Hey guys, it's Sasha I stopped investing in stocks I Know you thought that this was clickbait, but it's not. As of April last year I have pretty much not invested in the stock market at all now I haven't gone 100 completely cold turkey I have invested very small bits and Bobs as and when I got a free share because one of you clicked on an affiliate Link in my description. Thank you by the way for doing that I really appreciate it if you do want some free shares or just want to help the channel out by checking out some of the affiliate links for investing apps in the description. feel free to go and do that.

But in general I have not been investing in stocks at all. In fact, I own less shares today than I did back in April many months ago. so I even sold stock in the last few months. and you might be confused because I am not the flip-flopping kind of guy I don't decide to invest or not to invest based on which way the win happens to be blown today.

and no. I also did not perfectly time the market I didn't go and sell the top based on drawing random lines on Candlestick charts I'm not going to claim that either, but I had to make some very tough calls over the last year and going into this year and on the back of those, I've decided against investing in stocks I'm going to tell you exactly why and exactly what I am investing in instead because the amount that I am generally investing has increased substantially I Don't think I've ever invested as much money into stocks or anything else as the amount that I'm investing right now. and given that I Talk about investing on this channel. Investing in stocks predominantly is probably appropriate for you to know and understand why.

I do something different to what I talk about on this channel. In the spirit of transparency, you know, do as I say not as I do to give you a bit of background I study math and University I managed to get into a pretty good University in the UK and then stuck around working for banks and I did that for a while until 2014. In 2014, I started my own strategy consulting company also working with banks, but as a consultant rather than working for them directly. I did that for quite a few years, stretching towards 2021.

it grew to be a pretty decent Boutique consulting firm. We weren't huge, but you know, mid-size We had a snazzy office in London yada yada yada. But there was one slight problem and that problem was that I absolutely hated being a consultant I am not the bubbly, taking clients for dinner every day sort of guy. If you watched a few of my videos, you might have guessed that much already.

and I've done my time in banking I've collected the t-shirts That chapter is also done. so when push came to shove I decided to change everything and I started my online content business. hence why you're watching me on YouTube This YouTube channel is part of that business. I share the insights and experience that I have from working in the finance industry here with you.

Hopefully some of that Insight might be interesting or I don't know, at least amusing, maybe even useful to some of you. And there's another part of this content business which is content websites. The content websites are in other niches, not in finance. Talking about investing in Finance on YouTube all day is already pretty hefty and maybe a bit too much so.

the websites are in other things like travel. and about a year ago both parts of this new business have started to show signs that they're doing all right. There's potential. There was something that was working I was still in very very early days, but the numbers and Analysis indicated that it was all headed in the right direction.

And when you invest, you can invest in different asset classes. I Generally think there are three main asset classes that you can invest in. One is stocks and other similar paper-based things. Things like ETFs reads, even bonds and all of that stuff in my opinion are all in that camp.

Number two is property. I Don't own a property portfolio I just own my own home I Think this asset class is probably going to come later on for me personally. and I don't subscribe to Commodities being an investment I Don't think the Commodities are another investment class like many other people think that they are I Think for something to be an investment, it has to have a primary expectation of increasing in value in the long term if everything goes well. Commodities are physical Goods without an underlying natural reason that must drive appreciation in my opinions.

Sure, the price goes up and down based on Supply demand and the factors, but for me, Commodities are a trading instrument at best, not an investment class now. I Don't also think that fixed interest tools like savings accounts are really a form of investment either. It's a zero percent risk way of earning interest on the money that you have, but in my mind, it's an entirely different kind of thing anyway. So over the last year I've gone all in on the last kind of asset that I think is investable, which is this business and this has meant that I haven't had any spare cash at all to invest in the stock market.

In fact, I have had to take money out of the stock market in order to invest in this business. Most of you didn't notice, but in April last year I moved into this new office I started out on the channel filming videos in YouTube on YouTube in my living room actually started out in the room upstairs. then I moved to my living room where I was for quite a while. But I have a young son and if you have kids you will probably know, maybe appreciate a little bit how difficult it is to film videos in your living room.

That's why the sofa behind me is different to the one that was there in the early videos because I'm in a completely different place. That's why there's no map on the wall and even the units behind over there. There are five by five instead of a four by four and there's a whole lot more to this office than just the studio. This is just one corner of the office.

