Personal Finance: COL Financial Chairman’s 2017 Message

I have received an email from COL Financial last week. It contains the Chairman’s (Mr. Edward K. Lee) message for 2017. It started with this quote:

“If investing is entertaining, if you’re having fun, you’re probably not making any money. Good investing is boring.”
–George Soros

And here’s the message:

Dear COL Financial Client,

One of our biggest concerns at COL Financial is that many people start investing or trading in the stock market, even though they don’t understand how to do it. Worse, some people even invest in speculative issues with no understanding of fundamentals, turning investing into gambling as they get excited at the prospect of making a high return.

This is the reason why people lose money in the stock market, and it’s also the reason why people lose faith in the stock market.

People enjoy the rush of earning money from something they don’t understand how to do, not knowing that the boring, slowly-but-surely way of investing is what works out in the long term.

It’s why we are always encouraging everyone, not just COL Clients, to attend and learn from our investing seminars. We want you to understand the rules of investing and trading, so you don’t end up wasting your hard-earned money.

Aside from arming yourself with investing knowledge, I also encourage you to manage your risk.

Start by deciding how much money you are comfortable placing in the stock market. Then, rebalance your portfolio regularly, at least twice or thrice a year, so that the amount of money you have in the stock market is always an amount you’re comfortable with.

Finally, I would like to remind you that what matters is how long you’re in the market—– not timing the market. While we’re not certain what will exactly happen in the stock market this 2017, know that the long-term growth story of our country is strong and intact.

Thus, regularly investing in the Philippine stock market will bring good returns in the long term. It may not be as exciting as following a hot stock tip, but as George Soros says, good investing is boring.

Sincerely,