Buying Shares and Building an ASX Share Portfolio from Scratch: One share at a time

I’m just going to buy one ASX stock a month

You see, I’ve had a revelation that I’m just going to buy one share a month. Not with a saved or inherited fortune, just with what I’ve saved in a month. I’m sick of frittering money, or ‘saving’ money just for it to be spent on something that seems entirely necessary at that moment. I actually want to plan for my future.

I’ve been meaning to invest in the share market for over a decade. I did buy shares once when I worked in financial PR back in my late 20s. Other than that, I have never had the courage to do it, but this is about to change. Seriously!

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My Share Buying Experience to date (Sirtex versus Sydney Airports)

At the time we did the first annual report for Sirtex and I foolishly didn’t buy it at 11 cents. Under the Radar Report recommended it first at $6.28 in 2013. I read our share research with interest having met the CEO back in the day and at $6.28 I just couldn’t stand the fact that I could have and should have bought it at 11 cents! As history will tell you, it became a share market darling and eventually got taken over a couple of years ago for over $33! I would have made more money than I did on Sydney property… hmmm.

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I’m not greedy though

To prove it, instead in my 20s I bought ASX share Sydney Airport (SYD) – as we were doing the prospectus, and I called my parents stock broker who advised against it not liking it because of all the fees Macquarie Bank charged. Against his advice I put in my $2,000 that I’d saved up and then you had to put in another $2,000 a few months later at listing. So I’ve invested a total of $4,000. I didn’t make the killing I would have made if I’d bought Sirtex, but I get about $380 twice a year in dividends, at some point I got about $1,000 back – I can’t remember why, and it’s gone from about $2.00 to $8.27 now. Given I’m getting useless interest, this looks like an amazing investment.

Spending Money on ‘stuff’

As an investment clearly Sirtex was the winner, but what it does show me, is that I’ve embarrassingly paid absolutely NO attention to my shares, but it also shows me that buying even one share has been better than having that $4,000 in the bank which if I’d been able to access it, it would have been spent long ago on heavens known what.

Or Buying a Share a month

Where would I be if every month, or once every few months, I’d scraped some pennies together, which let’s face it, I’m sure I could have done, and instead of frittering the money away on nothing, I had bought a parcel of shares? I’d be a lot better off than I am now!

You know where I’m going with this. Fast track 20 years (a few career changes, a lot of vodka, the love of my life, two children, starting a business, a lot of wine, a mortgage, I’m back to vodka except for gin with a splash of Campari and soda – slice of orange is my drink for summer ) and I’m looking at my super balance and thinking how on earth do I ever retire?

I don’t have lots of money to invest all at once, but what I do have is access to independent share research, and I have my brain. And so I’m going to start investing and build up a share portfolio one share at a time.

How much money should I invest in the share market?

This idea had been a revelation – that I don’t need to do it all at once. We get asked all the time, how much do I need to invest, and you read lots of articles about it, so I’ve got $100,000 to invest in the share market– which shares do I buy? Or I’ve got $50,000 blah blah, but what if you don’t have a brass razoo? Well – I’m going to do it just one share at a time…

How much should I invest in one share?

I can’t answer how much you should invest in one share, all I know is what I can do and what I can do each month. Because, yes, I’m going to buy one a month

And as we know, expenses come in lumps. Like the beginning of school term when you get hit with clarinet, trumpet, band, sport fees ballet lessons etc etc., and so some months are not and never will be as glamorous as others!

So, how much have you got to invest in the share market?

I think you can get a trade for $10 if it is under $1,000 in value, but I think I’m getting ahead of myself

What is it actually that I want to achieve? What is my investment plan?

I know from Under the Radar Report about the basic share portfolio set up: 50% in ASX Blue Chip Shares (I’m going for about 10 Blue Chip shares), 25-30% in Small Caps for growth (and I know I need to diversify and buy 7-10 small cap shares) and 20-25% in cash.

Click through to our Small Cap portfolio strategy to read about it all properly.

Buying ASX listed Blue Chip Shares

We all know that our super funds are invested in Blue Chip Shares – but I want to also invest directly in some Blue Chip shares. I can just buy a LIC like AFI, MLT or ARG which are all listed on the share market, or an ETF like Vanguard but I want to actually own the individual shares. I want to see the growth of individual companies. I also want some dividends for income. I know that I should reinvest dividends for compound growth, but I want the choice to be able to access the dividend now if I need to. As we know, life and its expenses can be bumpy (and sometimes I want a new dress rather than to pay a sensible electricity bill and quite frankly I’d like the little ‘bonus’.)

So one month I’m going to buy a blue chip share, and the next month I’m going to buy a small cap share.

This is totally my choice because we cover both Blue Chips and Small Caps and because like electricity and the dress, I want both!

But this month, (I’ve been thinking about this for a while and been squirrelling some money away secretly), I’m going to go on a bit of a spending spree and buy a blue chip share and a small cap share.


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Caroline Mark

Caroline Mark is the Founder and Publisher at Under the Radar Report, which provides independent ASX share research to help build investor’s share portfolio. Under the Radar Report is licensed to give general share financial advice only (ASFL: 409518). The author is not licensed to give personal financial advice and this commentary is for general information only.

Under the Radar Report is licensed to give general financial advice only (ASFL: 409518). The author does not own shares in any of the stocks mentioned.

Under the Radar Report is licensed to give general financial advice only (ASFL: 409518). The author does not own shares in any of the stocks mentioned.

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