Knowing yourself

There is an old Chinese saying "知己知彼, 百战百胜". Basically it means, know yourself, know your enemies, hundred battles fought hundred battles won. This saying can be applied to our pursuit for financial freedom, if you are able to know yourself, you will be able to win this battle.

What do i mean by knowing yourself? In the first few years of my working life, i spent quite a bit of time trying to know myself. You must wondering if I am crazy! "Don't you know yourself?".

It is very interesting to say that many people thought that they know themselves. Unfortunately, many of them only know themselves when they don't have positions in the market. The moment they have positions in the market or when their personal $ is at stake, they are no longer themselves. They can no longer view things objectively and start behaving irrationally. Their hearts and moods got sucked into the market and moved in tandem with them.

Do you know yourself? What kind of person are you? Can you tolerate unrealised loss? What is your tolerance level for unrealised losses before you call it quits? Can you cut losses? Do you dare to pull the trigger when everyone else beside you is saying "no"? Can you let your profits runs? Do you know the differences between investing, trading and speculating? Are you a system trader, discretionary trader or a value investor? hahaha there are 101 questions but there are no straightforward answers.

The above are just some of the questions you should ask yourself. I have asked myself many times in the past on what kind of person I am and I can assure you, I am still learning everyday and learning more about myself. Investing and trading is a lifelong journey. The earlier you start, the more headroom you get. I am happy to see from my facebook demographics that the majority are between 25-44. It is good to start young, I can assure you that you will get a headstart over others but the most important thing is you must never give up.

I receive quite a few questions about my "personal" data and many of you are interested to find out which age category I belong to. I am a pretty open person and for you to get the most out of my blogs, you should know some of my background. In fact, overtime, i may meet up with some of you who bother to keep in touch. The reasons why I am "media shy" is because i belong to the "earlier generation". Definitely not Generation Y or the Generation Strawberry. hahaha. So i don't like to stick my pictures all over the place and i do enjoy a little privacy.

Here are 3 simple questions which may help you understand a bit more about me in my pursuit for financial freedom.

Question 1: How old are you? I belong to the 35-44 category. I started my lifelong pursuit for financial freedom after i read "Rich Dad Poor Dad" when i was on my honeymoon many many years ago. It triggered me to sit down, think about my financial life and how i want to get out of the rat race.

Question 2:  Where and what do you work as? Let just keep it simple by saying that i work in the investment industry. I started my life as an auditor, auditing listed and unlisted companies and then move on to the investment side. I am allowed to print the words CPA and CFA on my name cards but to me, these are some nice titles to get the conversation going.

Question 3: What are your goals in life? My goal in life is to stop working and travel round the world. I believe in leading a balanced life and enjoy simple pleasures in life like travelling, good food, nice wine and a happy family.

Back to the topic today. Do you know yourself? Do you have a long term plan for yourself?

Your thoughts and views of life will change as you move to the different cycles in your life. When i was younger and just started out, i was looking for capital gains, but now i am looking to create multiple streams of  passive income. I know there will be a day where i cannot trade actively and work as fast as the younger one. That is when my portfolio of passive income will 'feed me' and let me travel round the world.

Start planning today. 


I shared with you that i use a personal finance software called moneydance. Get your own 'house' in order, start cleaning up your finances, thoughts and plan for your future. For a start, you need to know how much you have, where you are spending those money and where you can invest those money. If you don't have money, then the most basic step is start to work hard and save up. Without savings, you will never get out of the rat race. Remember it is not how much you earned but how much you saved that will give you a headstart in your pursuit for financial freedom.

Cheers.