1. Introduction

I started investing in 2020, and like most people who learned about the key investing principles, I regret that I have not started earlier. But I am glad I took on this journey in my 30s. This review aims to evaluate my investment strategy, review the performance of the investments I have chosen, and take some learnings from it. Maybe I should adjust my investment strategy for the next five years. Let’s see. On the other hand, I hope this review also gives you some insight or inspiration for your investment journey.

2. Why a Five-Year Review Is Important for Long-Term Investors

A five-year review serves as a critical checkpoint in any long-term investment strategy. While investing is often about patience and discipline, periodic evaluations help ensure that your portfolio remains aligned with your financial goals and risk tolerance. Here’s why a five-year review is essential:

• Measuring Progress Toward Financial Goals
• Evaluating Performance Against Benchmarks
• Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
• Rebalancing for Risk Management
• Strengthening Long-Term Discipline
• Preparing for the Next Phase

I might not take you every aspect of this review, but I will definitely mention some key points below.

3. Portfolio Overview

In my portfolio, I categorize my portfolio into 2 parts:

1. Opportunistic investments: single stocks or funds that I bet on the growth potential, but there is a chance they will not make me any money. It is a high-risk category.
2. Staple investments: I know ETFs will grow in the long term. There is a very high chance (I perceive it as 99%) that they will generate satisfying returns for me for 10 to 20 years.

I just started investing in 2020, and at that time, I was not sure which ETFs to focus on, so in my portfolio, I have 10 ETFs and two single stocks.

• 3 Swiss focused ETFs
• 7 US market or world ETFs
• 2 Single stocks

Why US market or world ETFs:

• Low cost
• Broad diversification to represent the growth of key markets or the world economy
• Consistent performance over the long term

Fast forward to 2024, I have streamlined my portfolio, particularly the ETFs part:

• 3 single stocks
• 1 income fund
• 1 technology fund
• 5 index ETFs

4. Performance Analysis

Let’s first look at the time-weighted return from 2020 to 2024, then dive deeper into what happened and what my portfolio has changed.

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Time Weighted Rate of Return	39.90%	14.43%	-23.93%	12.64%	26.91%

The rate of return (all time) is around 74% on 31^st December 2024. Since I started investing in Feb 2020, we have a 1.5-month gap in 2020 if we count the whole year. But it is not so significant. I will ignore this for now.

During the pandemic, the stock market tanked in 2020; luckily, that was when I started buying. Because I know I am buying those ETFs at a discount. When the market recovered, I achieved around 40% return that year.

When I compare my portfolio performance against Nasdaq (the purple line), it is clear that since April 2023, Nasdaq performed way better than me. That is one of the reasons I added Nasdaq ETFs at the end of 2024. The other reason is that the technology sector will further grow with the development of blockchain, AI, and so on.

5. Best & Worst Performers

My best performers are the index ETFs such as Total US Market (VTI), Total World (VT), and S&P 500 (VOO). Those who know index ETFs and read the book <Three-fund portfolio> would not be surprised by the performance. I mentioned earlier that my confidence level is more than 99% that those index ETFs will bring me good long-term returns.

My worst performers are……still, no surprise – single stocks! And one technology fund (not an index fund). The current value of those investments is between 15% to 40% of my purchase value. They generated terrific returns at the peak, but I did not sell them. No one knows when the high is and when the low is. Afterward, all those stock prices tanked, and since then, they never managed to pick up. So, in absolute value, I am CHF12,000 in red.

Investment is like this: you must have a portfolio that balances the risks and returns. My ETFs generate outstanding returns over the years to offset this unrealized loss. I need to reevaluate what I am going to do with those stocks.

6. Dividends & Income

Since I am in the growth phase, I focus on growing the net asset value of my portfolio, so I did not have any high-dividend ETFs in my portfolio. I have an income fund in which I put a lump sum; I might consider selling it and buying more ETFs. I purchased the income fund at a low value, which gives me more than 8% annual dividends per share. But it is an accumulative fund, and I don’t wish to continue investing in it.  I believe Nasdaq ETFs will generate higher returns in the long run. So let’s see what I will do.

For dividends I received from all the other funds and stocks, I reinvest them from time to time.

7. Future Outlook & Strategy

This year, I will resume DCA (dollar-cost averaging), even if it is a small monthly amount. I will buy ETFs in a lump sum if I have more cash. I had unpredictable incomes in the past few years, so I only invested occasionally. However, in 2020 and 2021, I regularly invested every month using the DCA method.

Adjustments I might take in my portfolio

• Revalue the single stock holdings. Maybe I should just sell them at a loss since I have been holding them for 4-5 years. I could have invested the residual value in the ETFs.
• Review the income fund, keep it, or sell it?

In 2025, I will keep focusing on ETFs in my stock portfolio. I am not the kind of person who spends a lot of time studying market trends, analyzing stocks, reading news, and adjusting investments according to those. I prefer passive, long-term investing. Therefore, index ETFs will still be my top choice.

8. Conclusion

After reviewing the five-year performance, I reaffirm my investment strategy with a strong focus on index ETFs. I don’t feel I missed out on Nvidia stock or other single stocks, which made many people tons of money. I know that I don’t spend time and energy studying the market and companies, so once I construct my portfolio, I know I can keep going like this, and after five years, we will see another positive return. So, index ETFs will be the core pillar in the portfolio.

However, I may spare 1% – 5% of my portfolio on opportunistic investments. I do not have to, but I will put a small amount there when I see something I truly believe in.

2025 will be another boring year. (no fancy products, simple investment strategy).