Melbourne

I've been learning a lot about investing and making a few small investments in shares and funds over the last couple of years, and can definitely say that buying shares in individual companies is not my forte. For the most part the shares I bought have been steadily declining in value, against the trend of the market. Apparently if the shares drop enough the company can arrange to buy back the shares from small stockholders whose parcel of shares has become worth so little they don't meet the minimum trading amount to be able to sell them through brokers. Who knew?

I have had one success - Estia Health is being taken over, which means the shares I bought for them have seen a 43% increase in just over 12 months. Unfortunately I only bought $200 worth, and the profit from them is still nowhere near enough to make up for the losses on the others, but definitely better than nothing. I am definitely sticking with the index funds in future, I really don't have the interest or knowledge for individual companies. And the clear winner is my Super fund - I got around 13% last year, plus many tax benefits.