MONEY MATTERS : A NEWBIE'S PERSONAL TAKE AWAYS ON PSEI BEING DOWN

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FACT: Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) has been down the past months. From 7,400, last  June we went as low as 5,800. By definition, since the market has dropped by 20% from its peak, we're perceived to be stepping in the bear territory. If you're a newbie investor like yours truly, pep talks here and there won't appease you. It may even irritate you at some point. That's not all, I logged into my online platform and they're perfect all right, perfect BLOODY RED that is! 

So many speculations about the reason: Serendra Blast, Japan Sell-off, US Federal Reserve QE or Quantitative Easing. Trust me, I don't know all of these by heart. What I know is that I have my own hard-earned money invested and now the paper loss is seemingly rising.

What's the point of writing this post again? Straight answer: I'd like you to know that someone somewhere is pondering too and trying to digest all these. Be with me as we try to think things over without all these magnanimous words that add to our dismay. ☺

1. LOVE YOUR WORK MORE.

By love, I don't mean revolve your existence around work. By love, I mean appreciate more. You see, stock market is for investing not for earning purposes. This holds true specially for us common people who are not staring at Bloomberg screens 8 hours a day. That said, we need to make sure that the money we're putting into the market can be set aside for 1, 2 maybe 5 years. Otherwise, we may have problems in stock dips like these.

2. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF LOW PRICES.

If you have extra cash to invest, now is the time! Buy your favorite blue chip stocks for a huge discount. This is not a pep talk, this is real. Case in point: Meralco's price before peaked at Php 397, now it's Php 310. Hah! Who knows how low can it go? Jollibee also has recorded a Php 151 high, it's price today, an amazing aloha-ish price worth Php 126.

Tip: We don't know if the prices will drop some more or this is the ultimate low, so BUY IN BATCHES. Sure there's a corresponding cost for each transaction, but better yet compute the cost and benefit of each option.

3. TO PRESERVE YOUR SANITY, BUY AND FORGET.

Oh man. This is a whopping NOTE TO SELF tip. What's funny is that I know that losses are still paper losses until I sell my shares. I don't intend to sell my shares anytime soon. That's clear, however I can still feel a tinge of panic each time I see these red -xx% on each company. So, I will TRY to forget that I have investment until the green signals are up. So help me, God.

Tip: If you don't need the money now, try NOT TO SELL. When you sell, you realize these losses. Stay as is (more fancy term is 'stay in your position') but whatevs, just don't sell. Understand that the market has cycle. And this is just a part of the cycle. 

4. REPEAT: NOBODY CAN SHOW REAL CONCERN FOR YOUR MONEY EXCEPT YOU.

While it's a virtue to appreciate experts showing love for our money, please recognize that somehow, they also have an agenda. Do you think they'll be giving away all they know for free? Of course not! And that's understandable, nothing wrong with that.

What's wrong is IF we place all our confidence in them. It's important to at least be aware that their pep talks have this bottom line: Subscribe to my seminar/subscription and oh, here's the FEE. Php 3,000 nga pala. <Ho-humm... So much for concern.> Truth's sometimes tough. Yes.

Tip: Appreciate someone who says I don't know. Sometimes that's the most sensible answer to stock market or even life's most pressing questions ☺

5. PRACTICE FAITH ABOVE ALL.

What I said in #4 is not entirely true. There's someone who has real concern over your money and YOU. Sorry for being mushy, but JESUS loves you! There, I finally said it! When you don't know what to do and you feel that your brain is about to burst, HE IS JUST A PRAYER AWAY. Utter a small prayer. It can be as informal as "Lord, paano po ba ito? Am I wrong?" Who knows? Answer may come in ways that are unexpected.

Trivia: Last 2008, the Asian stock market crashed. Do you know that if you stayed and not sold your shares, you will still be in a gain position now?? Gain position can mean double or triple your money! I see this as a motivation whenever I'm about to blow my cool.

There you have it! My personal take-aways on the market's recent plop. Just remember that what goes down must go up. We will be raking our gains in the future. Stay sunshiny. In bulls or bears. Wink! -CMK.