Learning

I like learning. Learning can come from many ways, school, web, newspaper, people, and of course books. We have limited time so we need to be selective, that means we should learn from the best otherwise we are wasting our time.

If you want to study something, choose the best school in town. The instructor may be very tough, materials may be enormous, and other students may be very keen. But you definitely will learn something afterwards and you feel good that you have made it. If you read newspaper, choose the best such as Financial Times. Its English may be hard to understand and it does not have many colorful pictures but you are heading to become the few successful ones who read FT daily. If you want to read, choose only the best such as classics. There is no reason to settle for less. If you want to be the best, learn wisely.

Smart Investor

Since the beginning of financial crisis, most of us are losing our hard-earned wealth. No matter you are holding stocks, funds, or even MPF, they are souring and the situation will likely to continue until the end of 2009. Even if you only hold cash, your pension funds are not performing well so you are losing monies indirectly.

For those who still want to invest amid the financial crisis, I suggest that:

1. buy only stocks/funds you know well, do not believe any recommendations/tips from others such as TV, newspapers, friends, or someone standing next to you in bank, etc.;

2. make sure that you do your homework before purchasing, such as reading annual report, funds performance report. Believe in facts and figures only, not recommendations; and

3. try to evaluate whether ETF (Exchanged Traded Funds) is good for you. They are similar to funds but have the benefits of stocks, and their handing fees are much cheaper.