What I learn from ’10 Golden Rules for Financial Success’ by Garry Moore

 A small spoiler alert, the book is sharing a lot of Christian quotes. If you are comfortable with that, you might want to give this a miss.

Although I am not a Christian at the time of writing, that shouldn’t stop me from learning anything useful for me. Especially when much of the financial wisdom was shared by Sir John Templeton.

I try to keep my blog post as religion-neutral as possible. Nowadays, netizens find fault in anything and everything and become very sensitive.

So, (taking a deep breath)… the first thing I learned from this book is…

Worries hurt

The author cites a lot of examples during the time he wrote the book. The book I bought was published in 1996. I was secondary 2 then, the pre-internet days when arcade and pagers were still around.

In general, in Author’s view, people worried and still worrying now I believe are:

1.       About the Government

a.       People tend to think that government policies will negatively affect them.

2.       About the current events

3.       About their jobs being replaced by foreigners that migrated to their country

4.       About their jobs being moved out of their country

a.       For example, it is cheaper to have the factor to open in other countries instead of the USA. Thus, the USA factory is closed and open in other countries.

5.       About their jobs being replaced by better machinery, creative destruction, or disruptive technologies.

As people are worried about the above mentioned, they tend to use their money ineffectively. They worried their money will lose value and thus invest in government bonds or gold. And these yield lesser or perform worse than companies’ shares.

Author and Sir John admitted that other factors influence them to make sure decisions. For example:

1.       Their religious teachings or belief systems.

2.       The way media (including social media now) portray the government, politicians, and current affairs.

3.       Their family and/or friends shared their ideas/opinions over coffee or dinner.

For example, one guy may have a negative opinion of the government and may have exaggerated the situation to his friends. Or the newspaper company put negative headlines to attract more sales for their newspaper (in a social media context, clickbait).

Thus people or investors may have a different or unrealistic view of the situation, government, or the economy in general, which leads them to invest ineffectively.

As Such, Sir John believed that being pessimistic isn’t a virtue when comes to investing. He suggested having a realistic view when it comes to investment instead.

Gratitude helps

It is natural to worry, but we tend to worry excessively. But being grateful for what we have helps against our ‘over worrying minds’.

Author and Sir John pointed out in the book that the USA economy was so much better than before. The USA was, and in my opinion, is improving. But a lot of people, are either not aware or misled by other sources. I admitted that I once believed otherwise when I saw S&P500 reach a new high; I don’t think it is sustainable and avoid USA companies. That was back in 2016.

However, as I learn more about investing and the economy. I am convinced otherwise.

I am sure if I present my case with a set of information and data points; I will be challenged and proven wrong by naysayers easily. Regardless of how I present the information.

However, that isn’t my point of this section, nor is what the author and Sir John are driving at. They pointed out that being grateful, and being positive helps in getting more opportunities and chances to be given to us.

Imagine hiring someone to help you with your chores, would you prefer to hire?

Someone cheerful, always happy to help, and showing great appreciation when you pay him?

Or someone who is always grumpy, always mumbling negative things around him and frowning when you pay him?

I do prefer to hire the cheerful chap and probably give him a tip if he goes for the extra mile. The other guy? I most likely will label him toxic.

But ‘Gratitude’ can be easily ‘buried away’ as we have more expectations or wanted even more good things. In short, taking the things I have for granted.

The author cited an example that a company has gained 20% more net profit compared to the last year’s net profit. However, the share price dropped because the analysts expected the company to perform 30% more net profit instead.

This may create a vicious cycle of ‘Never Enough’.

Thus, I am learning to be grateful for what I have now. I do know what I have may not last forever, and there are a lot of people willing to fight tooth and nail to be in my place. My position isn’t a very glamourous position, but I am still grateful for what I have. Although I still want more, that shouldn’t stop me from being grateful.

Money can do more than I think

Author and Sir John believed that there are things that are more important than just making money.

They do willing to lend or buy bonds to a cause that they believed in. For example, buying bonds that are meant to build a bridge for a certain town. Although the interest rate or coupons may not be a lot, the money can help the construction company and create convenience for the town folks.

Thus, creating a value that can’t exactly be bought by money, yet it was required money to achieve.

Helping business is another way of doing more. As the business grows, it can employ more employees. Resulting in creating more jobs, feeding more people, and helping the economy too. So when you invest in a company, you are helping the company to grow indirectly.

Although we focus on making more money, money sometimes can do more than just make more money for us. We can also help society in one way or another by investing in a cause we believe in.

I admit that the notion is very noble, but it is kind of out of my league at the time of writing. So I hope that I can reach a stage where my money is sufficient enough to help society in a certain the future.