A few months back, I was caught up with investing. Read too much Rich Dad, Poor Dad. This is a book which is full of interesting ideas, but they are not all that rosy and dangerous. You know, people sweet talk you into parting with your hard earned money to invest in some funds which you have no idea what they are about. They show you a graph that shows that the price of the funds is rising every year and with that, you will never lose money. Well, I got conned and so I invested about 30 thousand dollars in the different funds which they recommended. For a while, it went up. I made about S$600 in just a few weeks. And that made me think that this is a very worthwhile investment! I mean, the interest rate in Singapore is very low and thus it is not really good to put your money in banks, so I took out even more money and put them in funds. I think approximately another 40 thousand dollars. Yes, I have invested about 70 thousand in funds. Again, for a while, it went up and up.

However, I am sure everyone knows what is happening in the stock market recently right? With the mortage problem in the US, plus the US economy slowing down and the problems in China and the oil prices rising like mad, the market took a nose dive. And I meant a real nose dive. My funds drop like 33% from it’s peak and currently it is in the red by about 25%. I put my funds in China, India and Asia markets. Most of which are very dependent on external factors and when things don’t go well, everyone is throwing whatever they can away. Seriously, I never expected such a big drop in my funds. I had thought that funds being a collection of stocks will have less fluctuations and less prone to speculations. I was very wrong. In fact, it could be worse because these funds are managed by “professional” fund managers who are more into speculative buying and selling.

This meant that I have lost about 18 thousand dollars in all my funds. Heart pain. Especially for someone earning very little. Those are actually my life’s savings. I am lucky I still have a job and not much commitment. Just imagine those people who due to the stock market slowdown and really needing the money, just how much will they lose if they sell those funds now? What can I say? This game is for the rich. Not for people like me. I hate to see those insurance and fund managers “market” their funds like they are easy money and even those not into stocks should join in because it is supposed to be professionally managed. Well, if these funds are “professionally” managed, I wonder how the funds which are not professionally managed are doing!