Brandon van der Kolk

Occupation: YouTuber

Location: Melbourne

Investment approach: Value investing

How long have you been investing?

I was very young – around 19 or 20. Me being young and naive, I thought that I could master this with absolute accuracy and precision. I was going to be a millionaire in no time. I thought I had the best strategy in the world. 

Who or what got you interested in the market?

It was at the point when I was finishing my physio degree that I realised I wasn’t going to be making the millions of dollars a year I had high ambitions for. The only way to make big bucks in physio is by owning your own practice or working for the government – neither of which I really wanted to do. 

So I realised I've actually got to try and find a way to turn the money I was making as a physio on a starting salary into more money. And that led me to the stock market, though I didn't have the faintest clue what I was doing. But that's how I got into it. 

What was your first investment?

Servcorp ($SRV) was one of them, along with Vita Group (delisted). And if you’d asked me what these companies did, I wouldn't have been able to tell you. 

I was watching a lot of YouTube at the time, looking at what some Australian fund managers were spruiking on their channels. I thought I’d discovered the secret to wealth. They were talking about this stock and that stock, and why they were holding them for the long term.

I thought, great – look at all these names. I probably bought six companies. And lo and behold, fast forward six months, all of them were down. And down big. Some were down 40-50% across that time. And it was at that point that I realised, okay, I better actually switch on.

Describe your investing style.

For those that have read The New Money Strategy, you’ll know I’m a big believer in building an untouchable foundation of low-cost, market-tracking ETFs quietly compounding in the background. That’s my financial 'autopilot' – the part of the portfolio designed to steadily build wealth without needing constant attention.

But at the same time, I can’t ignore the opportunity that Buffett-style investing presents. Finding high-quality businesses at good prices can meaningfully accelerate returns if done well. So alongside that ETF base, I also allocate capital to individual companies where I see the potential for long-term multibagger returns.

What stock or ETF has been your biggest winner?

My biggest win is definitely the investment that I made into Tesla ($TSLA). I don't talk about it much because I acknowledged it didn't quite fit the Warren Buffett four-pillar approach. Because of that, I kept my investment small, because I recognised it was speculative. But as we all know, the story of Tesla over the past 10 or so years has been incredible. It was the stock that opened my eyes to the idea of multibaggers. 

What stock or ETF has been your biggest loser?

An Australian-listed company called Sky and Space Global (delisted). I'm happy to name and shame them. They were trying to put these tiny satellites up into space, like SpaceX. At the time, management was saying ‘we've got all the funding we need’. But they dropped the ball and didn’t have the funding. That was a mistake on my part – I trusted management too much without doing my research. The company went to zero, and I lost everything.

Which company has been in your portfolio the longest?

The company I’ve held the longest is Tesla, which I originally bought speculatively back in 2017. It’s probably the stock that takes me on the biggest emotional rollercoaster. Part of me looks at the valuation and thinks it might make sense to trim the position, but another part of me is tempted to hold it for the next 20-30 years just to see what the business could ultimately become.

What really makes Tesla a ‘sticky’ investment for me is that it almost feels like a collection of a dozen startups under one roof, each operating in different areas of technology that could individually become very large businesses over time. Whether it’s energy, autonomy, AI, robotics, or manufacturing innovation, the breadth of what they’re attempting is hard to ignore.

More than anything, it’s the company’s pace of innovation that keeps me interested. Tesla consistently pushes into new frontiers, and as a long-term investor, I find myself genuinely curious about where that ambition could lead.

What’s in your portfolio right now?

When I first started, my allocation was roughly 70% ETFs and 30% individual stocks. However, because some of those individual investments have grown much faster over time, the portfolio has naturally shifted. Today it’s closer to 30% ETFs and 70% individual businesses.

Those individual holdings are companies that sit firmly within my circle of competence and that I’ve been able to buy at prices that offered a margin of safety. Businesses like Meta ($META), Google ($GOOGL), and Tesla fall into that category – companies I understand, believe have durable competitive advantages, and feel comfortable holding for the long term.

What's on your watchlist? Why?

In terms of ETFs, I like to keep things very simple. Broad S&P 500 ETFs like $SPY, $VOO, and $IVV form a big part of that foundation for me – just reliable, low-cost exposure to some of the best businesses in the world.

On the individual stock side, one company that’s been moving up my watchlist recently is Adobe ($ADBE). It’s a wide-moat business with a very strong position in creative software, and after a roughly 60% pullback from its highs, it’s starting to look a lot more interesting from a valuation perspective. I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but it’s definitely a company I’m spending more time researching to see if an opportunity presents itself.

Who inspires your investing rationale?

I read a lot about Warren Buffett and other value investors – books like The Dhandho Investor by Mohnish Pabrai, One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch, and The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. These investors have made millions, if not billions.

What struck me is that while they all have their own nuances, they’re actually all doing very similar things. Number one, understand the business. Two, look for businesses with wide moats and strong competitive advantages. Three, find management with integrity and talent. And four, ensure there’s a margin of safety in the valuation.

Those four pillars underpin the approach of all these investors. Applying that process to my investing completely turned around my returns. That was a really big ‘aha’ moment.

What are you investing towards?

I’m currently in the market for an investment property, so a lot of my recent investing decisions have been made with that goal in mind. But zooming out, my broader financial objective is much simpler: I want the peace of mind that comes from knowing I have enough to live life on my own terms.

For me, that means working toward the point where work becomes optional rather than mandatory. Not so I can stop being productive, but so I can choose what I work on, who I work with, and how I spend my time.

Ultimately, the real goal behind all of it is flexibility – the ability to prioritise the people closest to me and being present for the moments that actually matter, rather than being locked into obligations. Financial independence, to me, isn’t really about money. It’s about control over your time.

The personal views in this article do not reflect the views of Stake and do not constitute financial advice, nor a recommendation to invest in the securities listed. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. As always, do your own research and consider seeking financial, legal and taxation advice before investing.