Interview with famous investors! The driving force behind achieving FIRE! The “continuing power” of investing in US stocks

points
・How I started investing and why I moved to US stocks
・The reason for FIRE and what is important in aiming for FIRE
・The most important point in investing

Ponchiyo's Profile
・A popular YouTuber with over 400,000 subscribers who is an individual investor in his 20s
・I started investing as soon as I became a member of society, and while working for a company, I also tried side jobs such as blogging and YouTube
・The target asset of 70 million yen was achieved, and FIRE was realized in 2022/3

Ponchiyo:The reason I started investing was that while eating yakiniku with a close friend I was in college with, I was vaguely wondering, “I wonder if money will increase without permission.” That friend has been doing stocks and mutual funds since college, and was recommended, “I wish you could start investing too.”

At the time, I had the image that “investing a little bit seems dangerous,” but my very close friend told me about investing for about 1 hour and a half during the meal, so I thought, “Even though I've been taught this far, it's really bad not to invest,” so I ateI applied for an account on the same day。

Ponchiyo:I started investing about 2 weeks after I applied to open an account. I studied a lot until I was able to start trading, but looking back now, I think it felt like I actually bought stocks and then studied more seriously.

At first, Toyota Motor Corporation, etc., for nowI bought multiple stocks of Japanese companies I've heard of. At that time, it was beginner's luck, and in addition to receiving dividends, there was also an unrealized profit. As a result, it became like “let's do our best to invest,” and I became addicted to investing.Even though the market price was just good at that time, I misunderstood that it was my ability in a good sense, and I was bewitchedThat was a feeling.

Ponchiyo:At that time, I had savings of about 2 million yen, but I immediately invested the entire amount, and once my monthly salary came in, I immediately invested all of that money. It felt like cutting down living expenses and investing all of the living expenses of 50,000 yen and the remaining 150,000 yen.

We were in such a state of “full investment” for the first six months or so, but we also experienced a falling market. At that time”It's no good to switch all of them to stocksLearn about “what is it,” hold part of it in cash, etc.Position management is now practiced。

Ponchiyo:While investing only in Japanese stocks,Test various investment methods such as short-term trading in order to raise profitsIt's now ready. There were times when stocks were bought and sold in 1 day, and I also made many investments such as swing trading where people buy on Monday and sell on Friday.

However, as I learned about stock investment, I began to think that investing in high-dividend stocks in the US would be interesting. At that time, US stocks weren't as popular as they are now. In the first place, I didn't really know how to buy US stocks, but Coca Cola etcI decided to start investing in US stocks by saying “let's just buy” stocks whose names I knowThat's it.

Investments in US stocks were centered around individual stocks. Of course, investments in index-linked ETFs were also carried out within the framework of Tsumitate NISA, but funds outside the framework of Tsumitate NISA were diverted to individual high-dividend stocks.Investing in US stocks paid off better than investing in Japanese stocksSo, about a year and a half after we started investing in stocks, US stocks became the main focus.

As another investment, I tried FX once, but soon I stopped. As for real estate investment, I decided that I should buy a REIT. I have invested a small amount in virtual currency (crypto assets), but I'm not thinking of buying or selling it, and I'm just holding it and making a profit.

Ponchiyo:Is it hard to fail even if you buy US stocks without knowingI think that's the biggest advantage. American stocks that most investors in Japan know are really the main stocks, and there are many companies that are active in an extremely large world. In that sense, I think there are many cases where you don't fail even if you buy poorly.

On the other hand, Japanese stocks have come to know various companies in my daily life. Probably because of that, even if it is a company whose financial condition is poor and future growth cannot be expected,I don't know that company well, so it's easy to make a mistake and buy itI think so.

Also, even if you look at it purely as an index, the US market tends to have a larger increase, so I think US stocks are an investment that is less likely to fail.

Ponchiyo:Advantages of being able to trade 24 hours a dayIt's big, isn't it? When entering for a short period of time, there are many leveraged products, and I am conscious of earning money at the speed of the second and running away at the speed of the second. So, I think it's very good that Moomoo Securities's 24-hour trading can be run away at any time.

There are various other advantages to the moomoo app, but for me personally what is the biggest advantageThere is plenty of content explaining financial resultsI think so. It is posted on the moomoo community site,The chart explaining the financial results is very easy to read and understand. So, not only do I use it myself, but I also use it a lot on YouTube. The design of the page is easy to read and understand, and the structure is investor-friendly, and the information necessary when making investment decisions is clearly included. In particular, investors appreciate that it is posted how much the financial results have exceeded earnings forecasts.

Moreover, since Moomoo Securities explains it in Japanese,The “language barrier” when investing in US stocks will completely disappearI think that's a big deal. Live streaming of financial results briefings is also used, but it comes with Japanese translation subtitles, so it's easy to use. The financial statements themselves can be easily read by using Google Translate, etc.

Once the language barrier has been cleared, the question is how to select companies to invest in. To that end, I use the screening function of the moomoo app. What I like to look at among technical indicators is RSI (Relative Strength Index: index indicating oversold and overbought).When screening, search for an RSI of 20% or lessI'll do it. 30% or less is fine, but personally I screen at 20% or less. Other than that,Operating profit margins and dividend yields are subject to screeningIt's set to, but it's also easy to check this kind of data.

Ponchiyo:I left the company I worked for in 2022/3.

The reason I left the company was that I left the company because I was busy living a two-legged life as a YouTuber and an office worker, and I was unable to live a healthy and cultural minimum. My main job as an office worker was 160 hours, 20 days x 8 hours per month, and my YouTube job was about 100 hours per month. Furthermore, when books were published, it was such hard work that I didn't have time to sleep.

In the first place,The reason I started a side job such as blogging and YouTube was to invest. Even if you invest to increase money, the investment itself cannot be made without money first, so I thought about increasing my income and gaining the ability to earn moneyIt's from there. Before I started blogging and YouTube, there was a time when I was doing business. However, by reaching the target asset of 70 million yen, the way of thinking about the investment itself, which was initially considered, of investing to increase money also changed.

Ponchiyo:As is the case with both investments and side jobs, there are a lot of people who quit halfway through. But it's important to keep going.Even if it's an investment, if you hold it for 1 more month, you'll stop because you're worried that tremendous profits will come out. I think continuity is probably very important when it comes to investments and side jobs. It's painful for people to keep doing things they take for granted. So I think it's important to have the courage to keep going.

Ponchiyo:It's important to make investments that suit your goalsI think so. The only purpose of my initial investment was “I want to increase my money.” Now that the main purpose is to want stable income, so basically I try to buy stocks that have high dividends or are more defensive.

Depending on your investment stage, you should also change your investment destination and investment methodI think so.