The Cey and Ben Show

In this episode of the Cey and Ben show, we talk about how pervious market crashes such as tulip mania and the dot com bubble can be relevant to today's investing world.

Investing as it is comes with lots of “fluff” and confusing terminology. But even more so we are dealing with what investors call noise.

Noise is where the market has loads of information going out all the time. We believe it’s relevant to today as more and more IPOs, SPACs and other investments such as Crypto or NFTs are pushed.

"Ben had problems with pronouncing fungible"

We give our take on this experience and what we are doing to combat this noise and stick to our plans.

In this episode of the Cey and Ben show, we talk about how and why we got started with investing. One of the biggest hurdles when it comes to investing is just getting started. We both didn't start with a lot of money, when we both dipped our toes into the market. We focused on investing capital instead of the compounding affect of the stock market.

The stock market isn't a boys only club nor do you need to have lots of money. We hope that sharing our story of how we started investing you'll get to know us more and the reasons we invest.

In this episode of the Cey and Ben show, we talk about financial independence, early retirement (F.I.R.E)

We both love F.I.R.E, not quite pyromaniacs but we do want that financial independence.

F.I.R.E isn't just about quitting that job for good, it could be achieving “barrista fire” and going part time or even having your investments help pay parts of your bills.

There are many way to achieve this and it can be done by using dividends created by your investments or the classic safe withdrawal rate (SWR) which is normally thought to be between 3-4%.

The F.I.R.E movement really took off in the US with Mr Money Mustache and his blog. Since then his message has spread around the world and people realise that their lives are more than a 9-5 job.

In this episode of the Cey and Ben show, we talk about bonds.

No not James Bond, we talk about government bonds, corporate bonds & bond ETFs.

Bonds can be part of your portfolio if you have a lower risk tolerance and a more conservative instrument.

Some of the things to look out for is the bond rating, anything from AAA rated to BBB rated is classed as investment and bellow BBB is junk bonds. These ratings relatesto how likely or unlikely a government or company will default on their issued bonds.

We talk about an inverted yield curve and what it means and why the investment world gets nervous about that.

In this episode of the Cey and Ben show, we talk about the choices of investing, the good and the bad.

When we look at our choices and especially when we log into our brokers, things can sometimes be overwhelming, with so many options. We get offered stocks, REITs, ETFs and many other instruments. It can take time to sort through all of them and you might feel overwhelmed, not knowing where to start.

Sometimes it can be great to just keep it simple like having a KISS pie (Keep It Simple Stupid) which holds a few different ETFs. We use examples, such as a stock market dip and we try to work out the best way to invest and average down without missing opportunities.

Is there are magic number about how many position you should have in your portfolio? We explore that and much more in this episode.

In this episode of the Cey and Ben show, we talk about FAANG stocks also known as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google. Originally named by Jim Cramer. In 2013 it used to be FANG but then in 2017 Apple was added to the list.

FAANG is an acronym for some of the largest and best performing US stocks which are juggernauts in their niche fields of tech. We call them juggernauts as, as of August 13th 2020 the total market cap of these five companies was nearly $5.8 trillion.

You will find most of these FAANG stocks being in the top 10 of the S&P 500. With these stocks representing roughly 16.2% of the total S&P500. Apple alone has a weighting of 6%.

You will find most of us either directly or indirectly invest into FAANG stocks. It could be through the individual stocks themselves, the S&P500 index tracker or even an all world index.

FAANG stocks have had an amazing run up and outperformed many of their peers and some even draw parallels to the DOT COM Bubble and the resulting crash in 2000. Can we make this comparison?

We explore the world of FAANG and beyond.

Investing during stock market crashes and during “All Time Highs” can be difficult. In this episode we talk about investing during market dips, stock market crashes, but also during “All Time Highs”.

As a long term investor, we can utilise a cash holding strategy, which can enable you to take advantage of “dips” in the market and give you that extra step of protection. At the same time, during “All Time Highs” its good to average in and be a consistent investor.

During crashes and corrections, it might be beneficial for your anxiety to zoom out on the 5 - 10 year price chart. As a long term investor, this can help you to understand that a 5% dip is rather insignificant over the long term.

We give you an overview of some “DOS AND DON'TS” to help you keep a cool head during difficult and confusing times.

In this episode of The Cey and Ben Show, we explore exchange traded funds (ETFs).

We talk about the history of the ETF market and touch on the first Spider ETF (SPDR) and Jack Bogle who is credited to making index funds and ETFs for the every day person.

Today there is a wide range of ETFs that track almost anything from “sin” stocks, such as the Vice ETF to companies that work towards positive environmental, social and governance outcomes (ESG), such as the ishares global clean energy ETF.

We also talk about the recent comments from the famous Micheal Burry (the man who shorted the market back in 2008 and predicted the housing bubble) that there could be a potential ETF bubble.

ETFs are a great way to invest in specific sectors, markets or even the whole world. But you have to remember that each type of investment comes with their own risks and potential downsides.

In this episode we talk about fees which you may pay on your investing journey.

A great way to think about fees is to think about paying for a service. Some fees are avoidable and others are often a necessity of today’s investing world which you can’t fully avoid.

You will find some brokers charge a platform fee which is for their service and you normally find this with premium brokers. Some platforms charge you a % or a fixed $ amount per trade. These kind of fees can affect your returns and impact your style of investing. Commission free brokers may not charge a trading fee but can very much affect your investing style.

You may find sometimes so called “hidden fees”, such as FX rates (foreign exchange (currency)) or spreads (difference between buy and sell price). You may run into other fees, such as withholding tax on foreign investments or stamp duty fees.

We don't like fees as investors, but it is important that everyone works out for themselves which fees are worth paying for your investing style and own investing journey.

In this episode, we talk about investing styles such as growth investing, dividend investing and investing through ETFs.

We discuss how each investing style has their own benefits and possible disadvantages.

Whether you are young and you have a long investment horizon, or you are possibly looking to retire and in need of an income. We break these three styles of investing down for you.

Growth investing usually carries a higher risk for the investors, as companies are often young, with the goal to become a strong player in innovative areas, such as e-commerce or autonomous driving.If those companies turn out to be succesful, this can lead to high returns for their investors.

Dividend investing is often seen as the all time favourite for many investors. Traditionally this style of investing is associated with investors who are in their retirement, but we also see younger investors here who chase a regular cashflow in their portfolio.

Last but not least, we briefly explore ETFs which are a great way to get exposure to growth and dividend stocks and can be an effective way to get started.