I spent most of Nov 2021 – April 2022 learning about investing. Before, my investing strategy was basically “throwing money at an investment asset and hoping for the best”. Then, frustrated that I kept hitting walls or unexpected pitfalls, I deep dived into every book and YouTube channel I could find on investing. I realised that my foundation was weak, so I was not able to evaluate which investment vehicle was right for me.
Sifting out the weeds was a challenge, however. There’s so much content out there that is written with an angle or ulterior motive, that it’s difficult to decipher what is “truth”. For example, in the Malaysian financial sphere, cryptocurrencies and roboadvisors are heavily promoted. I vaguely realise that there’s more than meets the eye and I don’t have the whole picture nor am I sure if they were right for me.
So I read books like Investing 101, A Random Walk Down Wall Street, The Elements of Investing, The Little Book of Common Sense Investing to finally understand what sound investing principles are about. Then, and only then, could I define my financial goals, investing style and even design my portfolio. I realised I should have done this before investing my money. Still, better late than never!
My current strategy: Besides contributing extra to my retirement accounts (called EPF in Malaysia), I’m also investing abut 30% of my salary each month into total stock market funds using the Boglehead method. As a Boglehead, I believe in low cost, widely diversified index funds. I also favour a passive investing strategy where I stick to a portfolio of 70% equities and 25% bonds (or bond-like instruments) and 5% REITs + stocks. No timing the market for me, though I do buy a selection of stocks and REITs on the side with “fun money”.
I’m currently busy rebalancing my very messy legacy investing portfolio to the new strategy. Untangling my legacy investments is probably going to take me the entire year or more. The process is painful but I’m glad I’m doing it now rather than at 65!
Thank you for sharing my story here. So inspiring to see other latestarters on this journey. Vinnie, congrats on the 1mil net worth!! Woohoo! I’m putting your blog and Youtube on my Feedly so I’ll be visiting.
Fire For One, it’s a struggle to see your investment portfolios shrink, that’s for sure! I’m 10 years away from my retirement, and I’ve just started investing properly and hah, I have to do it the hard way by learning how to do this in very volatile markets. Great education, however!