These days, many are getting interested in investing. Perhaps because they hear US stock markets are at an all-time high, the Philippine stock market is recovering, cryptocurrency is booming, etc. Many people asked us through this channel or personally how to start investing, where to start investing, or what we think about a certain stock. Some even asked what stocks to buy or when to buy & sell. Today, we are going to write what we think of investment in nature.
Let’s say we are talking about stock investing. Many people think stock investing is about buying and selling stocks by looking at the flashy screens, complicated charts, analyzing trends considering resistance and support with many different indicators like candle patterns, various moving averages, RSI, MACD, etc. Well, those are also a part of the investment. I understand that some people are earning a lot of money by doing that. They sound very fancy, but, unfortunately, these are not the topics we would like to focus on in this blog entry.
As the thumbnail and title of the video suggest, investing is a lifestyle rather than a skill. Skill refers to the ability to do good fundamentally or by doing technical analysis, having the courage to actually perform a strategy and stick to the plan, and finding the opportunity for a great investment. These are very important and valuable skills that can make you rich, but there are more important things than these. And that is the lifestyle that we would like to talk about.
I would like to refer to lifestyle as a frugal lifestyle. The lifestyle that makes meaningful investment possible. For you to be able to invest, you will need the seed money first. If your parents are rich and if you already have an abundant life, you are considered lucky. However, most of us live our life by making ends meet. 1-month salary for 1 month of expense. If we live at the same level of quality of life that we earn, we won’t be able to make the seed money at all. That’s why a frugal lifestyle is important. We have to live a quality of life as if we are earning much lesser. We have to make a surplus in money. In other words, keeping our expenses less than our income is very crucial. Do you frequently change your phone just to ride the trend, when your existing phone is perfectly okay? Do you take out Starbucks coffee every day? Do you buy an expensive branded product to show off? Do you maintain a car that is unnecessarily expensive? Do you ride a taxi or Grab even when it's a walkable distance? Do you buy fancy stuff at malls, Lazada and Shopee? Do you go on a shopping spree or dine out at an expensive restaurant because you got your salary? The list just goes on. By lifestyle, I mean to have a frugal lifestyle, which is important in making your investment meaningful. In our previous youtube videos, we have discussed living frugally and saving money. Making this part of your lifestyle will be essential to putting more money into your investment.
Of course, I am guilty of some of the examples like most people, but I'm also trying very hard to control my urges to spend. I hope you can do it, too. So to make my investment meaningful, I have to live a frugal lifestyle, save money, and then what? That's the time you need to start investing. You need to keep investing continuously until you get financial freedom. Depending on the person and situation, it will take 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, or more than 10 years. But we have to keep trying. I wrote this blog to also remind myself from time to time that I need to commit to: live a frugal life, save money, and invest. This will be our key to financial freedom. The younger you start, the better. The more money you save and invest, the better.
Everybody is going through a very hard time due to the pandemic. My deepest condolences and prayers are with everyone in this very difficult time. I fervently hope that this will pass soon and this year will be a year where we get one step closer to our financial freedom.
Thank you for reading,
MoneyExperimentPH