Hello Grasshoppa,

Since I was young, I have gotten a lot of investment advice from many people. Some of them have changed my view on investments in a good way while some of them have brought a negative light towards my investment journey. Advice and opinion is always free but varies as some of them can be unreliable. Over the years, I never had a good impression on stocks investment as I used to hear people mentioning that you can’t make money from stocks. That advice came from people who had lost their money in this form of investment. This misleading information may have left a negative impression on individuals who have no knowledge of investment.

My investment journey did not start early as I had no knowledge & was unwilling to learn about anything related to investment back then. Even in my early years of investing in mutual fund, it was a favour requested by my friend & I did not have any knowledge of where or what I was investing in. I remembered when my mutual fund agent mentioned compounding interest & how much I can earn in the long run,  I was not keen to learn in detail. My agent tried to educate me, however, I showed little interest in learning.

What Is The Best & Worst Investment Advice I Have Gotten?

1. Invest In The Long Run
I remembered my mutual fund agent gave me this advice, but during that time I didn’t give give a care in the world to understand the power of compounding interest. In my mind, the fastest way to earn more money was by venturing into business. Imagine if I was still investing actively in that particular mutual fund since 2009, how much would I have earned from compounding interest?

2. Investment Is Risky
This is also a common misconception that I hear a lot. Some of the advice that I have gotten from these individuals was to actually invest in “money games” (investment scam). Investment is only risky if you don’t understand what you invest in. If you understand what you invest in & diversify it right, it will be less risky.

3. Stock Investments Needs A Huge Capital To Earn Money
I remember this advice clearly from a friend of mine that never had any experience in investing. We were having coffee one night & I was sharing with him my plan to start investing in stocks. His first reply to me was, “very hard to make money & you need a huge capital to earn money”. The truth is, you can invest in stocks as low with as RM200 & you can still make money from it.

4. Set Auto-Debit For Your Investment & Look At It A Few Years Later
I love the auto-debit idea as it will help with my investment discipline but looking at it a few years later is not advisable. From time to time, you should look into your portfolio & do your portfolio rebalancing at least once a year.

5. You Should Let The “Expert” Manage Your Money
I have heard this from multiple mutual fund agents before. They may be the experts in this but there is no free lunch in this world. With the high management fees, load fees & other hidden fees, I prefer to manage my own investment portfolio or seek a low management fee platform such as robo-advisor.

6. Buy This Stock. I Have Insider News
Some of my friends had really good intentions in sharing this information with me, but I never bought any stocks so far as I invest based on the fundamentals rather than insider news. No doubt insider news sometimes helps to boost the company stock price but it will usually be for the short term.

7. Buy Property. Confirm Can Make Money
This is partly true if you are investing in a prime area. If you had bought a landed property in Tanjung Bungah area 30 years ago, most probably your house is worth millions by now. My personal experience of buying my first property was different. I managed to sell it off in 2014 with a profit but the property price did not increase up until today. I was able to sell it for RM320,000 but last I checked, it is still worth around RM320,000 after 7 years. I was able to make money from it back then but my buyer will be having a hard time selling it at a profitable price.

8. This Investment CONFIRM Can Make Money One
This usually links to “money games” or investment scams. I have multiple friends that have persuaded me to invest with JJPTR when it was a HOT investment. Too bad the founder was exposed & many investors have lost their money in it. I have also encountered an investment scam experience on Facebook where he was promising a high return within 1 month.  There is no guarantee in investing as we can’t predict the future but we can always build a diversified portfolio to maximise our investment return.

Conclusion :

Many people in our lives will be giving us advice on investments. Always do your own research or study before you make a decision based on their advice. Imagine if you are listening to a view from a friend that has never invested or has no knowledge in investing. If you agree with them, you will be missing out on building your retirement over the long term. You may also ask your “Google” friend to help you if you have any doubts about investing or to clarify your friend’s advice. I started managing my investment portfolio solely by reading investment books & by doing a lot of online research. Later on, I started to increase my investment amount once I had a higher confidence in my investing skills.

OSS!