Where to Invest Now?

I met up a good friend last week and had a nice conversation.  During the chat, he shared with me that he had been a very conservative in any kind of investment.  He was very reluctant to move his first step to investment simply because he was very scared of losing.  As a matter of fact, he is married with no children.  He is also a decent income earner without much debt holding.  

Therefore, I told him that he is at a better financial position as compared with the other majorities with the same age. The major shortcoming of him was that he never has a desire to learn how to invest and he agreed with me.  He kept thinking that investment is a very complicated subject to learn and I did not agree with him.  I further enlighten him that he was afraid of investment simply because he did not have much knowledge about it.  The only way to overcome this is to open his mind and learn.  He can learn from books, attending workshops and seminars, and get around with people with same interest.  If he is willing to learn and get involve, he will be able to see the investment he had learnt clearer than anyone who did not do so.

He further ask for my opinion whether it is the right time to invest in stock market.  I replied that there is no point to ask me simply because what I think might not applicable to him.  Each of us is unique in investment.  Therefore, what I think is totally irrelevant on his investment decision. However, I did share with him about my view as a reference to him since he knows nothing on investment.

I don't have any new investment in stock market for the time being as the market is relatively high since my last investment in early 2009.  The market was at about 800 points while current is more than double of this.  Do note that the current level is the level after its peak of over 1,800 points.  To me, this market is too expensive to go in.  I always believe that the best buying spree will only happen when everyone is selling.  Yes, I only buy when the market is reviving from a crisis.  I do not know when the crisis will come but I will be informed when it is come as everyone is selling desperately.  In other words, I will keep my cash until the crisis hit.

So, what do I do with my cash?  I put it either in FD or invest in REIT.  To me, REIT is the same as property investment but without huge outlay of capital.  Also, I do not need to seek for tenants and collect rental personally.  The fund manager will do all these for me.  All I need to do is to sit back, relax and wait for the dividend to be deposited into my bank accounts.  For those who are interested in how I do in REIT investment, do refer back to my earlier blog and book.  It is really easy and its return is really not as bad as stock investment.

The bottom line is that, as long as we learning, we will be able to draw a road map that lead us to the direction we what to go.  Move your first step and let your knowledge and time to prove it to you. Keep it up.