I was 21 years old back in 2011 when I started heavily thinking about financial matters. I was young and a bit impulsive with my decisions. Getting rich is my main objective, but the question was “How?”. My question lead mo to the Stock Market.
I was working in a BPO at that time and was earning only P16,000 per month, minus tax of course. I didn’t want to stay as an employee and so I started looking for solutions. Reading books that had something to do about business and investing was a great start, it helped me broaden my insights about money and income. Not only did I used books for financial wisdom but I also searched the internet for some tips. I ended up with a conclusion that investing is the way to go. With investing, it’s my money that is working for me, generating income even while I’m asleep. What a great idea, right? That’s what I thought at first. Well, there is nothing wrong with investing, it was my impulsiveness and my negative outlook on my circumstances that made me jump into impractical and costly decisions.
At that time, when I was searching the internet, I came across this preacher. He preached about spirituality and also taught financial strategies, particularly stock market investing. I was amazed by this preacher at that time, a lot of what he said made absolute sense. He said money is not evil and if used properly, you can be a blessing to others. Listening to this preacher was incredible, he was spiritually guiding me and at the same time teaching me how to make money through stock investing.
I ended up purchasing a lot his books, I paid and went to his seminars, I paid to be a member of his “club” where weekly financial newsletters about stock investing is given through email. Hundreds more of people like me did the same. In his newsletters, there were these advises on which stocks to buy and when to sell. He also advised a strategy of buying stocks every month right after I get my salary from work, its profitable that way according to his assessment. As a matter of fact he even advises his maid to do the same, predicting and explaining in detail that his maid is going to be a millionaire in more or less 10 years. I followed his advises and paid for my membership again each time it expired, and also paid and went to his seminars.
A year later, there was a little progress on the stocks that I was advised to buy every month. My portfolio grew a few percent, the dividends I was receiving wasn’t much to be excited about. But at that time I was thinking that it’s probably normal, since it’s only been a year. So I decided to just keep on investing. I ended up investing a third sometimes even half of my monthly salary. Also, my subscription to the club and seminars were additional expenses every now and then. But after the second year, that’s when I decided to just sell it all and never to invest again in the stock market. I didn’t feel that I earned much. In fact, I felt like I lost valuable opportunities. I also dropped my subscription from that club.
I quitted the stock market because of these realizations:
- You don’t really earn anything even when your stock portfolio goes up. It’s not real earnings until you sell them. It doesn’t become real until the money is on your hands after you sell them.
- When you sell to get your profits, you’re left with nothing. Your investment is done and gone. Back to zero.
- I’m not the type of person who can wait forever for something that I’m not so sure of. Stock value growth can take a long time, it’s not worth it for me to wait that long and keep on assuming things will be better. I would rather use my time and my money efficiently and creatively.
- Stock investing is not for those who can only invest small amounts of funds. You want to win big, you have to bet big.
- Since my salary wasn’t that big, then why even bother investing in someone else’s business instead of investing in my own creativity and opportunities?
- You think you’re being smart just because you read stock analysis and follow the advice of “experts” but in reality everyone is just assuming and you’re really just gambling.
- I think the preacher was making more money out of his business model strategy of selling books, seminars, and club subscriptions rather than his own stock portfolio. I surely wished that he could have shared to us his real business model strategy rather than stock investing 🙂
My bottom line
This blog post is not meant to disappoint people from investing in the stock market. Just because I failed in this doesn’t mean it will be the same for others. There are efficient investment strategies in this kind of business that I probably never even heard of. Different strokes for different folks. I’m not a stock market expert so I have no plans in telling people to quit the same way I did.
My personal experience and realizations with regards to stock investing is a unique and personal one. I’m not suggesting it to be used as a sort of model or guide by those who are planning to venture into stock investing. This is simply just a story of one of my failures in life that has pushed me to better my self. I’ll most likely invest in something again in the future. It’ll be towards something that is much more concrete, something that is not based on assumptions. For now, the best investment I’ve ever done is invest my time, effort, and money into my own creativity. The more you invest in your own creativity, the more the opportunities and wealth follows.