Why should I learn from a "guru"?

I often hear this when introducing new investors to the idea of learning from a guru: "If he’s so successful, why does he need to teach to make a living?" Yes, the guru will earn money from the classes you sign up for, but isn’t that what we’ve been doing all our lives?

Think about the enrichment classes your parents enrolled you when you were a child. Your piano teacher, language tutor, and soccer coach, all of them got paid for their services, and so will a guru. From childhood through adulthood, we’ve consistently been paying for education—whether it’s tuition fees for a university degree or SkillsFuture courses to gain new competencies at some point along the way, there was some form of payment, subsidy or grant. The point is, instead of focusing on how much the guru is earning, why not consider the knowledge which you will be gaining. You’re paying for wisdom that can significantly impact your future finance. I am a bias staunch believer of paying to learn or paying to earn.

If you have never question your kindergarten teacher on her remuneration to teach you ABCs, why question paying a guru to teach you financial literacy? Sure, you can learn the alphabets on your own, even so when you can teach yourself how to play a musical instrument, learn how to speak a new language, learn how to code, or even picking up soccer skills using the internet. But we often pay for lessons because we want to hold someone accountable for all our newly found skills, someone who can guide you through common pitfalls, saving you from all the costly mistakes, ensuring that you will receive a well structured program that entails everything from the fundamentals to the advance knowledge.

In reality, why not learn using from both methods— from a guru and online self-study? After all, isn’t that how typical education works?

"If he is so good, why is he busy teaching us how to make money when he should be busy making money for himself?", "All these things that we are learning, can be downloaded and learnt from the internet!" Take a moment to ponder about this, we are where we are today (whether you are a student, businessman, house husband and the list goes on) because someone had taught us something and we acquired this knowledge and put ourselves in this very position. Unless by miracle and by raw talent of self taught, the things that we know are usually learnt from someone who has gone through the same experience as us. While the future is anybody's guess, the past is surely a history of assumptions and learnings. 

Don't be mistaken, I am not urging anyone who is new to investing to sign up for an expensive guru course and transform into the riches but actually to start your investing journey from fully  understanding your investment objectives and goals. Instead of FOMO-ing into the investment game, take this time to read up and filled your brain with this newly acquired knowledge. Condition your mind to understand that investing is not a sprint but actually a marathon. Start progressively and stay discipline with your investment objectives. Invest in good times and bad times, don't let greed and fear overtake your long term goals. Stay focus and alert.

If all things remain fair and equal, the only difference between a poor man's mindset and a rich man's mindset is the ability to learn, understand and this knowledge into accountable actions.

1) Understand your reasons to invest. Condition your mind first.

2) Pick up financial knowledge. There are tons of resources which you can borrow from the library and videos that you can watch from YouTube. Let those financial jargons sink in and understand what factors actually move the stock market.

3) Start slow and progressive. Often most beginners think of the first investment as a huge sum of capital outlay. This does not have to be the case. Even investing $100 is better than not investing. It doesn't have to be in the thousands or millions. Start small and gradually grow to a bigger portfolio. The process is more important than the journey.

4) Find a mentor. If there is something and anything that you can ever think of... rest assured that someone else has thought about it before, walked the path and experienced the adventure. The only problem is to find this person and pick his brain.

5) Know the investment is for the long term. You might not see any instant results but as long as you stay invested. Time will be your best friend when it comes to compounding.

Keep an open mind and opportunities will be at the door.

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.