Hi readers, 👋
Welcome to this little September wrap-up.
I have never been this late with a monthly update before. Usually, I publish them on the first day of the following month, but this time it took a little longer.
On the bright side, I was pleased to see that my blog’s traffic increased significantly. It seems that many readers are particularly interested in these monthly updates and have started visiting more regularly.
The delay was mainly due to another vacation, a mild cold, and my participation in two Hyrox competitions (one Double and one Solo). Since dividends flow automatically and most of my investments run on preset savings plans, there was no real need to delve deeply into my finances recently.
Overall, September was another positive month. YTD (as of the end of September), my portfolio performance stood at almost +8%, and early October looks promising enough to potentially add a few more percentage points.
I’m especially pleased to see that the adjustments I made to my investment strategy, which I wrote about in January 2024, are paying off. My slightly more risk-oriented investments in smaller, high-growth companies have performed exceptionally well, including:
- Frequentis: at one point +280%, currently around +150%
- Ceotronics: +100%
- Renk: +150%
- Einhell: +22%
Additionally, my investment in Alphabet was well-timed, currently yielding a gain of around 44%.
The new AI-bubble (everyone is talking about)?
Lately, I have been keeping my distance from the newest darlings of the AI infrastructure boom, such as Nebius, CoreWeave, and Iren. Unlike my investments in the more defensive Ceotronics and Frequentis, I missed the early wave of hype in this segment. It is a bit frustrating, but one rule still guides every decision I make: do not lose money. And right now, the AI sector feels like a place where even the experts are unsure which way things are heading.
A Self-Sustaining Circle
If you look at recent analyses from Bloomberg and the Financial Times, you get a fascinating picture of today’s AI economy. It resembles a closed circuit of money, power, and technology, a kind of self-sustaining loop that keeps spinning as long as the music plays.
At the center of it all stand OpenAI, Nvidia, and Microsoft. Nvidia pours billions into OpenAI. OpenAI then spends that money on hardware and cloud capacity from Microsoft, Oracle, and AMD. Those same companies are among Nvidia’s biggest customers. Add to that smaller but ambitious players like Mistral, Figure AI, and xAI, all tapping into the same funding streams and supply chains.
When capital keeps circulating within the same small circle without clear productivity gains in the broader economy, it raises questions. Are we witnessing genuine innovation or just an echo chamber of investment?
The graphics tell the story clearly. Almost every major tech company, from Amazon and Meta to Google and Oracle, is now financially, contractually, or technologically linked to OpenAI. The result is a stunning yet fragile web of interdependence where billions move in tight loops.
Big Promises, Modest Results
No one doubts that artificial intelligence is changing the world. It is transforming how we work, learn, and create. I feel it myself: tools like ChatGPT have made my daily work faster and more efficient.
But on the corporate level, the economic reality tells a different story. Many companies are experimenting with AI, yet few have managed to turn it into sustainable profit. For now, AI seems to make individual tasks quicker, but not necessarily to a degree that transforms productivity on a macro scale.
At some point, every dollar poured into AI infrastructure will need to justify itself, either through real efficiency gains or entirely new profit streams. So far, that equation does not balance. If the returns fail to appear, the system could slow down abruptly despite the staggering amounts of money flowing through it.
Innovation or Illusion?
The current AI boom feels eerily familiar. The dot-com bubble of the late 1990s also promised a new era of unlimited potential until the illusion broke. Today, we see similar signs: enormous valuations (OpenAI reportedly at $500 billion, Nvidia at $4.5 trillion) that seem detached from real-world profitability.
As long as faith in perpetual growth and technological revolution holds, the cycle continues. But markets built on belief can turn quickly. When investors start asking whether the emperor of AI truly has clothes, the story could change overnight.
My monthly income with dividends in September:
My investment approach is simple and consists of three pillars:
- Active income.
- Passive income.
- Conversion.
Dividends fall into the last two categories. They are passive because they provide a cash flow without the need to go to work. Additionally, they are an essential pillar for conversion since they can be reinvested to generate even more income in the future. That is the Theory. Now, let’s get down to practice.
This month, my cash-flow approach generated the following income through dividends:
So overall:
- the total monthly income with dividends in September (after taxes) was: € 510.61 / appr. $ 590
- compared to last year, the dividend growth was great (+ 15.6 percent YoY),
- ⌀ monthly dividend income (ttm): € 698.97 / appr. $ 810
- ⌀ monthly dividend income (ttm) compared to the previous month: + 0.7 percent.
Here is the full picture:
The following part is for paid subscribers only. It contains an overview of the stocks I purchased in September and some more portfolio details.
Since this report contains valuable/personal insights, I want to restrict access to paying subscribers only. I invest a lot of time and effort into writing these pieces.
So if my work is worth the price of a coffee to you, it would go a long way in keeping me motivated and providing even more insights! ☕️
Since I’m just starting, I’ve set the lowest fee and am offering a discount for the first 10 paid subscribers. So now is the perfect time to join! 💡✨
Be one of the first supporters and grab the discount by clicking this link:
Best,
