For the longest time I have been resistant to the idea of financial investing aside from addressing the basic life insurance needs of my family and I. Reasons include servicing long-time accumulated debts and managing the daily expenses that usually left me with barely anything to save at the end of the month let alone to invest, as well as my scepticism automatically kicking in whenever anyone brought up the subject of investing, financial planning or “achieving financial freedom” in conversation; I tended to lump them all into one and brush it aside.
However, recently I have been blessed to not only be able to settle all most of my debts but also accumulate a bit of savings. And after taking the next step of doing some research, I have come to realise the potential benefits of investing and began gingerly dipping my toes in it. I’ve been looking up information and articles online, watching some YouTube videos, occasionally bouncing ideas off my more investment-savvy brothers and friends, and even started reading a book on value investing – “Rule #1” by Phil Town – that I borrowed from the library. So far it has been a slightly easier read compared to the more highly-recommended but much denser book “The Intelligent Investor” by Benjamin Graham.
I won’t go into details of my foray into investing or specifics of my tiny noobish portfolio except to share that I have been looking into precious metals (i.e. gold and silver), individual stocks and cryptocurrencies. I am mindful to deal with whatever financial commitments I have in a timely manner first, set aside a little bit of emergency money, and invest only what I am effectively willing to lose. I admit it has been a very interesting journey so far and I am enjoying it. However, I also quickly discovered that it can become an unhealthy time-suck if I let myself fuss over my portfolio (e.g. tracking stock/crypto prices too often or overly indulging in the plethora of investment-related online videos in the name of research), so I need to be careful to manage my time and actively detach myself. I can understand why many prefer investing in exchange traded funds (ETF), engaging a financial advisor (be it human or robo) or hire a fund manager to handle the nitty gritty so they can focus their time and energy better elsewhere.
That’s my second blog contribution for February (sorry no illustration today I’ll make it up next time)!
