Why I Stopped Sharing My Portfolio

A few days ago, someone slid into my DMs and asked a simple question: "Hey, can you share your portfolio?"

I stared at that message for a while before replying. And it made me realize something,  I've quietly stopped sharing my portfolio for a long time now. Not because I forgot, and not because I had some grand strategy of privacy. The real reason is a lot more honest, and a lot more uncomfortable to admit: I didn't think it was "nice" enough to show.

If you follow other finance bloggers, you've probably seen the screenshots, seven-figure portfolios, dozens of counters, diversified across REITs, growth stocks, bonds, you name it. Mine isn't that. Mine is small. Painfully simple, even. And for a while, I let that make me feel like I had nothing worth sharing.

But here's the thing, I think that mindset is wrong, and I want to correct it, starting with this post.

Why My Portfolio Is Small

Let's get the elephant in the room out of the way: I don't add fresh capital into the market often. Most months, whatever income I have goes toward family expenses first. That's just the reality of where I am in life right now. There's no shame in saying it out loud, I suspect a lot of people reading this are in the exact same boat, quietly comparing themselves to portfolios that don't reflect their own circumstances.

Because I can't consistently pump in new money, most of what does go into my portfolio comes from dividends and options premiums I've already collected. In other words, I'm mostly recycling money that my existing holdings generate, rather than injecting new capital from my paycheck. It means growth is slower. It means my portfolio won't be doubling every year like some of the more aggressive accounts you see online. But it also means everything in there is intentional, nothing is impulsive, because there simply isn't spare cash lying around to be impulsive with.

What's Actually In My Portfolio (Approximately 300K)

Here's the full breakdown, stripped of any pretense:

  • NVIDIA  = 22%
  • SpaceX = 14%
  • OCBC = 22%
  • Bitcoin = 7%
  • Savings plans = 17%
  • Cash = 18%

That's it. Six different asset. No sprawling watchlist of forty counters, no attempt to own "a bit of everything." Let me walk through each one and explain the thinking behind it.

NVIDIA: Accumulated With Premiums

NVIDIA is a name I add to occasionally, and specifically, I fund these purchases using premiums I've collected from options. I don't chase it on every dip, and I don't try to time entries perfectly. It's more of a slow accumulation, buy when the premium comes in, and let the position build itself over time without touching my core savings.

SpaceX: A Legacy Holding

This one is different from everything else in my portfolio. I'm not holding SpaceX for a quick flip or even for retirement, really. I think of it as something I'm building for my son. It's a long-term, multi-decade bet on a company I believe will still matter: probably more than it does today, by the time he's old enough to understand what it represents. Some assets are for spending. This one is for passing down.

Bitcoin: Same Idea, Different Asset

Bitcoin sits in the same mental bucket as SpaceX for me. It's not something I trade, check daily, or panic-sell during a downturn. It's a legacy position, a small, deliberate allocation that I'm comfortable holding through volatility because the point was never to time it perfectly. The point is for it to still be there, years from now, for my son.

OCBC: The Backbone

If NVIDIA, SpaceX, and Bitcoin are the "dreams" in my portfolio, OCBC is the foundation everything else stands on. At 22%, it's my single largest individual holding, and I think of it exactly as the word suggests, a backbone. Steady, dividend-paying, and not going to give me any sleepless nights. It's boring in the best possible way.

Savings Plans: My Insurance Against a Crash

Seventeen percent of my portfolio sits in capital-guaranteed savings plans. I'll be upfront about the trade-off: the returns are not exciting. Nobody buys these plans hoping to beat the market. I bought them because I wanted an anchor, something that holds its value even if everything else falls apart in a crash. Think of it less as an investment and more as insurance. I'm paying for peace of mind, not performance.

Cash: Waiting, Not Wasting

And finally, the 18% sitting in cash, mostly parked in my OCBC 360 account for the small interest it earns. I know exactly what some of you are thinking: "Isn't holding that much cash a waste? Shouldn't you be putting that to work?"

Here's my honest answer, I'd rather earn a modest interest rate than buy something I don't have conviction in, just so I can say my money is "working." I do have a watchlist, mostly SGX-listed shares, and this cash is essentially my dry powder for when the right opportunity on that list actually shows up at the right price. Until then, I'd rather wait than force a decision I'll regret. Buying and regretting is, in my opinion, far more expensive than the opportunity cost of sitting on cash for a while.

Why I'm Sharing This Now

Looking back, I think the reason I stopped posting my portfolio wasn't really about the numbers. It was about comparison. I kept measuring my five-holding, slow-growing portfolio against other people's twenty-counter, fast-compounding ones, and concluding that mine wasn't worth showing.

But that comparison was never fair to begin with. My portfolio isn't trying to be theirs. It's built around my life, limited fresh capital, a preference for recycling dividends and premiums rather than chasing new positions, and two holdings I'm deliberately not touching because they're meant for my son one day, not for me.

If there's one thing I want you to take away from this post, it's this: a portfolio doesn't need to be big or diversified across dozens of names to be intentional. Mine is small, concentrated, and slow-moving, and every single piece of it is there for a reason I can clearly explain. That, to me, matters a lot more than the size of the number at the bottom of the screen.

So to whoever sent me that DM. thank you. This is my portfolio, small as it is, and I'm not hiding it.

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