We have some big plans for what to do with the rest of it in the coming months and years. So yeah, this was the original, the initial investment that kicked it all off. There's the lease, the deposit, the monthly rent, the business rates which are pretty expensive, the utility costs, the legal fees, the blah blah blah, all of that. But then I also went and built the actual studio in here that you can't see.

It kind of looks like I'm just sitting here talking to you from across the desk. but what you can't see is a massive load of stuff. There's sound insulation, there's walls, there's stuff hanging over the top to absorb noise. There's lighting, There's computers with way too many monitors, There's a camera setup, There's even a teleprompter.

And yeah, all of that cost money too. And there's ongoing costs I am subscribed to pretty much every News company that's worth subscribing to so that I can pick up on all the commentary, all the news, and share these with you and provide different points of view as much as possible. I have a million other subscriptions as well for this business. from Adobe for video and photo editing to stock videos, stock photo websites the tubebuddy for managing the channel to influencer Insurance to accounting software you get the point.

And then there's this website part of the business very different to YouTube but it's also doing pretty well and on there we have staff to help build and grow those websites. It Takes A huge amount of work. We have researchers, writers, editors, formatters. some of them are in-house and we work with different kinds of people and most of the people who work with are Freelancers that we hire for specific jobs.

And yeah, that investment is a fair bit more than the investment in YouTube So the obvious question is, why the hell am I doing it? Surely, with the stock market down so much now is the perfect time to invest in stocks, right? You know, stocks that are in some cases down as much as 70 to 80 or whatever. if they go back to where they were before, you're already making four times your money. and the answer is, stocks are a great way to invest money for the long term. And if I was still in a job, if I was still running my consulting company in the same kind of position that didn't need the capital injection, I'll be all over the stock market right now.

In fact, it is incredibly painful not being in all over the stock market right now. If the business was cash flow positive, I'll be buying the stocks in my portfolio like no tomorrow and adding more My Hope Is that in the next few months. this is exactly what happens as the business stops needing Capital being injected every month. Starting up a Content business is tough as well as expensive.

You have to get a lot of things wrong before you figure out how to do some of those things right before something clicks. And in most cases it will take you many months and many years before you start seeing any proper money that actually pays your bills with a high risk. you will never see that money and everything that you think is going to be gone forever. But there is also a big potential reward.

if the business does well. You can keep going at it and make money in a very positive kind of way. People watch your content, people visit your websites, you help people for free. You give them information for free, Maybe they'll see an ad, maybe they'll click an affiliate link, and eventually these things start adding up.

It's only a lot nicer than trying to sell somebody a Consulting year I can tell you that much So a massive thank you to each and every one of you who does watch my videos. each and every one of you who's clicked on some of my links in the past to check out the investing apps or some of the other products. The stock market has some amazing opportunities at the moment, but my analysis indicates that the opportunity that I have in the business potentially is a lot higher of course, with a much higher degree of risk too. So I wouldn't necessarily recommend that other people go and do the same thing at all because content business is a non-linear kind of business, growing from 90 000 subscribers to 100 000 subscribers.

which is what I'm trying to do right now is a heck of a lot easier than going from zero to ten thousand. and the aim is to get the Content business to be self-sufficient perform well enough to be able to pay the bills as soon as possible it's getting there, but it did take a lot of Blood Sweat and Tears and a lot of cash. and here is hoping that the Turning Point comes in the next few months. That's what I'm expecting.

You'll be seeing a whole lot of videos coming in the coming weeks and months because I need to get the ball rolling. I've been busy trying to set a bunch of things up, so if you're a subscriber, there is going to be a serious amount of analysis inside, commentary, live videos covering some of the yearnings on everything to do with money, investing, and anything in finance in general that will be coming your way. And if you haven't subscribed yet, that is what you're going to get if you smash that subscribe button. And hopefully if my projections are not too far off in a a couple of months.

I'm gonna be back in stocks and investing extremely heavily in the stock market every month. I Am sincerely hoping that the stock market stays low that we get some more negative news that continues pushing things down because I really really want to slice of that pie. So there you go. Smash that like button and I'm going to see you later.

.