I Invested £15,000 in 2022: The Honest 3-Year Results

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Five Very Different Bets, One Honest Scoreboard

Back in the summer of 2022 I put £15,000 of my own money — real money, not a hundred quid for a video — into five completely different things: individual stocks, property, gold, crypto and a plain old index fund. Here’s what each is worth now: the good, the embarrassing, the loss I’ve left in on purpose, and the one I never even made.

Quick honesty note. I’ve been investing for 25 years, but I’m not a financial adviser — this is opinion, and your capital is always at risk. The split: £2,000 into individual stocks, £1,000 into property, £10,000 into crypto, £2,000 into an index fund, and nothing into gold. That crypto number is huge — hold that thought.

Individual Stocks: £2,000 → £3,340

Picking individual companies is the thing everyone warns against, and the learning curve is brutal. If you’re not reading balance sheets and you’re buying the prettiest logo, you’re gambling. I’ll only break my own rule when I have a genuine edge. During COVID I was consulting for a warehousing and shipping business, so I had a front-row seat as the world stopped — and I knew goods couldn’t stay still forever. I waited for the red days and bought a shipping company, Navios Maritime, when it was on the floor. Held it two years, sold in June 2024 up 67%, and because it sat inside a Stocks and Shares ISA the gains weren’t taxed within the wrapper.

If you can’t explain in one sentence why you own a stock, you don’t know it well enough.

That worked because I was on the inside — the only reason I’d ever touch a single stock. Two grand became £3,340.

Property (via a REIT): £1,000 → About £720

No, I didn’t buy a house for a grand. Real property has low yields and a huge barrier to entry, so the next best thing is a REIT — a Real Estate Investment Trust. Picture a hundred people chipping in; the pot buys property, the rent comes in, and it’s split between everyone. By law a REIT pays out 90% of its profits to investors, and you’re hedged: if one tenant stops paying, the others still do. But it isn’t risk-free, and the sector matters.

I chose Segro — warehousing and logistics, the picks and shovels of online shopping. Same logic as the shipping trade. But my timing was off: I bought in June 2022, right before interest rates shot up, and rising rates hammer property. I sold in November 2025 down about a third; even with three years of chunky dividends, my £1,000 became roughly £720. I’m leaving this one in on purpose — I was sure I knew what I was doing, and I didn’t. Not every investment wins. Lesson learned.

Crypto: £10,000 → About £44,000

The big one, and where most of the money went: all £10,000 into Bitcoin. Not Ethereum, not Solana. Bitcoin. I’ve been in this space a long time, but be clear — the risk is enormous. In the last three bear markets Bitcoin has dropped 70–80%. It’s not for the faint-hearted, and not for money you’ll need soon.

I bought in June 2022, and then FTX collapsed. Did it scare me? Yes — proper squeaky-bum time. But it didn’t shake my conviction, and I sold in November 2025 with that £10,000 worth around £44,000. Before anyone copies that: people treat Bitcoin like a lottery ticket, but it’s steadily being institutionalised, with big managers accumulating it through ETFs and regulation tightening — we keep a running tally of who owns the most Bitcoin. My read is that institutions don’t hoard assets they expect to go to zero — take that as you will.

The tax bill I didn’t need to pay

One practical change since: back then I held Bitcoin in a limited company and paid corporation tax on the gains. Now you can get Bitcoin exposure through an ETN (exchange-traded note) held inside an ISA wrapper — same £20,000 allowance, gains not taxed within it, no wallet or exchange to manage. Our explainer on ETFs vs ETNs covers exactly how these products differ, and our guide to how to buy Bitcoin in the UK walks through every route. That option didn’t exist when I bought; it would have saved me a serious tax bill. And 10-to-44? Not normal. Don’t expect it anywhere else — it could just as easily have gone to zero.

Gold: £0 (My Biggest Mistake)

My worst call was one I didn’t make. I considered gold and put in nothing — and it’s since gone on a stonking run I completely missed. It’s a genuine safe haven when the economy wobbles, the learning curve is almost zero, and the risk is steady, but it pays no income and the real cost is opportunity cost. Why nothing? Risk appetite. I put £10k into Bitcoin — that tells you the kind of investor I am. I’m 15–20 years from retiring and happy to sit through volatility, because volatility isn’t a flaw, it’s a characteristic of investing. Will I look at gold over the next decade? Possibly — and if you want to act where I didn’t, start with our guide to how to trade gold in the UK.

Index Fund: £2,000 → About £3,000

The lazy option, and probably the most tried-and-tested one. I bought the S&P 500 — a slice of the biggest companies in the world, so you’re betting on the whole market, not one name. No due diligence, no fact sheets. The risk is relatively low because you’re spread across hundreds of companies; the main wobble point is the handful of mega-caps that dominate the index. But through 2008 and COVID, markets recovered — not guaranteed, but that’s the pattern. I bought in June 2022, sold in March 2025 up around 48%: my £2,000 became a little under £3,000. Zero skill involved — I bought it, ignored it, and it did its job. If you want the same set-and-forget slice, here’s how to invest in the S&P 500 from the UK.

The Honest Scoreboard

Add it up: about £3,300 from stocks, £720 from the REIT, £44,000 from Bitcoin, nothing from gold, and £3,000 from the index fund. All in, £15,000 became a little over £50,000. But here’s the part people skip: strip out the crypto and it’s a perfectly normal, well-performing portfolio — steady, sensible, unspectacular. The headline exists because of one high-risk bet that happened to land, made with money I could afford to lose and years of conviction behind it. Nobody foresaw FTX, so please don’t put your rent into Bitcoin.

The repeatable lesson isn’t the winner — it’s the boring stuff. The index fund that asked nothing of me. The single stock I only touched because I lived and breathed the industry. And the real unsung hero, the Stocks and Shares ISA. I didn’t start with £15k, by the way — I started with a tenner, just like you. Everyone does. If you’re at the starting line, the beginner portfolio I’d build for 2026 is where I’d begin — and these five mistakes are what I’d avoid on the way.

This is not financial advice. It’s my opinion and my own experience. Your capital is at risk — money can go up and down, and with crypto you can lose everything. Past performance tells you nothing about future performance. Make your own call, and if you’re unsure, get proper advice.

FAQs

References

1. GOV.UK: Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) — allowances and rules
2. GOV.UK: Investing in UK Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs)
3. FCA: Cryptoassets — risks for consumers
4. FCA InvestSmart: Guidance for new investors

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