Have you ever wanted to learn more about investing and managing your finances, but when you started to search the internet, you got overwhelmed. This blog’s goal is to help you learn about this topic and have fun while doing it.
Hi, I’m Henry Yang, Allianz PNB Life’s Head of Investments. I want people to learn about Investment Management and enjoy it while doing so!
You may be asking yourselves: can we really have fun while learning how to invest? It seems like such a serious and complicated topic.
My answer is a resounding “Yes”! To quote a movie “Why so serious?” Recall the last time you had fun in learning something. Wasn't the lesson much more memorable to you? We already know some surefire ways on how to make our lives significantly better– eat healthy, exercise, create meaningful relationships, save, and invest. The real challenge is building these habits and sticking with it. If you’re enjoying something, it’s easier to keep it as a regular part of your life (good luck with eating vegetables, haha).
When I was a little kid, I wanted to be an engineer like my father. Eventually, I graduated as an electrical engineer. I worked a few engineering jobs like building maintenance, construction design, estimates, and even taught college engineering and math. Somehow it did not feel as exciting as I originally thought it would be. Like a lot of youngsters that needed to find their way, I took an MBA (sort of, since my course is titled Masters in Business Management, not Administration). This is where I started to realize that I lean more towards Finance and Investments, as these courses felt natural to me. I then shifted my career path, jumpstarted by joining a top local bank’s management training program and taking (and luckily, passing) the CFA Program.
On the other hand, my background in having fun may be too long as an introduction. Ask me about any video game and most likely, I will be familiar with it. I’ve watched countless shows and movies from different genres (my wife forced me to widen my tastes). Thanks to the power of technology, I literally have access to countless books. I also enjoy traveling, thanks again to my wife but no thanks to COVID-19 for ruining all our travel plans.
Concepts not Preaching
In the world of investments, even experts like Warren Buffet, Ray Dalio, and top fund managers have a batting average of only 55% to 60%, meaning they are able to select outperforming investments at below 2 out of every 3 attempts. Would you go to a doctor (or even a barber) that would only be 60% accurate? Of course not! But we can learn a lot from studying the top performers and finding out what we can do to improve ourselves.
I consider myself a student and I will always be a student of the markets. I haven’t turned Php10,000 into Php2,000,000 by using a magical trading methodology, but I did survive 3 months of unemployment by trading stocks for a living temporarily. For the past 6 years, I’ve been managing billions of pesos worth of company funds, spent countless hours reading investment research, books and doing back-testing (trying out how investment strategies would have performed in the past, but keeping in mind that what worked in the past may not work in the future).
What matters most when listening to an opinion, expert or not, is to understand the logic and the reasoning behind it– and that’s my aim for this blog. Each person’s financial situation is unique. I know you are smart readers and I know you will consider your specific circumstances before applying what you read to your finances. My goal is to guide you, with key principles that you can easily absorb and apply on your own, in your financial journey while keeping it as fun (or at least tolerable) as possible. I promise you that there will be no hiding behind jargon or using names with a CFA charter attached to it.
So, stay tuned, and I hope you enjoy my blog!
IMPORTANT NOTICE: This document is for general information purposes only. It is not an investment advice and does not constitute any offer, or a solicitation to buy or sell any investment product. Further, any opinion stated by the author does not necessarily reflect the position of Allianz PNB Life.
