At 33, I Cleared Out Every Miscellaneous Holding: Life Truly Began When I Started Spending Like a Capitalist

Do not let "diversification" become your stumbling block. An astonishing awakening after clearing miscellaneous holdings and going all in on Nasdaq.

Why do your assets shrink the more diversified you become? From using credit loans to add to Nasdaq positions, here is the truth about investing.

Written at 1:32 a.m. on June 25, 2026:

First, I wish you good health, all the best, and peace and joy for your whole family.

I am your student. At the end of May this year, I accidentally came across your CLEC channel. The moment I watched the content, I felt deeply touched and awakened by a single sentence, exactly like what you describe in your lessons, as if I had been struck.

I know it is a rare kind of fate to encounter you and CLEC. Although I regret not learning about your channel earlier, over the past month or so, every time I review my past investing journey, I feel deeply grateful that I was fortunate enough to find you.

I am an ordinary teacher based in China. I grew up in a small coastal city, studied my way into a provincial capital government-school position, and now work in Nanning.

At first, my approach to money management was very conservative. I only held pure bond funds and money market funds. During the 2017 A-share bull market, I blindly followed online influencers into stock trading. I made a small profit at first, but after the bull market ended, I suffered heavy losses and lost 20,000 yuan of principal. At that time, I had just started working, and that loss was almost equal to my entire annual salary.

But that failure did not make me afraid of investing or give it up. Instead, it made me clearly realize that my financial knowledge was seriously insufficient.

From then on, I began reading all kinds of personal finance books more systematically. In 2018, I learned about the S&P 500 index from books and began investing 200 yuan every month. In 2020, I added regular investments into the Nasdaq index. That was the first time I truly experienced the return benefits of index investing. The S&P and Nasdaq funds I bought back then have now doubled.

After that, I continued adding to Nasdaq and S&P 500 index funds, and my overall return stabilized at around 50%. But over time, I gradually became dissatisfied with a single broad overseas index allocation. Through various finance books, I encountered asset allocation ideas and began adding bonds, gold, and commodity funds to diversify my holdings.

In August 2025, my total assets successfully exceeded 1 million yuan. That year, my annual investment returns exceeded 60,000 yuan for the first time, more than my entire annual living expenses. I do not have a mortgage, and a little over 50,000 yuan per year is enough to cover rent, meals, and commuting. I have always been very grateful for that.

Living in a region where economic development is relatively slow, I had no extra income channels. I relied entirely on years of frugality and saving. It took a full decade to accumulate 1 million yuan in assets.

At that time, I was full of confidence. At the end of 2025, I rashly broadened my global market allocation and successively added Japanese, Hong Kong, Indian, and other overseas regional indexes.

Only afterward did I suddenly realize that excessive diversification did not increase returns at all. Instead, it dragged down the overall performance of my holdings. My Hang Seng Index position had a floating loss as high as 25%. This serious mistake in judgment bothered me for a long time, until I met you and many of my doubts were finally resolved.

At the end of May, I first opened your Bilibili CLEC channel. After listening to the opening 2026 lesson in the 00695 series, "An Investment Lecture Worth One Billion Yuan," I became completely immersed in your sharing.

I then caught up on every annual opening investment lesson from the past several years. On the commute, between meals, while running and exercising, before sleep, whenever I had time, I repeatedly listened to your lessons and learned.

One week after finishing the lessons, while traveling with my boyfriend, I suddenly had a complete realization: Nasdaq was clearly the strongest profit engine among all my holdings, yet I had built a complicated, scattered portfolio on my own. Even more absurd, I thought I was avoiding risk by putting 300,000 yuan of my 1 million yuan total assets into bonds.

At that moment, I immediately made up my mind. I cleared out bonds, commodities, niche regional indexes from multiple countries, and all other miscellaneous holdings, and concentrated 90% of my funds into Nasdaq index funds.

After clearing those positions, I obtained a 300,000 yuan credit loan from the bank, with a 3% annual interest rate and a five-year term. The bank manager said the loan could be renewed at maturity. I also invested the full amount into 513100.

After the adjustment, the returns on my holdings not only offset the losses caused by the Hang Seng Index, but also let me truly experience the power of compound interest and long-term allocation to high-quality assets. I have many feelings about this.

Here I sincerely thank you for sharing professional and clear investing knowledge for free year after year, and for teaching without holding anything back.

I have always believed in Buffett's investing philosophy. In the past, I was always afraid of borrowing to invest and could not take that step. Now I only regret not encountering your lessons earlier and avoiding many detours.

Today I am writing mainly to humbly ask you two questions.

My current Nasdaq-related holdings have reached 1.24 million yuan. Am I suitable to apply for a second 300,000 yuan credit loan and continue adding to 513100?

I have struggled with this for a long time. I have discussed it repeatedly with my boyfriend, and I have used AI tools many times to calculate risks and returns. All of them suggest postponing additional borrowing. But I still feel uncertain, so I am writing to ask for your professional guidance.

I am in my 30s, and my boyfriend is in his 20s. Together, our monthly after-tax income is around 20,000 yuan. There may be some year-end performance bonuses, but they are not guaranteed, so I calculate based on the average monthly income.

The monthly payment on the first 300,000 yuan loan is less than 1,000 yuan. Even if I add a second 300,000 yuan credit loan, the monthly interest expense is completely within what we can afford.

