Investor Stories: Josh Storey

Born and bred in the mighty Waikato, Josh and his partner Bayley have their sights firmly set on owning a Dairy farm. From the look of things, they are well on the way to achieving that dream. When he’s not in the milking shed or driving tractors on the farm, you’ll find Josh on the water trying to snag a fish or blasting around some of the local trails on his bike! We reckon he’s ‘a pig in mud’!

We talked to Josh about his investment journey so far and the lessons he has learned along the way, plus his plans for the future.

Although younger than most, Josh’s investment journey began like many others. A few hundred dollars in one company via a share broker. He was 15 at the time and as luck would have it, his chosen stock (company not animal) went gangbusters…well for a few years anyway. “I thought I was the next Warren Buffet,” he said. Looking back, Josh acknowledges it was probably more about luck and less about his crash-hot stock-picking ability. Still, it’s hard not to high-five yourself when you’re young and on a roll.

It was when Josh had finished studying and was working full time that he had his first ‘Ahaaa moment’. ‘I had a regular income and figured out that I didn’t need to spend it all,’ he said! For the first time ever, there was money left over at end of the week. Having always been interested in the share market, Josh began reading books and blogs about financial independence, including one of Kernel’s favourites, ‘The Richest Man in Babylon'.

This got him thinking about ‘why’ he wanted to invest and ‘how’ he was going to get there. For Josh and Bayley, the ‘why’ was simple. It was to achieve their dream of owning a dairy farm. Admittedly dairy farms aren’t cheap so having a plan, along with a good understanding of finance and investing was going to be key to achieving the lifestyle they dreamed of.

‘Josh understood it was time in the market not timing the market that mattered most and that having his money with a low-cost index fund provider (such as Kernel) would allow him to achieve his goal whilst continuing to focus on the things he enjoyed – like fishing and farming!

Describing himself as a lazy investor Josh doesn’t care too much for day-to-day price fluctuations preferring to check his portfolio once a month. ‘As long as the auto-invest is set up and working it’s magic I don’t have to worry too much about my shares’ says Josh. Sounds like a great set-and-forget-strategy to us.

When it came to deciding on an investment platform, low fees were definitely a factor. In fact, the day he looked into Kernel was the day his previous provider changed their fee structure, making it more costly to hold index funds. Josh adds that he also likes the fact that you can get started with very little – allowing investors to get familiar with investing and learn along the way.

His strategy is simple. ‘And farmers like simple’ he tells us. It includes a three-fund diversified portfolio approach made up of the Kernel Global 100, NZ 20, and Small & Mid-Cap Opportunities funds with a 70/20/10 split respectively.

In addition to his Kernel funds, Josh has also dipped his toe into the property market and going forward is keen to add livestock to the mix. As he says, livestock is the only asset that reproduces. With a good spread of investments across a range of different asset classes, Josh is spreading his risk and insulating himself from a fall in any one area affecting his whole portfolio. A good diversified approach.

Just get started! As a young investor, it’s hard to wrap your head around 5, 10, and even 20-year time frames – which in your 20s seem a lifetime away. But if you give it a go most platforms have a very low minimum amount that you need to start with. So you can start small and make the most of compounding returns which accumulate to be something significant over the long term.