Friday, November 07, 2025

FOMO-ing In

I have been saying no to investing in Aura's new venture capital fund when I have been asked. My reason was that I am retiring and don't want to lock capital up. With lower taxes going forward, the negative tax status of Australian venture capital investments isn't so important any more. Also, I am an investor in both their previous funds and the parent company, so that feels risky. Also, I didn't have a current wholesale investor certificate.

But then I saw an email that now is the "last call" before the "first close" and I sent them an email asking if I could invest AUD 100k instead of the usual AUD 250k minimum. They approved right away and I just completed the application form. This is an investment of about 1.5% of net worth, which will be called over several years, so with this lower number it doesn't seem as risky or impose as large cash flow requirements. The fund plans to invest in 25 companies if the target amount is raised. So, this would only be AUD 4k per start-up. At Aura VF 2 I have around AUD 25k exposure to each start-up. And I now have a wholesale certificate again. Also, I have been thinking recently that we can cover our current cash flow requirements with just AUD 1.5 million (8% yield) to AUD 3 million (4% yield) income-oriented investments and invest the other half or more of our net worth in long term growth investments to compensate for inflation and maybe actually grow our net worth. 

But in the end, it's really FOMO.

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