My Financial Successes
-21 years old now, third-year NUS law student on full, bond-free
scholarship (no NS either), technically also CEO of a tech
startup.
-Saved a lot since first year in university. Worked some as
well. Monthly expenses are below $100 every month. Have free
accommodation (scholarship recipient). Have scholarship allowance.
Have parent allowance (no big handouts here, just enough to
cover/supplement typical living expenses).
-Invested most of my savings in one stock in fall of 2008.
Second round of investment in early 2010, in the same stock (price
was good then). Stock still doing well. Counter went rather crazy
the other day (KLSE counter), causing my net worth to exceed
S$100,000. Not sustainable, yes. But still an achievement in
itself.
-Basically more than tripled my base capital since 2008.
My Financial Failures
-Started a scalable software product company in middle of 2010.
Never really took off, but still working hard at it. Can be
considered a failure, at this point. Launched a product, struggled
for adoption. Launching another product soon. A huge, huge time
commitment, since prototyping software and getting feedback is
time-intensive. This is my "the Social Network" sort of gamble,
only that I'm already aware of such a thing long before the movie
was released.
-Invested in AUD at the end of 2008. Despite a small profit, the
opportunity cost was huge. Same with my unit trust investment (DWS
mutual fund).
-Bought a bunch of domain names hoping to resell them for a
profit. Never happened. But I never made the effort to look for
buyers either.
Yes, I'm bragging, because I'm fairly proud of my successes
*and* failures.
I am happy for you. I hope that you find your life
worthwhile.
I have been working in the hospital and I have seen people who
are died at birth to old age. People die at the age of 22 years old
too. Enjoy your life and dont get obsessed with money.
My friend is an instant vice-CEO of a construction company in
Singapore after he graduated from NTU. How to compare?
Just enjoy your life, when you can. You never know when you are
going to die in the first place.
