Are you looking to invest in the stock market but have no idea where to start? Everything is better when you do it with a friend or loved one. This challenge came about in my household when I wanted to convince my wife to start investing. We decided that the STASH app was the best option for a beginning investor. So we thought that we would perform an experiment to see how does a newbie investor compare to someone who has been investing on their own with various brokerages for years. The rules were simple and I will lay them out to you below. Now I had been investing with STASH for over a year before my wife so I did have to sell my investments to start this challenge with equal footing with my wife.
The primary goal was to see who is able to achieve the greatest return (% change) over one year. The winner of the challenge decides what we get to do with the money in both accounts but it has to be used on the both of us. So if she wins she cannot spend it on a spa day for herself. She can choose to have a spa day for the both of us or sped it on a vacation. I am more of the long term investor so my version of winning will probably mean add more to the portfolio. Although, I have been meaning to make it to a Super Bowl so you never know.
Here are the rules:-
1. Invest $25 dollars every week into the stock market.
This investment has to be split over at least 5 investments and at least 2 of those investments have to be ETFs. So every week we invest 25 dollars into our stash account and I invest 5 dollars into 5 different investments. This becomes easier when you use Auto Stash.
2. There can be no withdrawals out of any of the accounts over the next year.
This is very important to the challenge. If at any point you begin withdrawing from your STASH portfolio this will fundamentally change the parameters of the challenge. If at any point you decide to withdraw money from the account you forfeit the challenge.
3. It is fair to turn on smart save and use those funds as you see fit?
Money invested by smart save is separate from the weekly investment amount. This aspect of STASH may also allow you to make better returns depending on how much you smart save. I use my smart save funds to invest in the stocks that have underperformed. This ensures that I buy low and sell high. Most importantly, BUY LOW. My wife has used her smart save funds to explore new positions not originally apart of her 5 investments.
4. You can change investments at any point in time.
If you have an investment that you feel is underperforming you can sell that investment and take up a new positions since this does not cost extra with the STASH app. However, you must maintain at least 5 investments at all times. Also again at least half of those investments must be ETFs.
Now here is the kicker. I will restate, I have been investing for over 15 years in the stock market. My wife on the other hand is just starting out. We have been performing this challenge for 5 months now and we invest every week into our various investments.
As it stands Mrs. STASH is winning the challenge easily!
My STASH portfolio is up +2.47% with a total value of $748.59. Mrs. STASH portfolio on the other hand is up 8.17% with a total value of $511.57.
There you have it, the Newbie is winning big! Don’t get too excited ladies we have traded places over the past couple months. I recently hit a downturn with my Corporate Cannabis & Colossal China severely underperforming. Just last month I was up over 6%. On the other hand Mrs. STASH’s biggest investments Amazon and Social Media Mania have done very well. I have been able to save more which is mostly because I turned on my Smart Save and have kept investing the proceeds. We are five months into the challenge. Will Mrs. Stash demolish me in this competition? It’s kind of looking that way but stay tuned.
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Mr. Stash Investments
Corporate Cannabis -5.91%
Colossal China -6.15%
NVIDIA +5.51%
Modern Meds +11.20%
Square +6.79%
Alibaba -3.80%
Gamers FTW! -3.85%
Internet Titans +13.53%
Boeing +3.96%
Amazon +17.13%
Social Media Mania +3.56%
Data Defenders +6.38%
American Innovators 6.80%
Corporate Cannabis -3.39%
Netflix +13.69%
Apple +6.92%
Square +10.55%
Alphabet +12.33%
Walt Disney +8.85%
