Investing 101: My Presentation and Thoughts on the Money Summit and Wealth Expo 2012

Updated: July 22, 2012

I woke up today still feeling the high from my two-day experience of attending the Money Summit and Wealth Expo 2012.

The crowd this year was great, despite the rains which continuously challenged everyone’s resolve to learn about personal finance and investments.

And just in case you missed it, or simply was not able to attend – I’m happily sharing with everyone today my presentation on the basics of investing below.

The best way to view this is to advance the slides one by one, while simultaneously reading my insights below. Hope you enjoy going through this presentation as much as I did giving it.

Introduction
As I’m sure most of the people there don’t know who I am, I started my talk by giving a short introduction about myself.

I shared my life story – about how I am an engineer by education who discovered that entrepreneurship is my calling.

I further told the audience how this blog became my channel in sharing the lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur; and how blogging has inspired me to start a personal finance advocacy.

Finally, I commented that in recent years, I’ve started to go beyond entrepreneurship to pursue my goal of becoming a full time investor.

Saving vs Investing
Next, I talked about the differences between saving and investing. I emphasized that even though you don’t lose money in a savings account, it does lose some of its value (or purchasing power) because of inflation.

More importantly, I said that one of the reasons why people are afraid to invest is because they don’t want to risk losing money in an investment. However, I shared to the audience my personal reason why I like investing.

Why Should You Invest?
As an employee, there are two things you need to make money: First, an employer; and second, the skills and ability to get necessary work done.

Meanwhile, as a business owner, there are likewise two things you need to make money: First, customers; and second, competent employees.

It is important to note that while you need knowledge, products and in most cases, capital to start a business – without customers; and trustworthy people who will run your business – it would be close to impossible to make money from such ventures.

Making Money From Investments
On the contrary, you only need two basic things to make money in an investment: First, a profitable investment vehicle (or product); and second, ample time that will allow your money to grow.

I emphasized that a sound and time-tested investment can (and will) make money for you – without any work or effort on your part – that’s pure passive income FTW! 😀

Three Things You Need To Start Investing
These are actually your prerequisites for becoming an investor – which means you need to have them BEFORE you invest on anything. And of the three, I said that stable present finances is the most important.

Three Things You Need To Get The Money To Invest
No “magic tricks” here and mostly common sense. The real challenge is actually having the focus, determination and discipline to do all of them.

Three Things You Need For Stable Present Finances
As the most important of the three requirements – there are NO exceptions and you really need to have ALL of them BEFORE you start investing.

And if you ask me, having an emergency fund is the ultimate priority here.

Three Things You Need To Gain Knowledge on Investments
Once you reach this “third step” – the focus should be learning from experience.

Honestly, you can attend all the money events, expos and seminars out there, and read every investing book you can find and even read all the posts of this blog – but there is still no substitute to the knowledge you’ll gain once you lose money in an investment.

Yes, you read that right – lose money – because only a failed investment venture can show you the “lesson you missed” to learn.

I ended my talk by telling everyone that investing should be a habit… a regular thing you do in every chance you have – because this is the only way you can surely build wealth.

My Money Summit and Wealth Expo Experience

Overall, it has been a very rewarding weekend for me. Aside from the new insights I learned from the other speakers of the expo and the conference – meeting some of you, my blog readers, made it more precious and memorable. Thank you for joining me there!

Also, I’d like to give two special shout outs to fellow blogger, “Ka Edong”, for the great conversations on stewardship (read his blog about the event here); and my forex mentor, Mark So, for the unexpected and awesome mention of me and my blog during his talk.

And lastly, a word of thanks to Mr. Heinz Bulos of Learning Curve, for the opportunity to speak and his company’s belief in my blog and the work that I do.

Until next year’s Money Summit and Wealth Expo 2013! 😀

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