Investor Profile: Dylan loves tatts, cats and doing better with his money
Dylan Sweetensen is a 29-year-old developer working for Hatch. He’s a Kapiti Coast local and creative at heart.
A bit about me
Well, the first thing you should know about me is that my favourite thing to eat is junk food. My perfect day would be waking up naturally sometime between 7 and 8am. After an hour or two at the gym, I’d like a couple of hours of productivity – cleaning, gardening or a personal project. Enter some junk food in there somewhere, then a relaxing beer, some video games, and a movie and dinner with my wife.
If you asked someone about me, they’d describe me as bearded, bald, and tattooed. Ha! Also, easygoing, creative, and cheerful. I’m known for being a great developer and my love of cats, but earlier on, it was for the bands I was in. I’m a metal singer. And no, I’m not kidding.
I’m not at all materialistic, but my most important things are the watch my parents gifted me for my 21st birthday, my wedding ring, guitar, laptop and phone. Oh, and my cats. I recently picked up the guitar again after a long break, and I’ve made it a goal to learn to play the album Nocturnal by The Black Dahlia Murder from start to finish by the end of 2020.
In my free time, you’ll find me playing video games, reading fantasy novels, playing guitar, watching horror movies, lifting weights, and cleaning. Yes, cleaning. My wife says I’m a real catch.
What is Hatch?
With Hatch, you can now buy and sell shares in over 2,900 companies & 500 exchange-traded funds, all listed on the US share markets. Invest dollar amounts to buy as much or as little of a company or ETF as you like, even if it’s a fraction of a share. Powered by Kiwi Wealth.
Start investing nowWhy I invest with Hatch
Well, full disclosure: I work in the Hatch team so I obviously believe in the platform that I’ve helped build and I want to use it to access the US markets, and to see it from a user’s perspective. This way I’m able to see where any issues are and tweak them to make the platform work better for our customers. In addition to my Hatch connection, I always have a nagging voice in my head that tells me I should do better with my money. So, I use Hatch to invest in order to safeguard my family’s future. I don’t want to have to work into my sunset years – do you? I think the investments I’m making through Hatch will set me up for the retirement that I want with my wife.
With my investment strategy, I aim to buy and hold but I’ll admit my emotions do get the better of me. I prefer ETFs to companies because they reduce my risk and, to be honest, I find it hard to find the time to do proper due diligence around an individual company. Instead, I can make a judgement on an industry. In my Hatch portfolio right now, I’ve got Beyond Meat (BYND) and Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), but my majority holding is in the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ). Beyond Meat is my biggest winner because I managed to get in on day one and hype has carried it a long way. Sadly, ETFMG is my biggest loser, but it’s taught me the best lesson: stay your hand. Don’t cut your losses because something’s in the red for a few months. For some shares, you’ve got to ride it out.