Hi friend 👋

I have something to celebrate today…

… It’s my 29th birthday!

And yesterday I was celebrated as a winner of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Event as well:

I feel grateful to share this wonderful journey with you.

The goal of Our Portfolio? Compound by 12% per year.

Our Portfolio is currently worth $1.35 million and we keep adding to it every single month ($50,000).

As we are rational long-term investors, this is how the evolution of Our Portfolio could look like:

If we could keep going as long as Warren Buffett (95 years old), this is what we would have:

The least I could tell is that I’d sign for $17 billion 🤑.

As Morgan Housel said:

"Humans can't grasp he power of exponential growth. It truly is the eighth wonder of the world."

I wanted to write this article to you for two reasons:

1. Give you a better insight in who I am

2. Offer you a birthday gift

Let’s start with an insight in who I am.

You can’t wait for the birthday gift? Click here.

This is who I am

Do you know how Compounding Quality started?

On a Friday night, I was staying at my childhood home because the day after one of my best friends had his bachelor party.

I was bored and didn’t know what to do on that particular evening.

Why not create an anonymous account on Twitter?

I thought it would be cool to say whatever I wanted about the stock market at any given time (at the time I was still working in the Asset Management industry meaning that you aren’t allowed to speak openly about investment-related topics).

So it happened and I created an account on Twitter.

Now I needed to find a name. I thought for 30 seconds and named the account Compounding Quality. It beautifully sums up the strategy:

Today, Compounding Quality has more than 1.5 million followers on social media and more than 500,000 readers on its website.

When did you start investing?

When I was 13 years old, on a nice summer evening, someone told me about the stock market.

You could make money without having to work for it?

This was one of the most beautiful things I had ever heard. I remember the conversation as yesterday as it sparked a light in me. My passion for investing was born on that summer evening.

The day after the conversation, I set up a brokerage account (via my parents as you aren’t allowed to invest in stocks under age 18).

After a few days, the account was set up and I transferred the hard-earned money I earned that summer to my investment account.

But there was only one small problem…

… In which stock should I invest? I didn’t know anything about stocks.

‘Luckily’ the broker I used had a top pick list and they recently added a new company to this list. It was a local company active in the production, storage, supply, and transportation of oil and gas.

The people who managed the top pick list were so-called experts.

They should know what they were doing right?

So I blindly followed them and bought that specific company with all the money I earned that summer.

After 1 year I sold the stock…

… with a loss of 60%.

And you know what? It’s the best investment I’ve ever made.

My worst investment ever has become my best investment ever.

After selling my first investment (which was very painful), I could beat myself up.

How could I be so stupid?

When something like this happens to you,