Thank You Raj!

Meeting with Raj

Two months ago, I tweeted to ask where can I buy The Thoughtful Investor by Basant Maheshwari. The book that is sold in India only. Boopathi, someone whom I have not met, tweeted me back and said he could get it for me from India. I was touched by his kind gesture.

Last night, we finally met for the first time. We connected. We chatted so much about investing, Indian stocks, compounding, and personal growth. Our conversation sparkled the hunger in me to succeed for others.

He introduced me his investing resources too.

I am deeply inspired by his life story. He came from India and settled down with his wife. He’s a database software programmer and we exchanged some observations about Oracle and MongoDB.

We will never know whether it’s our own effort that brought us to where we are, it could be God’s blessing or luck. Always stay grateful for the life that we have and look forward to adding value to our surroundings.

All of us want the same thing. To be in a position where we can provide for our loved ones, live happily, serve others with our skills and knowledge, make a difference and travel occasionally. Since that’s the case, I believe we should help each other to achieve that in the shortest timeframe.

The internet is a wonderful place for us to connect with like-minded investors. I hope this blog can be some form of learning for myself and my readers.

Reflection

As I speak to more investors, I started to realise some of us have this “shiny object” syndrome. We chase after things that look sexy and alluring. My own experience tells me things that are simplest tend to work the best. Do not be distracted by many investment styles. Just look around you and see what works and what propelled top investors around the world.

Focus and learn from the best resources around you.

Find a mentor to shortcut your learning curve.

There is a difference between talking about investments and being a practitioner.

Choose your mentors very carefully.

The perfect example of a suitable investment is…

A high-quality company when they are early stage, preferably below 1bil market cap. There is long-term longevity, extended runway and hence, the total addressable market share is critical. I try to look for companies where I can buy and hold for many years.

Do quarterly monitoring.

Investing is not a race, we play to our own controls. We don’t have to buy stocks every single day.

No rush.

Take it easy and slowly.

Very slowly.

When you choose your companies very slowly, the ironic thing is, your returns will be faster.

Instead of looking up to see how much money you are going to earn, look down and see how much protection you have.

Valuation is the most important factor then… business models.

Only when you find a suitable opportunity, then buy it. Chances like this don’t come often. This is how long-term wealth is created.

Have an idea of the stocks you want to be in your portfolio.

When you don’t, you will buy any companies. That’s a recipe for perfect disaster.

Investors who identify one big investment idea every twelve months make more than people who find a new stock to bet every twelve hours.

Sometimes because we are in such a rush and excitement goes over us, we tend to make silly purchases of companies with questionable management, financials and inferior businesses.

PS: I wrote some basic stories on how some companies can create fake news to cause excitement to investors. Don’t fall into their trap. Read more by clicking here.