- What does it mean to invest in what you know,
and why as a professional investor,
you really don't want to invest
in something that you don't understand.
Just because you saw someone making money
invest in certain things,
or your friend gave you a hot stock tip
or they say they made money with this trading thing
or cryptocurrency or whatever it is,
it doesn't mean that you should put money into it.
You see,
very often people invest in something that they don't know
or they don't understand is because of one word.
And that word is greed.
Because they want to get greedy.
They think, oh man,
I don't want to miss out the opportunity.
And so and so says a good ideas
so I'll just putting money into it.
What you don't understand is
at the end of the day is not about a risky investment,
it's just like driving a car right?
Driving itself there is some risk to it, right?
Because you have car accidents happening every day, right,
somewhere.
But it's not the car that is dangerous
it is the driver, the investor that's dangerous.
It has to do with your driving skill,
no different than when you're investing
you need investing skill.
If you're not so sure what to invest in
it tells me that you lack investing skill
and you lack investing knowledge.
So why would you invest in something
that you don't understand
and pray that you will get a good return.
It's only people hoping that to get rich quick.
It doesn't work that way.
It is about investing in something that you know,
something that perhaps you're passionate about.
That's how you maximize your return as an investor.
It's not just buy and hope and pray,
no, you know going into it what is going to happen.
So, not only you should invest in what you know,
I personally don't like to invest in things I can't control.
When I invest in something,
I want a certain amount of control,
because I know the more control I have over the investment,
the higher my return,
lower my risk.
Example,
let's say you buy an index fund
or you invest for the long term.
I said it in my other videos,
it is not like I don't like stocks or index funds,
I believe and I have index funds
with as a long term strategy
as like the more the most basic minimum financial planning
that it's good.
I'm saying that shouldn't be the only thing
that you invest in.
It's like, if that's your portfolio,
you put this much in index fund long term, that's okay.
That's a 30 40 year plan, that's perfectly fine.
For most people, it's better than nothing.
What I invest in today shouldn't be what you invest in,
what you invest in shouldn't be what I invest in,
because what you like and what I like, is different, right?
How much capital we have,
the sophistication that we, the level that we are at,
or the skill set that we have they're totally different.
So don't be like,
oh, this is what I invest in
and that's how you should invest may may not be the case.
Someone makes money doing that
because they may have certain skill sets
that you don't posses.
This is why they're able to make that investment work
and you may not be able to make an investment work.
For most people, put some money,
I'm talking majority of the people who are watching this,
put some money aside, long term 30 40 years,
that is a decent plan.
It may not be the only plan that you have
but that's a decent plan.
If you want to be that's passive,
but if you want to be more proactive, an active investor,
then you got to educate yourself.
So it's not just investing in something you understand,
I believe is investing in something that I can control.
Meaning
I want to have control over the investment.
I want to have control
over the management of the investment.
I want to have control over taxes.
I want to have control over my emotion myself,
I want to have control over the entities.
I want to have control over how I flow the money,
right, the cash flow.
Example, if I was to invest in a company,
I don't just want to be a passive investor
where okay, here's X amount of dollars,
I'll see you in three years,
I'm a very hands on active investor.
So if I'm investing in your business,
let's say I'm investing in your business, right?
I would expect regular report,
I would want to have a say
in terms of key people that you hire,
I want to have a say on the direction of the company,
I want to have a say in terms of your marketing campaign,
I want you to have a say how you're spending money,
how you're spending the revenue you're generating,
I want to have a say in terms of equity
if you're going to bring on additional investors.
I'm an active investor, not that I'm a control freak,
because I just have more experience.
So I know I can add value versus you making mistakes
and trying to figure things out on your own.
So I'm very hands on that way.
Versus here's money and then I don't touch it again,
I don't believe in that.
So not just invest in something you know now.
So in order to do that, you need to know your stuff.
So I get these questions a lot on social media.
Here's what I suggest.
Let's say if you're going to invest in the stock market,
that's what you're interested in.
You know what you should invest in, go buy 100 books
on stock investing,
spend 10 20 bucks a book,
invest your money in those.
Read 100 books before you put a single dollar in
into any kind of stock.
That would be my recommendation.
You want to invest in real estate,
go buy 100 books on real estate.
Learn that first
and then get someone
who is a successful real estate investor
to kind of show you the ropes.
That's how you minimize your risk
and that's how you maximize your return.
Always remember
not all progress is measured by ground gained.
Sometimes progress is measured
by loss, avoid.
Think about it.