Joschka Birkigt came to the stock market through a board game. Getty Images/Yuichiro Chino
A board game sparked his interest in the stock market ten years ago. Today Joschka Birkigt’s portfolio is worth almost 700,000 euros.
At the beginning, the 31-year-old financial advisor primarily bet on one stock – Advanced Micro Devices, a company in the semiconductor industry.
Two mice are sitting in a bright yellow sports car. Mr. Mouse smiles proudly. Mrs. Mouse lets her red hair blow in the wind. This comic scene adorns the packaging of “Cashflow”. This is a parlor game about investing that introduced Joschka Birkigt to stocks about ten years ago. The 31-year-old calls it “a happy coincidence.” Because today finance is not just his job, he has built up a portfolio worth almost 700,000 euros through investments on the stock market (Business Insider got a look at his portfolio).
It was 2014 when Joschka Birkigt moved to Leipzig. He met other newcomers through a Facebook group and arranged to meet them for a game evening. There, he says, the young man traded stocks for the first time and was quite successful. From that evening on, he focused intensively on the stock market – “both during my second training as a financial advisor and privately. In 2015, almost a year later, I made my first stock investment,” he says.
This company piqued his interest
Joschka Birkigt spent the year primarily on a needs analysis. He “thought about what our civil society will need most in the next 30 years. “I have come to the conclusion that computing power will increase significantly through the use of cell phones, laptops, televisions, etc.,” reports the Leipziger. So he started looking into semiconductor manufacturers.
He ultimately invested in Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the fall of 2015. “I decided back then to invest almost all of my savings in AMD shares. When I bought the stock, AMD was on the verge of bankruptcy,” says the 31-year-old. The chart didn’t convince him; only the beginnings of the new ones did Managing Director Lisa Su done. He makes no secret of the fact that he took an unnecessarily high risk back then. His investment was “such a bad example of diversification.”
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The share is now worth more than 400,000 euros and Joschka Birkigt is a self-employed financial advisor. He says: “The investment was a bet with myself that ultimately paid off for me.” When he bought it, he planned to hold the stock for ten years. At times it was difficult for him, but now he’s fine with it. The investment is a good example of the strategy he is pursuing today. The 31-year-old has defined five criteria according to which he buys shares. He tells us his rules and gives us an insight into his depot.
1. Stick to the grandma principle
Joschka Birkigt says it is essential to know which companies to include in your portfolio. He calls this approach the grandma principle. “You should be able to explain a company’s business model to your grandma in two minutes,” he explains.
2. Stay away from hype and trends
For his portfolio, the 31-year-old looks for “high-quality companies instead of trying to find the next big hype.” He carefully considers the market, the history of the company, planned developments, sales and customers. “If I have all the necessary information and the stock appears to be of high quality, I often invest a large amount at once,” he says.