Preface: Rethinking the Game We've Been Taught to Play
Our education system, for all its merits, has conditioned us to chase — chase grades, accolades, and later in life, higher returns and outperformance. We've been taught to measure success through comparison: How are we doing relative to others? Are we ahead or falling behind?
This mindset doesn’t vanish when we graduate — it simply evolves. Suddenly, it's not test scores we're measuring, but portfolio returns. There’s a strange comfort in knowing our investment is doing better than a friend’s or a relative’s, as if life is a scoreboard and we're all playing the same game.
But what if we’re not?
What if all this comparison — this relentless benchmarking — is not only unhelpful, but completely misplaced when it comes to personal finance?
Even in school, over time, the system reveals a quiet truth: we all tend to get the results that match the effort and path we've chosen. And in the world of money, the same principle holds. But here’s the twist — chasing average returns over an above-average time frame is often the real key to wealth.
Morgan Housel, in his timeless clarity, captures this beautifully:
“All financial arguments are two people talking about money on two completely different time horizons.”
We rarely stop to consider that each person brings with them a different upbringing, a different tolerance for risk, and a different set of goals. So why compare?
To build a healthy relationship with money and investment, we must learn, unlearn, and re-learn — to accept that our financial journey is unique, to adjust our expectations, and to acclimatise to a more grounded philosophy: one that values patience over performance, alignment over ambition.
This blog isn’t about beating the market. It’s about better understanding yourself, your time horizon, and what truly matters in the long run.
I didn’t start with a perfect investment plan. In fact, my early days in ETFs were, let’s just say… chaos and experimental. Wanted to start, jumped in and I just did that.
I dabbled in trading and that too ETFs — trying to time the highs and lows, buying low and selling high. It sounded logical on paper, but in reality? The results weren’t pretty. I missed dividend payouts, got hit with unnecessary capital gains tax, and more importantly, created anxiety where there should’ve been calm. I clearly remember buying VAS for $74 and sold for $81 and only to re-enter at or around $87 based on the system I thought it’s set prime for entering and exiting.
That’s when I knew — if I was serious about building long-term wealth, I had to stop trying to outsmart the market and start working with it.
The Shift to Strategy
Eventually, I set a clear investment goal: to build an ETF portfolio that would someday contribute a significant share (about half) of our financial independence target. The rest would be taken care of by property income and other streams.
But for this to work, I had to treat this portfolio as a cornerstone, not a side hustle. I laid down three rules:
Keep the number of ETFs under five
Prioritise low-cost index funds MER <0.3%
Stay consistent — no matter what the headlines or a friend at a dinner table say
Where I Was vs. Where I Am
At first, my allocations seemed diversified. I had a mix of Australian, U.S., and global funds. But over time, I realised that nearly three-quarters of my exposure was concentrated in U.S. markets. It wasn’t intentional — it just happened because every time I had spare cash, I reflexively topped up my U.S. ETF.
That realisation prompted a deeper review.
By April 2025, I rebalanced my portfolio so it now looks like this:
Just over half is now in U.S. markets
A third is in global developed and emerging markets
A small percentage remains in Australian shares for dividend yields and familiarity
This adjustment helped reduce concentration risk and gave me better global exposure — something I had overlooked in my initial excitement.
A Consistent Allocation Plan
To stay on track, I adopted a simple but effective strategy when I get a surplus and or a bonus / tax returns:
Almost half of surplus funds go into ETFs (45%)
Almost half go towards repaying our home loan (45%)
The rest is guilt-free fun money (10% or there of)
This rule-of-thumb allocation balances my need for growth, debt reduction, and mental peace. It’s not rigid, but it’s reliable.
Apart from this - I do have a set amount goes into the ETFs every month - rain or shine.
The Why Behind It All: So why ETFs?
When you invest $100 into an ETF that tracks an index like the S&P 500, you’re not putting your money into just one company. Instead, that $100 gets split up and spread across all 500 companies in that index — like a slice of every major business in the U.S. The fund manager behind the ETF takes care of allocating your money based on the company’s weight in the index. So if Apple makes up 6% of the index, about $6 of your $100 gets invested there, and so on. Now, here’s the clever part: if one of those companies underperforms badly or even goes bust, it eventually drops out of the index — and a new, stronger company takes its place. When that happens, your investment is automatically adjusted. The ETF sells out of the failing company and reallocates that portion into the new one — all without you needing to log in, click a button, or even know it happened. It's like having an autopilot investment strategy that constantly keeps up with the best of the market.
Because they’re efficient, passive, and require less emotional bandwidth. They’ve helped me understand that wealth-building isn’t about chasing returns — it’s about letting time and discipline do the heavy lifting.
My aim is for this ETF portfolio to deliver meaningful, recurring income in the future — a cushion that doesn’t just supplement but supports our lifestyle and choices.
Key Lessons From the Journey
Trading is tempting, but costly: Chasing short-term gains made me miss out on long-term benefits like dividends and tax efficiency.
Diversification needs attention: Just having multiple ETFs isn’t enough. You have to understand what they actually represent.
Monthly investing is powerful: Regular, boring, automated investments have outperformed my smartest hot takes.
Review > React: Markets will always shake, but unless there’s a structural issue, don’t tinker. Review once in a while, adjust only if necessary.
The Mental Model That Changed Everything
What made this journey click for me wasn’t just returns — it was the peace of mind. Having a long-term plan and sticking to it freed up mental space for everything else in life. The portfolio isn’t just growing; it’s growing quietly in the background.
And that’s the real win.
If you’re still figuring out your investment path — just know that it’s okay to start messy. The trick is to stay curious, review regularly, and get clearer over time. Progress, not perfection. And do accept that chasing average returns over a longer period of time is perfectly okay.
Let your ETFs grow like a good old wine — slow, consistent, and worth the wait. The longer the wait - the more returns it produces.