On... Missing the Bus

Starting to invest in the market at 40 seems too late and the bus has departed a long time ago. So why have I never started? Was it because I had never heard of the market? No money to invest? Don't know where to start? All possible reasons. However, none of them close. On the contrary, there was never a lack of opportunity for me to start investing especially during the early days of my career. Conversation with close friends occasionally drifted off to discussion about investing in the stock market and due to my lack of interest, it could sometimes be annoying. 

So, if there was no lack of introduction, what was it that kept me out of the game? This go back a long way... to the late eighties (when I was less than 10 years old). At that time, my family members were actually 'investing' in the stock market. I never knew how my family members did in their venture, but I don’t recall them being too successful. If they had been, I would have known. What I do know though is that my mom had never approved of this so called – ‘investing’; and she never ceased to remind us of her opinion. 

Fast forward a decade later, the Asian financial crisis hit, and the market tanked! That was the straw that broke the camels back. Finally, my mom’s ‘warning’ to stay away from the stock market became reality and this cemented her opinion even further. Growing up with such experience and a constant reminder of staying away from the market – its not a wonder that I always had negative connotations about the stock market. On top of that, I never knew anyone who was successful in investing (talk about availability bias)..…. until recently. 

Our past shape who we are. Our present shape who we become. Because of my negative association with the stock market when I was much younger, I became a guy who got annoyed with stock market discussions. Because of my recent positive exposure, I am becoming the guy who will be bringing up the discussions. So if you're not already on the bus, be prepared to be annoyed!