Net worth - $124,000 (+0%)

My first net worth update is for June 30, 2011. I considered doing a full breakout as Brian does on his 2millionblog however I confess I am a little more shy about sharing the full breakout of my portfolio.

Maybe in time I will disclose the same level of information that he does however for now I'm going to keep it pretty simple. The data below is all rounded to the nearest 1000.

Assets: $478,000

Liabilities: $354,000

Net worth: $124,000

Increase required to $90m goal: 89,876,000

How much money is enough?

Obviously this blog has my target of $50 million in 2011 dollars ($90 million at 2031) and after that point I'm free to do whatever I like (which will probably involve lying on a beach in some sunny climate)

I asked around my office (which, as a BB investment bank is probably not representative of the general population) and the general consensus was $5 million - $15 million as walk away money (though note that typically the younger the person asked the higher the number)

However after reading the attached post on Wall Street Oasis and couldn't help but wonder how many people who reached their target number would actually retire to enjoy it.

http://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/john-paulson-a-one-hit-wonder-or-a-hedge-fund-god

Maybe once you start making the money it is too tempting to stop?

Emotional investing - it couldn't happen to me!

I bought a stock on Friday for several reasons

1. I though it was cheap;
2. I think it has a near term catalyst to realise value; and
3. The timing of that catalyst is relatively certain (2 - 3 months)

While I know the stock price isn't going to do a whole lot between now and then and I've set up various news alerts to let me know if anything happens - I can't help but check the stock price several times a day.

I realise that this doesn't make sense and I should leave it well enough alone but for some reason I'm getting worked up as the share price continues to fall (down 5% in 2 days of trading since I bought in). I suspect it's because I invested in this stock using a strategy that I haven't used before and put a fair amount of my liquid capital behind it.

I have never before subscribed to the idea of 'market emotions' but seeing my irrationality over the last two days I may be forced to rethink what other irrational emotions move markets...

Investor Book Review - The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

One of the ways I am developing to make money in the longer term is through my website Investor Book Review which aims to provide unbiased and educated feedback on finance, investment and business books.

The reviews are free although the site is add supported (though I have tried to make these as unobtrusive as possible) and there are links to amazon, book depository and fishpond which earn a small commission on every sale.

See my latest review of the value investing classic The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham

The Beginning

Today marks the official beginning of the blog to track my journey to $90 million dollars in 2031.

If you're wondering why $90 million: I started off with the number I'd be willing to retire with today and never work again (as I'm in my mid 20s it has to be pretty high) and I settled on $50 million. I also set a super aggressive target to achieve this in 20 years - inflation adjusted (3% p.a.) that comes to $90m which is my target.