How I Invest My Tech Salary (B3, REITs, and International ETFs)

Why most developers don't invest well

The irony is that software engineers are among the highest earners in Brazil, but most:

• Leave money in CDB paying below CDI
• Have no allocation strategy, just "buy some stocks when I remember"
• Don't account for currency risk
• Treat investing as too complex to systematize

We're good at building complex systems. Investing is a simpler system than most software we write — the challenge isn't the complexity, it's the discipline to ignore noise.

My current allocation

I think of my portfolio as a layered architecture — each layer has a specific responsibility:

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Emergency Reserve (3-6 months expenses)                  │
│  Tesouro Selic / CDB DI — high liquidity, capital safety │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Brazilian Core (40%)                                     │
│  BOVA11 (Ibovespa ETF) + selected B3 stocks              │
│  Focus: long-term compounding in reais                    │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Real Estate Income (25%)                                 │
│  FIIs (KNRI11, HGLG11, XPML11)                          │
│  Focus: monthly income + inflation hedge via bricks       │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  International Diversification (30%)                      │
│  IVVB11 (S&P 500 via BDR) + VT via Avenue                │
│  Focus: currency hedge + global market exposure           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Speculative (5%)                                         │
│  Individual tech stocks + crypto                          │
│  Rule: if it goes to zero, nothing changes                │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Why FIIs for a developer

Fundos de Investimento Imobiliário (FIIs) are misunderstood by the tech crowd. They're basically a REIT — you own fractional shares in commercial real estate portfolios, and they're required to distribute 95% of income.

For a developer, this creates an interesting dynamic: you're building human capital (your career) that depreciates slowly, and FIIs give you real asset exposure without the capital required to actually buy a building.

The key metrics I look at:

• Dividend Yield — I target >9% for income-focused FIIs
• P/VP (price / book value) — buying at discount to book value matters long-term
• Vacancy rate — for brick-and-mortar FIIs, >15% vacancy is a red flag
• Manager track record — the fund's performance during 2020 tells you a lot

My current favorites: KNRI11 (diversified, solid management), HGLG11 (logistics, benefits from e-commerce growth), XPML11 (shopping malls, higher risk but strong recovery).

The dollar hedge via IVVB11

Brazilian developers have natural currency risk: our expenses are in BRL but the global tech job market is USD-denominated. If BRL weakens significantly, your real purchasing power drops.

IVVB11 is an ETF on B3 that tracks the S&P 500 in BRL. It gives you:

• Exposure to the US market
• Automatic currency conversion (when USD/BRL goes up, IVVB11 goes up too)
• Dividend reinvestment without having to wire money internationally

For a more direct dollar exposure, I use Avenue to buy VT (Vanguard Total World Stock ETF) — this covers 9,000+ companies globally in a single holding.

The system, not the picks

The most important decision I made was treating this like a recurring job:

1. Automate the discipline: On the 5th of every month, a fixed amount goes into investments before I see it
2. Rebalance quarterly, not reactively: I check allocations every quarter and buy what's underweight — no selling, just buying the laggard
3. Don't check daily: I have a rule — check portfolio weekly, not daily. Checking daily correlates with bad decisions
4. Separate the speculative bucket: Having 5% for "fun money" satisfies the urge to play without risking the core

What I'd tell a junior dev starting out

If you're making your first investments:

1. Build your emergency reserve first — 3-6 months expenses in Tesouro Selic or CDB with daily liquidity
2. Start with IVVB11 or BOVA11 — broad market ETFs, not individual stocks
3. Read "Psicologia Financeira" by Morgan Housel (translated to PT-BR) — mindset matters more than stock picks
4. Increase your investment rate before picking better investments — the rate of contribution at the beginning matters more than returns

The single biggest lever you have as a developer is your income growth. Focus on leveling up your career while setting up simple, automated investments. The compounding handles the rest.