Celebrating Others’ Success: Turtle Investor

There is a group of us who have been blogging on personal finance/investing for close to a decade or more. Quite a number have achieved Financial Mobility/Independence and some are also on the cusp.

I do respect quite a few and Turtle Investor (Kevin) is definitely one of them. He started out as a very strong proponent of index funds and in the past few years, added crypto to his arsenal. As mentioned previously in this post, he was one of the few who extended alot of help to kickstart my own crypto journey. Super helpful and humble!

Therefore, when I read this update from Turtle Investor this afternoon, it really made my day. Sometimes when I read such “financial pornography”, there is a tinge of envy involved. But not this time round.

I am absolutely delighted for Kevin that he has probably surpassed the target that he had set for himself a decade ago when he first started blogging. Just look at this net worth table that he shared.

“Nothing happens for a long time, but suddenly everything happens at the same time.” – Mr 15HWW On Hard Work And Progress

I think Kevin’s story/experience deserves a closer look as I believe the average person who attempts to replicate his strategy has a good chance of success. At the risk of revealing myself as a financial voyeur, here are some reasons why:

1. Kevin Is Not a High-Income Earner

High-income is somewhat of a cheat code in building wealth. No doubt most people should strive to increase their income. It is much easier to save 50% or even 70% if your income is in the top ten percentile.

For a graduate, I think Kevin’s income profile for the past decade is probably close to median or even below. He made quite a few career switches and only drew a good income ($6-7k) recently. In fact, some years ago, he even took a sabbatical and worked in a Bed and Breakfast set-up for minimal wages.

Kevin has proved that the road to FI does not have to be a relentless grind or sprint.

2. Kevin Is Frugal

$2m or even $1.5m (crypto crash) might not be a lot or enough for some people. Even for supposedly frugal folks (mirror mirror on the wall……), an investment windfall might lead to lifestyle inflation like a condo or a car.

But not Kevin who probably still just needs $3-4k a month to be very comfortable.

3. Kevin Did Not Take Huge Risks

I know of people who dismissed Kevin’s achievement as pure luck. Akin to putting all your networth on BIG/SMALL in a casino and then doubling your money.

But bear in mind that Kevin did not take huge risks and his total capital allocated to crypto was just $40,000, a fresh graduate’s annual pay.

4. Kevin Sticks To Rules And Take Profits

Sure, many crypto OGs take profits and turn them into reasonably-sized houses or sports cars.

As for Kevin, he is disciplined enough to stick to his rules and take profits on his crypto positions. He would then rebalance them into less volatile assets like stablecoins, index funds, REITs and even CPF top-ups. This is almost unheard of in cryptosphere which has a scathing view of Tradfi and its low returns.

So it’s almost impossible for Kevin to lose half his networth overnight even if crypto crashes.

5. Kevin Uses A Barbell Strategy

Most people overestimate their risk tolerance, especially when involved in riskier assets (including myself).

A barbell strategy therefore works wonders. When Kevin started dabbling with crypto in 2017, he probably made a mental note to not overcommit. Quite sure that 80-90% of his investment exposure was in plain old vanilla index funds and REITs. He was able to survive or even thrive during Crypto Winter.

When crypto experienced parabolic euphoria, he makes it a point to rebalance as much as reasonable to ensure he can sleep well.

Caveat: To make it, you need to have something going for you. Of course, Kevin was quite early to crypto in 2017. My calculated guess is a big portion of his net worth gains came from $ETH, $LUNA and $ATOM. He has shared on Twitter that he managed to buy some $ETH at around $100 in 2018/2019, at a time when nobody wanted to touch them.

Give credit when it is due. I know of many people that were relatively early to crypto but have still not made it. Even yours truly had heard of Ethereum by 2018 but did not take any action then.

That’s why I am not a millionaire (yet).

Thanks for reading this fan post. Maybe I will get treated to a meal. Who knows? =p