousands of investment opportunities that are out there. Do you have any I mean, do you have any specific examples of how that has translated to what you're investing in now, or are you going more for sort of sematic ETF approach? And also, I think given the industry that you work in, are you making any decisions based on that? [00:31:43][34.8]

Adam: [00:31:43] Yeah, I guess I am now. So, you know, I you know, I have it I have a holding in the ETF, for example, which is a cybersecurity ETF, I guess partly because that's that's an area that I work in now as a focus for me, but also I guess so, you know, I see a lot of the war stories from the industry. I suppose I see what's happening. And I think the world is going to need cybersecurity more and more and more and more. So for me, that's kind of makes sense, albeit it's probably not one of my better performing ETF. But but I guess I believe that it will be and I have some similar investments in sort of companies that are playing in that space as well. So, um, so yeah, I think definitely it does inform the way that I invest now. Even that's probably I'm probably gone the other way. For the most part though, I'm really, really more broad based ETFs generally still that happy to see my in my life. I do have a satellite and coal and that would sit on my satellite. So, you know, I guess the other ones are more broad based a a two hundred eighty or so, and that is like one hundred or whatever it is. So, so yeah, I think it definitely does. I'm still on the lookout. They are still, as I say, a bit of a kind of a bit of a gamble. I still don't look at her and you know, ten bagger opportunities that might present. I'm fascinated with life because kids now kids have all got like this new things all the time that you don't know whether they're like the next craze, the next big thing, or whether they're just going to be like flash in the pan. So there was a I saw one of my daughter's friends the other day. I just had a birthday and got to go to watch this. I had to I think it's called a moochie and it's like a kids watch. You can call your parents on it and you can take photos with it. You can. And I just thought, man, if like if they get some sort of market share, then potentially that kind of technology could be could could sort of explode. But then again, it might just go my way. So and maybe maybe, maybe it came up on eBay or something overnight. [00:33:54][131.0]

Alec: [00:33:57] There you go, mooches, that's the that's the hot tip you get, can you get that Magalia can do now given your work in cyber security, I've got to ask you the question that Bryce and I often ponder when we talk cyber security, which is what's with the names of the cyber security companies out there? You've got you've got things like Splunk and Zakes. So it's just it's it's just there's Booz BIO's and I just what's going on with the names in your industry might. [00:34:34][36.8]

Adam: [00:34:35] Well, yeah, I would, yeah. This is what happens when nerds get together. It's like if you I don't know if you've ever played any kind of online games and you see all these, you know, the names that people come up with for their characters and it's like it's yeah. Yeah, it is kind of pimply 15 year old kid sitting in your mom's basement. And, you know, we don't get in this game your 15 foot axe wielding kind of behaviour. So, yeah, I think it's just those people now have jobs naming products. And the only explanation I can come up with for [00:35:10][35.8]

Bryce: [00:35:12] now before we move to our sort of final three wrap up questions, Adam, I can't help but ask, given that you've said that you're a bit of a risk taker at heart, where do you sit on the crypto crypto scene and has that? Well, if you're in it, how's it going? And if you're not, congratulations. [00:35:30][17.4]

Adam: [00:35:34] I thought I was day trading superannuation then. You know, I love crypto fast that I love. I love the being. I guess working in technology my whole life. I love the I love the technology side of it as well. I love it. I love the rationale and the justifications. People seem to come up with every coin, but everyone's always a zero in on one particular coin. They're like, I'm tracking this coin, I'm watching the charts. I'm seeing these patterns play out the same patterns from the last time. It's like, do they're all going up and down together at the moment like this? If you look at the top ten coins, they're all kind of fluctuating together. But no, I like crypto, I, I do have some crypto and then I'm kind of I'm in and out and in and out and in and out of group though so yeah. To me it's, it's like a bit of a fun thing on the side. I'm not, I'm not heavily invested in it that's for sure. I haven't told my kids about crypto yet so yeah I, I like it. I think I was, I put some money in, in twenty eighteen the last crypto craze, I lost pretty much all of that. But then I signed up for this encrypted chat platform called Key Base. What key base did at one point is I didn't airdrop which anyone in the space and I wouldn't airdrop these, but they kind of airdropped a bunch of stale allurements. Excelon, which at the time this was kind of two years ago maybe. So there was nothing happening in the crypto space. So they were worth nothing. And so, yeah, I don't like it at the time. Maybe one hundred dollars worth of of still illumined. I just decided I would hold those. That's now kind of they're up to like I think the last check was about fifteen hundred bucks. So you know that's nice. So yeah. I don't know like and then because I had the government, they tax crypto now as well so that you can jump on board the crypto train and they can tax crypto investments. But I'm not sure how that applies to my airdropped crypto that I got, you know, but I didn't swap coins around. I don't stay in one coin for any extended period. So I'm a terrible crypto investor. [00:37:57][143.3]

Alec: [00:37:58] Thursday, this this tax point is one that we often have a discussion with our mates about, one of whom is convinced that the government can't tax crypto or that you don't have to pay tax on crypto. It's like it's your investing. Of course. Of course you do. So in the ATO are going to be on it this year after everything that's happened in the crypto markets. [00:38:18][20.1]

Adam: [00:38:20] Totally. Yeah. I mean, like that case, for example, like, can I get taxed if I didn't make the investment. Like if I, I literally someone created some crypto out of thin air and put it in a wallet that I own. [00:38:33][13.3]

