Category: Investing

My first year of investing was full of red numbers, emotional dips, and late-night portfolio checks. But it also taught me the lessons that still guide me today: patience, preparation, and the value of “learning money”.

People often say: “I wish I’d started investing earlier.”
Yes, technically that’s true for me as well. More years in the market would probably have meant more returns today. But here’s the catch: I only started investing when I was financially and emotionally ready to do so. Before that, I didn’t have enough money to lock away for the long term. And without the right preparation, I probably would’ve quit the first time things went south.

Because make no mistake, they did. And not just “oops, I lost a fiver” south. More like: “why is my app bleeding red and why do I keep checking it at 2am” south.

The Long Runway Before Takeoff

My first step into investing wasn’t opening a brokerage account. It was listening.

One of my best friends recommended the Dutch podcast Jong Beleggen. The premise was simple but brilliant: a young entrepreneur had just sold his company, pocketed a big sum of money, and decided to invest part of it in the stock market. Each week, he and a co-host discussed the basics of investing, their portfolios, and how the swings made them feel.

For more than a year, I listened religiously. It was my crash course in what investing looks like in real life. Not just numbers on a screen, but the emotions that come with them. Also, let’s be honest: hearing someone else talk about losing thousands makes your future €500 a month experiment feel a lot less dramatic.

By the time the podcast started covering more niche topics that were only really interesting if you really took the time to elaborately research individual companies, I had already gotten what I needed: a slow, steady introduction to the world I was about to step into.

Looking back, I’m incredibly glad I took my time. Because when I finally started investing in April 2022, the timing was… let’s say, challenging.

Starting Simple, Entering a Storm

My strategy was basic:

• A broad, globally diversified ETF. Like a delicious vanilla ice cream.
• One or two smaller thematic ETFs on the side for personal interest. Like the sprinkles on top.

Nothing wild. Just a foundation and a little flavor. Like plain pizza with a couple of toppings: safe, but tasty enough to keep you coming back.

But what I hadn’t prepared for were the emotions. Within weeks of buying my first shares, my portfolio started swinging like a rollercoaster. Three months in, I was down 10%. Two months later, I was up 15%. By the end of the year, I was down 11%.

Basically, my portfolio looked like it had too much Red Bull and couldn’t decide whether it wanted to fly or crash.

The only reason I didn’t panic and sell everything? Three things kept me grounded:

1. I invested money I wouldn’t need for years. So instead of panicking, I could shrug and say, “Guess this is future-me’s problem.”
2. My amounts were still small. Losing a couple hundred euro in value hurt, but it wasn’t like losing rent money.
3. Thanks to the podcast, I knew bigger fish were also drowning. If they could stick it out while losing thousands in value in a week, I could handle my fifty-euro swings.

Learning Money

That first year? 100% learning money. I didn’t gain much, but I gained something better: scar tissue.

For over a year, my portfolio kept dipping in and out of the red. Each time, I checked my app, sighed dramatically, and then did… absolutely nothing. Which, funnily enough, was the smartest thing I could’ve done.

Because what I gained wasn’t just returns, it was resilience. I trained my mindset to handle downturns. I built patience. And today, when I see markets drop, I don’t experience extreme panic. I know money can make you do irrational things. I’ve been there before.

And that’s when it clicked: investing isn’t about being a genius, it’s about learning how not to freak out. Wasn’t it Napoleon who once defined a genius as “someone who can do the average thing when everyone else around him is losing his mind”?

It reminded me of my teenage investing lessons from my favorite video game. In that video game, time and patience eventually turned tiny gold coins into castles. Real life is the same, just better graphics, and fewer opportunities to start swinging a sword around without being arrested.

Preparation Pays

It’s tempting to think I “lost” by not starting earlier. But the truth is, I started exactly when I was ready. My savings rate and financial buffers meant I had room to take risk. And the year I spent learning before acting gave me the conviction to stay in, even when the market tested me.

That’s the hidden part of investing most people don’t talk about: it’s not just about when you start, it’s about being prepared. Preparation is what keeps you from rage-quitting the market after your first market dip. Because if you start unprepared, the market will chew you up, spit you out, and charge you a transaction fee for the privilege.

Final Thought

My first year of investing wasn’t glamorous. Red numbers. Emotional dips. Too much screen time staring at a graph that looked like a mountain range. But it was also the year I built my foundation:

• I learned that emotions run the show unless you check them.
• I discovered that patience beats panic.
• And I realized that learning money in the form of small losses, the tuition fees of experience, is priceless.

