When I first joined FI back in January I didn't have a clue what I was doing. I bumbled around for a month or two making mistake after mistake and buying some truly awful holds (Steven Davis anyone?). Eventually, I felt like I knew enough to put in a decent amount of money and set myself a target to achieve within in one year. At that point I also set another aspirational 'target' that I thought would be completely out of the realms of possibility and my own ability i.e. to be able to get a port value of double my total investment(£2000) within a year and to pay for a modest holiday with the profit.
This weekend, I reached that aspirational target with 3 months to spare! I still expect ups and downs and will only exit trades when they've met my targets as opposed to a fire-sale though. I will then continue with my original amount all over again.The FI forums have been one of my main sources of information and over the months just through reading them I have: found out news as it breaks, avoided some major pitfalls, swerved some dodgy pumps, been reassured that other people are following similar strategies and taken part in some excellent discussions. I have always avoided FI related twitter and kept mainly to these forums and FI related blogs. I would like to thank everyone that has posted in the forums for their input and help and I would really encourage new users to make the most of this excellent resource. There are a great range of users on here and most manage to look after their own interests while helping others with great aplomb.
Thank you all again and thank you FI for inventing this wonderful product.
Edited to add - I am also aware that this post is somewhat of a brag as well as a thank you but it also serves to show new users that a great deal of success is possible on here and that If i can manage it, they have a chance too.