Alec: [00:38:34] Yeah. Now no we're not, we're not tax accountants and we can't give tax advice. But I think the short answer is yes, because it's like it's like I, I owned Wesfarmers shares and then Coles emerged from Wesfarmers, so I didn't pay for those Coles shares. I just appeared in my account. But on. But I have to pay. Tax on them. I don't know if that's a I don't know if that's a perfect analogy, but I'm pretty confident the government aren't going to let you not pay tax on it. [00:39:03][29.3]

Adam: [00:39:04] And the only saving grace is that I will probably hold long enough to the point that they'll be worthless and so I won't have to pay any tax. [00:39:12][7.5]

Alec: [00:39:12] That's the best way to avoid tax. [00:39:14][1.1]

Bryce: [00:39:17] Yeah, well, Adam, it has been a very enjoyable conversation, getting to kind of know where you're at in your investing journey. And thank you for sharing, I guess, parts of the journey that Alec and I haven't yet come across, which is the fascination around trading superannuation. And I don't recommend also thinking about setting up investments for kids. So we do appreciate it. We always like to finish with the final three questions, so we'll crack into those. What resources have most help you to get started investing or are you currently using in your investing journey? [00:39:59][42.2]

Adam: [00:40:00] Well, I listen to this great podcast called Comedian versus Economist. I think it's not a podcast. I mean, you guys are doing great work with Equity Mates investing podcast and and this one. So I think they I really like podcasts just because I can kind of I can kind of passively consume them so I can I can just get some really good investment in education while I'm while I'm doing other things. Yeah, I, I do have a couple of sort of Web subscriptions that I use now. Yeah. I think just having conversations about it with people who are, who are investing as well is a really, really powerful thing. You know, I got friends of mine in the invest and you can kind of the more you talk about it, the more you can start to sort the kind of wheat from the chaff and you can go, you know, and you can identify the specking Magee's of the world. And then you can you can identify the others who are kind of a bit more in line with whatever your investment philosophy is. But, yeah, I'm still I'm still banking on the fact that my household is increasing in value and my superannuation will keep going up. And whatever I can make beyond that is good. But you know the goal for me. Yeah. And retire a bit earlier. [00:41:15][74.5]

Alec: [00:41:16] Yeah. Yeah, that would be nice. The next question, if someone's listening today who hasn't started investing, but maybe a little interested but a little bit unsure on the fence, what would you say to them? [00:41:31][14.5]

Adam: [00:41:32] I would say I would say stop, just get started later. Just do it and start small. Like start with, you know, to my mum's point when I was 18 or whatever, and she's like only invest what you can afford to lose, even if you're pretty sure that you won't lose it, as I was for no reason, there's a chance that you will. So and that's probably what keeps most people out there, is that fear of losing some money. But, you know, as I invest now, my kids, you know, they're putting in one dollar or two dollars at a time. And that's the best thing you can do is to just start. Because even if even if you make ten dollars or you lose ten dollars, you'll still feel you still feel that that gain or that loss, you still get that kind of I don't know, it's probably like something that I mean, you do. And there's no better way to kind of learn and then get educated about what happened than having actually just having some skin in the game, you know what I mean? Like, I think there's a lot of I know there's a lot of platforms that offer assimilations. And you can kind of you can pretend that you've got one hundred thousand dollars and and you can set up a portfolio. But that's not realistic for most people. And quickly, you can quickly lose interest in it when, you know, maybe there's a period in the market where it doesn't do much. It's kind of flat. It gets really boring. So I reckon if you start small, you know, using some of those services like spaceship or raise or whatever it is, you can put in five dollars or ten dollars, get in, get kind of invested in and get in the game because you can't just invest in your money, then you sort of you're emotionally and mentally invested in that as well. And then you go, oh, it dropped to Dollars this week. I wonder what happened to, you know, to the market. I wonder what happened to that company that I put, you know, a little bit of money into it. So, you know, whatever you can whatever is comfortable for you, I can just get started. [00:43:28][116.2]

Bryce: [00:43:29] I couldn't agree more. And we did say we have three questions, but the third was around Canadian economist. And you have answered it earlier. You know, it's a it's a great resource. And we strongly encourage those in the community who haven't started listening but feel confused about what is going on in the world of macroeconomics and understanding superannuation and Reserve Bank and the Fed over in the United States, et cetera, et cetera, then certainly. To go and listen to comedian, economist with Adam and his brother Thomas, but look, it's always a pleasure talking to those in our community, Adam, so we very much appreciate you coming on the show and sharing your time with us. [00:44:09][39.9]

Adam: [00:44:09] Thanks, guys. Good to be on the show. Look forward to doing it again sometime. [00:44:14][4.9]

Bryce: [00:44:15] Absolutely. And if you would also like to share your investing stories with us or come on the show, make sure you reach out Equity Mates dot com slash contact or you can email us at contact@equitymates.com, but otherwise keep investing. If you haven't started already, dip your toe in the water. Start now, as I said, but we'll leave it there. Ren always a pleasure to chat stocks and we'll pick it up next week. [00:44:38][23.3]

Adam: [00:44:38] Sounds good. [00:44:39][0.3]

Speaker 3: [00:44:40] Get Started Investing feed is a product of Equity Mates media. All information in this podcast is for education and entertainment purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for professional finance, legal or tax advice. The hosts of Get Started Investing feed are not financial professionals and are not aware of your personal financial circumstances. Before making any financial decisions, you should read the product disclosure statement and if necessary, consult a licenced financial professional. Do not take financial advice from a podcast. For more information, head to the disclaimer page on the Equity Mates website, where you can find the ASIC resources and find a registered financial professional near you. In the spirit of reconciliation, Equity Mates media and the host of Get Started Investing feed acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia and the Connexions to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people today. [00:44:40][0.0]

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