Would I have more money today if I’d started earlier? Probably. But would I have the same mindset and calm? Doubtful.

And in the long run, mindset is the real compounding asset. Because investing isn’t just about money. It’s about training your brain not to throw a tantrum every time the line goes down. 

How did you feel the first time your investments went red, and what helped you stick with it?

Many readers share these lessons in their own circles. If this story gave you something, feel free to pass it on!

Fable II taught me investing lessons long before real life did: buy assets, let money work for you, and build the freedom to play on your terms.

When people talk about learning how to invest, they usually mention classics like The Intelligent Investor, podcasts about index funds, or TikToks on FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early).

My first investing lessons and experiences? It didn’t come from any of those, and it was only years later that I actually realized it. It came from the fantasy RPG I played as a teenager and that still is one of my favourite video games to date: Fable II.

Yes, that Fable. The one drenched with British humor and sarcasm, where you spend as much time in the fictional world of Albion kicking chickens and flirting with villagers as actually trying to save it.

But hidden between the troll-fighting and silly side quests, the game had a a great feature. One that occasionally invoked almost the same feelings and thoughts my finances do today, years before I ever opened a brokerage account.

The Day I Became a Virtual Landlord (and Earned My First Passive Income)

The game initially offers you an opportunity to work multiple jobs: blacksmithing, woodcutting, and bartending. Basically, side hustles before they were cool. Initially this was my primary means to afford the weapons and clothing I needed for my epic adventures. But after playing for a while, I noticed something: you could buy properties (houses, shops, market stalls), and collect rent from them. Nothing flashy. Just buy, hold, and wait. I gave it a try and bought the cheapest possible shop: the fruit and vegetable stall on the town square. That expense gave me my first ever passive rental income, in pixels. And a first taste of long term investing. 

Suddenly, new opportunities arose on which my disposable in-game income could be spent. After some more blacksmithing and using the rent of my market stall I could quickly buy another, and then another. And even if I was out on my quests to save the world, money still flowed directly into my pocket because I collected rent. Before long, I owned the biggest castle in the game. Not because I was the strongest fighter (I eventually became that as well because I could now afford all strength-boosting potions), but because I had figured out cash flow.

The real kicker? Even when I turned the Xbox off and came back the next day, my character had earned gold while I was sleeping. That concept absolutely blew my mind.

The Investing Lessons Hiding in Fable II

Looking back, Fable II taught me lessons that apply far beyond the world of Albion:

1. Buy assets, not toys.
Financial freedom doesn’t come from buying the shiny sword, it comes from owning the blacksmith that sells it to every other wannabe hero.

2. Money works while you don’t.
Rent rolled in whether I played or not. That’s passive income, in pixels. And if the economy grows, the value of your assets rises as well.

3. Time amplifies everything.
The sooner I bought, the more I earned over the long run. That’s compound growth, gamified. It was only after my first playthrough that I truly realized this. Whenever I replay the game today, the first thing I always do is get enough cash to make my first investments as early as possible.

4. Cash flow = freedom.
At some point, I didn’t need quests for gold anymore. I did them for fun. The money side had taken care of itself, I was financially independent. And the earlier I started investing, the sooner that point arrived.

When the Pixels Turned into Euros

Years later, when I could put away money for the long term and started my first investments in ETFs , something clicked. I’d seen and felt this before. Because, just like in Fable, time is the real multiplier. Only this time it wasn’t gold coins; it was real money.

And the lesson was the same: freedom doesn’t come from buying cooler swords (or, in real life: cars, fashion, and other stuff), it comes from owning the blacksmith. From building something that pays you, even when your mum cuts off the power to the Xbox because you’ve been playing for hours on end.

Final Thought: From Video Game to Financial Freedom

Fable II didn’t make me rich. But it planted a seed that made the idea of investing feel natural, even obvious. And even more impressive, the feeling of amassing a large amount of gold in-game was actually quite similar to the feeling I experienced when making my first 100k in the real world.

So the next time someone tells you video games are a waste of time, just smile and tell them your Xbox taught you more about return on investment than high school economics ever did.

What’s the earliest lesson (from a game, story, or real life) that shaped the way you think about money today?

Many readers share these lessons in their own circles. If this story gave you something, feel free to pass it on!