My only concern is extreme market risk. As you have mentioned, if the market falls 80% and stays depressed for as long as ten years, how should we respond?

Or should I patiently wait for a clear market pullback before borrowing the second sum to add to Nasdaq?

Writing this, I also understand that the core issue ultimately depends on my true risk tolerance. I also know that you believe if monthly income can cover the interest, then borrowing is acceptable.

But like you, I plan to retire voluntarily around age 40 and live a different kind of life, so I worry a little that this may be too aggressive. But please rest assured: my parents have more than 10,000 yuan in pension income, so I only need to think carefully about myself first. I am also planning my own self-media career so that I will have something to do after retirement.

When I first cleared out miscellaneous assets and received the converted cash plus the first loan, a total of 500,000 yuan, I also hesitated about whether to enter in batches or buy all at once.

After repeatedly reviewing your lessons and hearing your view that "if you have money, buy; there is no need to time the market and wait," I became firm in buying all at once. I keep telling myself that even if the market pulls back later, it is simply my entry cost for long-term Nasdaq holding.

There is one more small question I would like to ask: Can I now be considered a qualified "capitalist"? Have I reached the stage where I should learn how to spend money? Haha.

In the early years, to save my first 1 million yuan of principal, I lived extremely frugally and was reluctant to spend on myself, my family, or my partner.

After listening to your lessons, my mindset slowly changed. I became willing to take family members and my partner out for meals, buy things, and go on short weekend trips. But occasionally, I still feel uneasy, worried that this kind of spending may be too extravagant.

Without realizing it, I have written such a long note from the heart. Thank you for spending your precious time reading it patiently. I am deeply grateful and look forward to your guidance and reply.

I wish you strong health, smooth teaching, peace and health year after year, and a comfortable and carefree later life.

James's Reply

I am very glad to read your letter and your sharing. Your investment journey has not been smooth from the first battle to the end, but you are already much better than many people, because you are willing to learn and think critically.

Do not casually believe the advice of AI or ordinary people, especially investment advice. Most institutions and investors, 99.99999% of them, are failures. AI learns from the information provided by these failed institutions and investors, so AI's advice will not make you profit.

If you can borrow money, borrow it and invest immediately. Do not hesitate when investing. Act immediately.

Just make sure you have good risk control.

The following two articles are for your reference. They can help you understand cash-position risk control and why, after completing retirement asset planning, you should be brave about spending money.

Post 0009: The Asset Allocation That Truly Resists Risk Is Not About How Much Cash You Hold, but Whether Your Cash Flow Can Survive the Worst 15 Years

Your free cash flow should be able to survive the market's harshest test.

Try thinking about the following extreme scenario:

Your house is damaged by a natural disaster and you must rent another place to live; your mortgage still has to be paid; the stock market crashes sharply and nearly goes to zero; your original loan payments cannot stop; you suddenly lose your job; you are unfortunately diagnosed with a serious illness; and even your stock-collateral loan limit is tightened, so you can no longer borrow funds.

If all of these risks happen at the same time, will you still have enough cash flow to maintain your life?

If you are still working, the main purpose of cash is as an emergency reserve. You need to evaluate how long it usually takes you to find another job after losing one. The living expenses needed before you find a new job are the cash position you should reserve, ensuring that you can survive the most difficult cash-flow period.

If you are already retired, the situation is completely different.

After retirement, there is no employment income. Therefore, starting from a market high, you must ensure that the cash flow generated by your asset allocation can support at least 15 years of living expenses.

Please note: this does not mean preparing 15 years of cash. It means having cash flow that can support 15 years of living needs.

For retirees whose assets are sufficient at 50 times annual expenses, use an 80/20 asset allocation and withdraw 2% per year.

You have 15 years of cash, and the cash flow can last forever.

For retirees whose assets are sufficient at 33 times annual expenses, use a 70/30 asset allocation and withdraw 3% per year. In this example, the cash position on paper may only be equal to around 10 years of living expenses, but the cash flow can last forever.

For retirees whose assets are below 33 times annual expenses, they should combine with a high-dividend asset allocation. For retirement assets with insufficient principal, cash flow mainly comes from continuously paid dividend income. Therefore, "15 years of cash flow" comes from dividends, not from withdrawals from a high-asset allocation. These are completely different concepts.

The asset allocation that truly resists risk is not about how much cash you have. It is whether, in the hardest moments, you still have continuous cash flow.

Post 0016: Stop Sacrificing Your Life Just to Save $1,000 a Month. After Doing the Math, I Realized How Foolish I Was

For the following three monthly contribution amounts, one is investing $3,000 per month, one is investing $2,500 per month, and one is investing $2,000 per month.

If you already have $200,000:

• Investing $3,000 per month can reach $1,000,000 in about 7 years and 3 months. See the reference chart.
• Investing $2,500 per month can reach $1,000,000 in about 7 years and 6 months. See the reference chart.
• Investing $2,000 per month can reach $1,000,000 in about 8 years and 3 months. See the reference chart.

So when you have already arranged your monthly investing, do not make your present life too tight. The extra money you invest each month actually has little effect on early retirement in the future.

The key is to use a calculator to simulate based on your own situation. Do not make your life overly constrained only for future retirement. What you sacrifice now will eventually become extra garbage.

That is why taking out a credit loan of $200,000, $500,000, or $1,000,000 is more important for future investment assets than whether your monthly contribution is $500 more or $500 less.