Investor Profile: Tom Botica shows you how to invest on Youtube

24-year-old Thomas Botica, AKA Tom, lives in Hamilton and works as a Business Development Manager at an Ag Tech business called FARMAX and makes helpful investing videos on the side.

A bit about me

When I’m not working, I’m making YouTube videos on investing – you can find me at youtube.com/investingwithtom. During my downtime, you’ll find me fishing with my friends. I’m naturally competitive by nature and am always trying to push myself, which is why I train and compete in Powerlifting. 

I admire a lot of people, but investing-wise, it’s hard to go past Warren Buffett. He’s the greatest of all time. He's made a life out of doing what he loves but also makes positive changes to the world by donating world record amounts of money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. My personal goal is to be like Buffett by helping others – that’s why I make my investing videos. I want to post at least 52 investing and personal finance-related videos this year. Wish me luck.

Why I invest with Hatch

As much as I enjoy what I do, I don’t want to have to work forever! The formula for getting ahead financially is pretty simple: save a high % of your income and stick that money in a compounding engine.  Repeat this over a long enough period. For me, the share market is the compounding engine that works best for me.

America has far more investment opportunities than New Zealand, so it’s great to be able to get exposure to that part of the world. Hatch is my platform of choice to do that because it has lower fees and better customer support than the alternatives. It also comes with other perks like the ease of tax reporting and having spare cash automatically put into money market funds. These benefits add up over time.

How I invest

Right now in my Hatch portfolio, I’m relatively concentrated in a small number of businesses that I see as being undervalued. They’re in the automotive (not Tesla though!) and steel industries, which doesn’t sound particularly exciting, but the risk-reward profiles look very good to me.

I’ve got an investing strategy and split my portfolio as follows:

1. 80% Value investing – trying to hunt down the dollar bills valued at fifty-cents

2. 20% Passive investing: select simple index funds and reinvest dividends
   It works well for me, but like all investors, I’ve got winners and losers. For instance, my NZ Top 50 index fund has been the 2019 winner so far because my US portfolio is relatively small. As for losers, over the last two months, I’ve bought Fiat-Chrysler Automotive (FCAU) – owners of Jeep, RAM trucks, and Maserati GrafTech International (EAF) – producers and suppliers of graphite electrodes for steel production. I’m only about 50% of the way through purchasing shares in these companies. Like Buffett says, “Whether I’m buying stocks or socks, I like to buy quality merchandise while it’s marked down.”

Yep, I’ve got some advice

1. Take your time. You don’t have to own ten different stocks when you’re new to investing.

2. Don’t be afraid to clone the great investors. Set a reminder in your calendar each quarter to check 13f documents. These are public filings which let you see what Warren Buffett, Mohnish Pabrai, and other great investors are buying or selling.

If you want more advice, watch my investing videos!

What is Hatch?

With Hatch, you can 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. See how it works

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