My investment Review (2010 - Now)

Before I review my investment, I think it's good to relate what actually had inspired me into investment.

It all began when "Rich Dad Poor Dad" was so popular that I picked it up and started reading, from cover to cover. By the time I put down the book, I realised it had inspired me a great deal, as if a whole new world was opened up for me. The real issue then was, the book did not tell me HOW to do it, and what should I invest in.

In about the same period, I chanced upon some investment talks and books regarding market investments such as Options Market, Stock Market, Commodities Market, etc. I attended free talks, paid seminars, bought tonnes of books and threw myself to study them, feverously. I came out realising that Stock Market is a better choice for me, at least until now.

So, like every other newbies in the Stock Market, at first I do know a little bit about the Stock Market, but I did not understand how it works or, what I should do to approach it, in a fruitful way. I started to learn to read charts and technical analysis. I bought more books to educate myself. Likely if you name it, and I would have the book you mention.

With some knowledge back me up, I started to experiment with real money into some stocks. Overall, I win some and I lose some.  This continued until the Great Financial Crisis that was going to happen.  Luckily for me, at the time, I didn't feel good about what was going on.  So I sold all my shares. This wise decision left me totally unscarred when all the world stock markets took new dives down almost every other day.

I took that lull period to re-examine my investment results. I felt after all the years risking my money into stock markets, I didn't really gain much on the average. I began to think and do soul searching as well. Again, I chanced upon some books introducing Income Investing. This interested me (not really excited at that time). After some research and reading, I realise this could be a better way of investment. I believe this could also put "Rich Dad Poor Dad" core idea into work! So I began to invest in Reits and plan to expand my portfolio with other income stocks when my finance allows me to do so.

In case for those who did not have the time to read "Rich Dad Poor Dad", the core concept of it is to

1. Reduce Liabilities
2. Generate income
3. Use the income to buy asset(s)
4. Main income and assets will generate multiple stream of incomes
5. Use the new stream of incomes to buy more assets
6. Rinse and Repeat Step 1 to 5

Now back to my present status. How is my investment doing?

If you notice, I have been away for quite some time, and this is due to some personal and family commitments that I had to stop expanding my portfolio during that period. But my income investing strategy does what is suppose to do - continue to give me income (albeit too little, but it doesn't matter) while I'm not doing anything at all.

And how significant is this, you may ask? Well, I have a piece of good news for you and myself.  The income I collected so far, it's already been able to recoup a portion of my initial investment, so much so that, I can now declare one of my three stocks on hand is deemed as free gift (see sidebar)! It means that it is as if someone has given me this stock as a present, free. Now, this is exactly what "Rich Dad Poor Dad" has preached - converting income into assets to generate more income!

Well, I think I need to stop here to catch some sleep. But I am looking forward to be active again for my investment journey. For now, bye!