My Simple Long-Term Stock Allocation
Key Points
- The speaker explains their personal stock allocation — ~70% of monthly savings to VU (a total‑market fund), ~10% to QQQ (NASDAQ‑100), and the remaining 20% split into 5% slices of long‑term holds like Apple and Microsoft.
- They repeatedly stress that this is **not** financial advice but a personal example used to discuss the broader concept of risk, which they consider a universal concern for anyone in tech regardless of investment size.
- Because their tech career, family responsibilities, and limited mental bandwidth leave little time for active research, they deliberately choose the “boring” strategy of diversified index funds rather than active trading or speculative moves.
- The talk challenges the notion that tech expertise provides quick shortcuts to mastering finance, emphasizing that financial fundamentals and risk management have changed little since the 1500s and require a long‑term, disciplined approach.
Full Transcript
# My Simple Long-Term Stock Allocation **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8itRVojO84c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8itRVojO84c) **Duration:** 00:07:28 ## Summary - The speaker explains their personal stock allocation — ~70% of monthly savings to VU (a total‑market fund), ~10% to QQQ (NASDAQ‑100), and the remaining 20% split into 5% slices of long‑term holds like Apple and Microsoft. - They repeatedly stress that this is **not** financial advice but a personal example used to discuss the broader concept of risk, which they consider a universal concern for anyone in tech regardless of investment size. - Because their tech career, family responsibilities, and limited mental bandwidth leave little time for active research, they deliberately choose the “boring” strategy of diversified index funds rather than active trading or speculative moves. - The talk challenges the notion that tech expertise provides quick shortcuts to mastering finance, emphasizing that financial fundamentals and risk management have changed little since the 1500s and require a long‑term, disciplined approach. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8itRVojO84c&t=0s) **Simple Stock Allocation Strategy** - The speaker outlines a personal, low‑risk investment plan—70% S&P 500 ETF, 10% QQQ, and the rest split in 5% portions among long‑term tech giants like Apple and Microsoft—while stressing that it’s not financial advice but a discussion on risk. ## Full Transcript
all right thanks to a long-standing
request I am actually going to answer a
question that I did not think I was
going to answer for a long time I going
to tell you guys how I allocate my
stocks in other words when I have cash
where do I put it what stocks do I buy
not because this is financial advice I
underline that three times please
underline it in red pen if you're taking
notes that's not what this is for it's
used as a v I'm telling you this is a
vehicle to talk about risk because I
think we in Tech misunderstand risk for
some pretty basic reasons and it's
important for our careers regardless of
the investment piece I don't care if you
have 10 bucks to invest or 100 bucks or
a th000 bucks or a million bucks the
risk piece is
relevant so let's get what I would
consider the boring stuff out of the way
first this is how I invest I invest
as a ordinary monthly investment trunch
70% of the amount I can set aside into
Vu 10% into
QQQ and the remaining in 5% increments
into a couple of stocks that I think I
would be willing to hold for the next 20
or 30 years stocks like apple or
Microsoft and that's it there's nothing
else fancier
here the whole thing is just mostly buy
index
funds and I say that and not even in
Tech like yes I know Vu is exposed to
Tech because the S&P 500 is exposed to
Tech so I get it
but
fundamentally it is the most boring
choice I can make or think about making
pretty much for investment and that was
important to me and it's important
important to me because my life is
exciting in so many other ways I have
kids that are growing I have a family I
also have a Tech Career that is very
demanding full-time job totally focused
on making sure that I am able to deliver
for my company my team make the products
go that I need to go uh from a launch
perspective and at the end of the day
that does not leave me with a lot of
spare brain power I don't have a lot of
time to research yes I have been a
certified tier 2 options Trader yes I've
done day trading yes I've had some wins
that is not a sustainable strategy for
me and I say that not because I think
it's something nobody should do but I do
want to challenge the assumption that
I've seen some people bring in Tech that
you can hack your way to any kind of
literacy quickly even in a subject like
Finance Finance is not particularly sub
subject to the kind of shortcuts that
have enabled software to apply so much
leverage against problems and that have
given a lot of us the opportunities for
careers we wouldn't have
otherwise it just isn't at the end of
the day Finance the fundamental roles of
how you create value and track value and
understand currency hasn't really
changed since about the
1500s there were speculative bubbles
back in the 1600s the south sea bubble
you can look it up the Tulip bubble I'm
digressing the point is when I think
about finances I think about being
boring because I think about the
longterm I think about drisking myself
for the long term and that is much more
important to me than a particular
short-term opportunity or missing out on
a potential big upside that has a lot of
risk to it has a lot of volatility to it
and might not be here
tomorrow I would much rather be boring
because my goals are too
important and so I guess I want to ask
you not what advice you would give me
but what advice you would give your
future self if you're coming to your
future self in 20 or 30 years and you're
trying to give them advice on where they
would want to be in life what would you
say just take a minute you want to think
about where that person is going to be
your future self you want to think about
what they will be doing what they will
be needing whether they will still be
working and I say that not to be morbid
but to ask you to consider
where you assess your risk in your life
and to think more deliberately about the
possibility that you might be
overconfident most of the people I know
take this idea of confidence and
leverage that we have to have in
software and we tend to over apply it
I've done this too we tend to over apply
it and we tend to think we know more
than we actually do about a whole lot of
other subjects
and I am really really careful now I've
been burned a few times I'm really
really careful not to assume I know more
than I really do about Finance I would
much rather be boring and perhaps miss
out on the optimal stock run but know
that I made a decision that is going to
stick around for the next 20 or 30 years
and I can be consistent with because at
the end of the day it's not really a
game for me it's life I need to get it
right so all of that being said my
challenge to you is to ask yourself
today how am I assessing risk how am I
understanding risk is risk something
that I feel good about measuring and
assessing would people describe me as
overconfident do I really understand
what I'm doing when I get the money I'm
so desperately looking for in Tech
because to be honest that money doesn't
come along very often I've had options
go to zero on
me I assume Equity is worth paper until
proven
otherwise it is much much more useful to
think
of the worst case scenario and plan for
it than it is to be
hopeful and plan for that and find out
you were
wrong the startup might not be worth
that much founding might not work out
founding is a tremendous concentration
of risk I've done it and so none of this
is to discourage you if you want to
found you're going to found I believe me
I know I've been a Founder um
but you need to understand that risk
doesn't go away just because you believe
in
yourself I love self-confidence we need
to have it I've said that several times
in this video but we need to have just
just enough pessimism just enough
cynicism to recognize when we don't know
things and I think Finance is a great
spot for that and that's why when I
decided I would finally answer this
question of hey Nate what stocks you
know do you buy I was like you know what
fine I will tell you how I allocate and
then we're going to talk about risk
because I think there's this assumption
that there's this magic ingredient in
the stock market that brings wealth and
the magic ingredient is inside you and
its consistency that's it