Fundamentals of Investing – Part I

They say there’s a fool born every minute. I’m a person that has some faith in humanity. Still, sad to say, there are so many cases of people been swindled out of their life savings, you tend to think … hmmm…

There’s no such thing as a free lunch!

Why harp on the above? Simply because it’s true! Just because you didn’t pay for the lunch, someone else must have done so. There’s always a catch somewhere. Think about it. If you had free nasi lemak (coconut rice delicacy in Malaysia) today … is it really free?

(a) Someone must have planted the rice, harvested and processed it;
(b) The coconut extract must have been grown and extracted;
(c) The ikan bilis and ground nuts must have come from somewhere;
(d) Someone must have spent time and effort to prepare the food and place it in front of you; and
(e) The work to clean up your leftovers and wash the plates.

So what am I trying to get at?
My point is that there’s no such thing as getting something from nothing.
Example: such as making a profit from the stock market without doing any work. Sure, it this may seem to be the case but trust me, it’s not.

What is the morale of this story?

If you want to make money from investing, be prepared to put in time, money and effort into it. No one is going to do this for you (for free!).

I’m sure some of you are thinking, hey I can always rely on the analysts, brokers or unit trusts to invest for you… Again, I’d like to remind you, these people have vested interests.

Why would they want to make money for you? They just want to use your money to make money for themselves. They use other people’s money (OPM) to make money for them. That’s called leverage in fancy business jargon.

Even if you forget all the other rules of investing – just remember: Before you decide to put your hard earned money into some hare-brained scheme promising 100% return on your investment in one month…

“THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A FREE LUNCH!”