Setting Your Ultimate Investment Objective!

Before we invest into a company’s shares or REIT, before we crunch the numbers to find out which company to invest into, before we read the economic news which could make us feel overwhelmed, there is one step that we must not neglect as we begin our investment journeys.

I am fortunate to learn this concept from a group of friends that I network with. The concept originates from Simon Sinek, one of his publications that piqued my interest is the book called ‘START WITH WHY’.

Sometimes, certain investor might invest into a company shares or REIT upon hearing about it without further due diligence. What he basically wants to achieve could be the potential quick capital gains and this could be akin to gambling. He may know WHAT he is investing into, he may know HOW to purchase the shares, but he might not know WHY he invests into the company or REIT at the first place.

WHY do we invest into equities, REITs, properties, unit trust or forex?

Is it due to the burning desire to achieve financial freedom and provide a better life to our families?

Is it due to the burning desire to fund our children’s tertiary education?

Is it merely due to the desire to make a quick bet or to speculate bulk of our capital to earn ‘fast’ money which could be a dangerous decision?

At the end of the day, making money from investments is likely to be the end result from our investment actions, what matters most is the rationale and thought process behind our investment actions. In the absence of a strong WHY, we might lose focus, we might end up making investment mistakes and we might even start to doubt ourselves in a negative manner.

Once we are crystal clear with the WHY behind our investment actions, we could then proceed to think about HOW to achieve our investment objectives and subsequently, WHAT to invest into in order to realize our financial goals (the WHY). Start with the inner circle first!

If the WHY behind an investment action is to achieve financial freedom by certain age with certain amount of wealth, we will be more disciplined in studying the companies or REITs, to understand the business model of the companies and its profitability.

So, what is the end result if we start with WHY?

The making of an educated investor in the long run!