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(08-04-2013, 11:05 PM)d.o.g. Wrote: I don't doubt that superinvestors exist today. They may even abound in this forum. But how reflective is it of the population at large? The ugly truth is that people in general are lousy investors. Even with index funds they tend to buy and sell at the wrong time, so they underperform the index too.
The point I am trying to make is that people should be more humble about their investing skills, and not expect that with only modest contributions they will be able to retire early with an enormous portfolio. Most of the people with enormous investment portfolios took decades to build them up. By the time they could afford to travel first class, they were not young any more.
If you want to retire young, you probably have to lower your lifestyle expectations. If you want to retire well, you probably need to delay retirement (to add to the portfolio and to let it grow).
4 keys to wealth:
Earn it
Marry it
Inherit it
Steal it
Pick your poison.
As usual, YMMV.
Ok, point accepted. I guess we were on different frequencies most times... 
A PDF of the SuperInvestors speech here for those who're interested.
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If I could pick my poison, I'd earn it. THen I would appreciate it a lot better than the other 3 methods! 
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Similar to choosing an occupation, I feel that a person should take up value investment only if he enjoys it (research, treasure hunting, data crunching, etc). There probably should not be any criteria to meet, like I must do 15% per annum and so on. It takes the joy out of the investment process, IMO.
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08-04-2013, 11:41 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-04-2013, 11:46 PM by Greenrookie.)
My goals for investing is simply to generate
1) a separate stream of income besides my CPF
I didn't ask so much of what i hope to become, but more of what i hope not to become...
I hope by working hard, saving hard, and investing well, I dun have to:
1) work at the pace I am working now for the rest of my life
2) worry about my medical fees and my spouse (who couldn't get insurance)
3) think thrice just to buy a gift for a loved ones, take a cab or dine at a restaurant.
4) beg for money, ask for financial assistance
I dun mind working at a slower pace for something i like, or just to kill time till the day i die. I just worried i waste my life on a hospital bed and sucking all the money from myself and my families...
Investment is like a kind of forced savings, but I enjoy exercising judgement call and see if I am correct.
Of course, if i am allowed to dream:
I would like to go on semi-retirement by 55, and quaisi-retirement by 65. I will not stop working if I have a choice, otherwise I am not retiring but just waiting for death
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(08-04-2013, 11:41 PM)Greenrookie Wrote: 3) think thrice just to buy a gift for a loved ones, take a cab or dine at a restaurant.
I find that once one has gotten used to a way of thinking, it's tough to deviate from it.
I've been conditioned to think of opportunity cost. e.g. If I don't spend this 100 bucks, I could invest it at a rate of 10% and that is roughly $694 over an investing lifetime of 50 years.
Once one starts to think like this...it's pretty tough to deviate. Much like Warren Buffet's view of his first wife's spending 10 or 20K on furniture when they first got married. In my own life, my father-in-law's like this too.
Thrift is a habit that's hard to be broken.
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u can't add a tangible value for buying gifts for love ones, having a nice dinner, going for a nice getaway. of coz it costs money to do all that but its the smile on the opposite party which is worth a hundreds times more than that spent or that compounded for 30yrs.
clock can't turn back. 30yrs later, even when u make it to say 20m, u just can't buy back.those times. remember we r all getting old. not certainly not to say that we shd be spendthrift n extravant but must strike a fair balance between the two.
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(09-04-2013, 08:54 AM)paullow Wrote: u can't add a tangible value for buying gifts for love ones, having a nice dinner, going for a nice getaway. of coz it costs money to do all that but its the smile on the opposite party which is worth a hundreds times more than that spent or that compounded for 30yrs.
That is a timely reminder.
Diamond ring - $8k;
Investment of $8k compounded at 8% over 30 years - $80k;
Smile on wife's face - priceless
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“夏则资皮，冬则资纱，旱则资船，水则资车” - 范蠡
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(09-04-2013, 09:34 AM)KopiKat Wrote: (09-04-2013, 09:29 AM)CityFarmer Wrote: (09-04-2013, 09:21 AM)egghead Wrote: (09-04-2013, 08:54 AM)paullow Wrote: u can't add a tangible value for buying gifts for love ones, having a nice dinner, going for a nice getaway. of coz it costs money to do all that but its the smile on the opposite party which is worth a hundreds times more than that spent or that compounded for 30yrs.
That is a timely reminder.
Diamond ring - $8k;
Investment of $8k compounded at 8% over 30 years - $80k;
Smile on wife's face - priceless
I am thinking that probably we can also get similar smile on your wife's face with $8k worth of company's shares (e.g. OCBC)
After a lifetime of brainwashing by adverts that 'A Diamond is a Girl's Best Friend', you may have a hard time convincing her that 'OCBC Shares are a Girl's Best Friend'....
Perhaps it'll help to show egghead's projection that it can grow 10x over 30 years whereas the diamond will not....
It depends on the packaging...e.g. OCBC is also forever (hopefully), and she can see it everywhere in Singapore, Malaysia etc. It will give more reassurance of love, compare with a diamond ring which she does not wear most of the time.
“夏则资皮，冬则资纱，旱则资船，水则资车” - 范蠡
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