The Beginning - Understanding The Why?

The year was 2017 when I got my first taste of a mid-life crisis. I was worried, I did not know what to do. After spending more than 10 years in my industry, I assumed there was nothing that I do not know. My evolution from a complete newbie to what most regarded as "expert" was all about time and consistency. What started off as a hobby to eventually a job, there were a lot of hits and misses. You do not know what you do not know... I have made many mistakes but I have learnt. As time passed, I made lesser mistakes managing the business. At some point, learning became a subconscious chore and I start to work like an "expert".

There is never a good time to start, the best time is always now, the present. As humans, we tend to procrastinate, we make up excuses to stop us from reaching our goals regardless big or small. "We can always start tomorrow...", "I have time...", "I will start when the time is right..." The truth is, there is never a right time.

The criteria is simple. Pick up something that I can progressively learn through the passage of time and at the end of the learning journey, emerge a winner, similar to my current job where I conveniently became an "expert" . However, it is important to choose something that does not obsolete with time, for example technology or programming. These things move fast and they are always overtaken through time with newer technology. After a series of thoughts, I arrived to a conclusion: 1) Learning a language 2) Learning to trade. The former was simple. I learnt French when I was a teenager, re-learning it again was an obvious choice. Once a language is acquired, you can never really unlearn it. You get stuck to it and no one can take it away your ability to speak a foreign language away from you. The latter was a little bit more ambitious.

For a start, learning how to trade is like learning how to walk, how to drive a car, how to fly a plane, how to play mahjong. You will fall, crash, lose money but after committing to mistakes and mistakes, you will eventually learn. Ask anyone who does not know how to drive to drive and he will tell you that driving is dangerous. Ask anyone who does not know how to swim to swim across the pool and they will tell you that they might drown. My point is, everything can be dangerous and difficult in the beginning but once you have mastered the inside out of a skill, everything becomes second nature.

No, I do not have any financial background. Though a businessman in my own rights, I cannot count for shit. Profits, losses, credit, debit... these terms sound alien to me. My parents did not teach me about finance management, this I do not blame them because they too were not exposed to money management. Growing up from the 70s and 80s, the most important thing is to go through university studies, secured a job, rose up the working ranks and you would be able to feed your family, ahhh... The Singapore Dream. This may be true 30 years ago but in present time where things move faster than you can learn, being able to gain financial independence is not just about securing a good paying job but a mandatory knowledge that one should acquire, perhaps not now but sooner better than later. Learning to trade will allow me to learn a skill that can go beyond my years of working when I am unable to perform physically well and be mentally swift. I want to live a life where I do not have to worry about money and spend my older years doing the things that I like to do, like shooting hoops. Starring in space, drinking coffee not worrying about the next bill. Walk the hills and still be able to afford a good breakfast and the list goes on.

When achieving a goal, it is important to understand the "why" of your end goal. If one does not have your "why", you do not know why you are doing it for. When you do not have a goal, you will become aimless, which is why many people fail to accomplish what they initially set out to do from the start. Understanding your "why" allows one to fill the gaps when they are needed.

My "why" was simple, financial freedom.

Once I was like everyone else, working aimlessly without a goal. I know that I am require to work, to earn money and bring food to the table, I know that I need the money to buy the things I wanted but as the years go by, my worries about retirement starts deepening. What if I am not needed at work anymore? What if Covid-19 never recovers? I hope that by blogging down my thought processes, more people can appreciate the importance of money management. No, you will not be a millionaire by reading this blog, this is not a get rich quick blog. But at the very least if you stumbled onto this blog, it will give you a head start to learning about your very first step to financial independence. I will break it down from step 1 on how I started everything. From opening a trading account, to learning how to trade, how to manage my expectations, my wins and my losses. I hope to write as often as I can so that you can follow my progression slowly. When the time is right, I will also start a YouTube channel to share my experiences to as many people as possible. 

Learning about financial management is a MUST! Start early!

About The Contributor

Ben is not financially trained. He is not a certified financial planner and he does not sell any insurance or investment plans. He is not financially motivated by any entities to produce this blog. He just want his friends to know more about money management and not have anyone fall between the social cracks. Nope, he is not a millionaire though he aims to be financially free before 50 years old.