Best non-crypto non-personal-home investment you ever made and why?

From 17 to 20 years old, I was obsessed with learning how to get into a loving relationship. Still enjoying the fruits of that when I noticed I mastered enough of the skill at age 20. I remember at age 16 thinking: shit, I won’t ever be with a girlfriend. In hindsight, I was probably right. I was really passive and scared for rejection. I learned how to put myself out there and meet the world. Meet enough people and you’ll find someone that matches well with you. I’ve approached thousands of people in general. For the first 2 years it felt soul crushing and painful. After that it became a lot of fun!

That was my best investment. I’m 30+ now.

I guess this is self-worth, but physical fitness. It's a priori useful and healthy, but in addition, attractive people are more confident and successful.

In a world where almost everyone above college age is a fat slob it's not at all difficult to set yourself apart.

Good street bike and accessories like saddlebags. And then making an effort to take care of it and make it trackable. Also spray painted the frame a buncha fruity colors, which actually helped me tack it down.

But yeah saved a lot of money, lost a lot of weight.

Also made some good investments in lithium at the right time. Pick a couple industries and go deep, like DEEP, and then do some classy gambling.

I bought AMC call options for a 1 year out near the end of the pandemic.

Usually big shifts like this - war, famine, pandemics etc. -- are good times to make moves/gamble on because of the volatility.

As the pandemic eased, I had noticed AMC hadn't recovered (before it became a reddit craze), whereas the pandemic was easing at least in people's minds.

So I bought call options that expired a year later, since I didn't know when the rebound would happen, but knowing that it would.

I made 5x on it. If I had held 48-72 hours longer it would have been a 20x.

Seemed like a stupid easy way to make a good ROI.

My investing strategy is "picks and shovels" and "buy what you follow, but not what is hot"

IIRC my best return so far is AMD at $8 a share and ASML when it was similarly cheap, as I was reading a lot of EE/tech news at the time.

Investment funds because I don’t enjoy gambling with my savings. I prefer to let professionals do that for me.

I heard that investment funds, or monkeys randomly placing orders, are on average doing better than DIY investors.

Rubles had crazy interest rates for a long time. Low confidence given defaulting is the national hobby - but it doesn't happen that often.

More boring: A startup, I decided to invest only after talking with the C-suits and understanding they had what it takes to sell to investors and good numbers. I tried to use my past experience as a founder and think if with their skills and with their numbers I would be able to sell the company.

Companies that I believe are exceptional at what they do. Those investment usually take a few years to yield.

So far I got the best return on TSMC shares. I bought them way before the Intel to Arm transition, I believe that's when many realized the potential of the company. TSMC also pays decent dividends. Others in my portfolio that did great - Apple, Amex, Visa, BRK.B.

Wanna share with us the biographies, or the things you learned from them?

Estrogen.

Also, Brazilian treasuries. Our interest rates are ridiculously high here.

VTS (VTI in the US)