To The Moon

I was re-reading some of my investment resources again, this time reading Ramit Sethi's I will teach you to be rich. 

I've been reading and re-reading this book for a while and the thing about investing (for me at least) is that you never really grasp a concept until you've been through a certain phase or applied it yourself.

Learning Something New

For me, I've been through a few months of loss and the chapter I was reading "Chapter 7: Investing isn't only for Rich People" struck a chord in me. It also worried me because this was not in my investment plan.

Previously, I learnt that it was important to have an investment plan, with fixed allocations of resources every period (for me, it's monthly). Over the long run, this plan would instill discipline regardless of macro conditions.

The part I missed was that this plan must include diversified assets, such as stocks, Bonds and cash (insert facepalm emoji here). In Ramit's words, this investment plan of asset allocation controls the risk you take and is actually more important than the actual investments.

Going out of my Comfort Zone 

Change 1: What surprised me was that he mentioned that most of the time, we tend to choose the wrong stocks. Most of the time. He recommended investing in indexes. This way, if the market does well, over a period of time, you will also do well. There is also less risk if you choose the wrong stock.

Change 2: He mentioned balancing the portfolio with stocks, bonds and cash. This would also you to diversify across asset classes andand spread out the risk.$SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(SPY)$$S&P 500(.SPX)$

The variables are the amount of risk you want to take (which then varies the % of each asset class (more stocks more risk)) and the amount of liquidity you are comfortable with (more bonds, less liquidity). Cash of course, has the lowest risk but has the lowest returns.

What it means to me 

So far, my investments in individual stocks have been dismal, albeit losing to macro effects but I will consider what he said by, as mentioned, putting what he said into practice. It's not going to be immediate of course because I am a bit reluctant to change but I guess what matters most is finding the plan which makes the most money and not what you are comfortable with, right?

@MillionaireTiger@CaptainTiger@TigerStars