3. “If your friends jumps off a cliff, will you jump also?
Every kid has felt the crumbling weight of peer pressure by following their friends in order to gain acceptance and be part of the cool gang in school. You’d think as they become older they would grow out of this phase, but the pressure of FOMO (fear of missing out) continues well into adulthood.
It’s more prevalent today with the presence of social media that can heighten anxieties and lead you to spending things in order to please others as opposed to yourself. This also extends to our investments, where we shouldn’t be blindly following the herd and chasing the latest market trends.
Our moms nurtured and encouraged us to pursue our own passions and interests, so that we can be happy in our own skin. Don’t let that go to waste and be your own protagonist in your story.
4. “Eat your vegetables everyday”
Mothers also knew a thing or two about the powers of small acts that can translate to huge benefits over the long-term. Eating your greens daily is one such example, where small but consistent intake can provide our bodies with the essential vitamins, nutrition and minerals we need.
Our investments can also benefit from such small but consistent actions through dollar cost averaging. Nobody likes to invest regularly especially when the market is down. But stripping away your emotions by investing regularly can help you average down and accumulate more units. Over the long-term, your portfolio would then reap the benefits of compounding as the market starts to normalise.
The same way children can be conditioned to eat their peas and broccolis every day when they were younger, investors can also modify their behaviour by starting early and being disciplined.
5. “You think money grow on trees is it?”
Every Malaysian kid has probably heard this one before at some point in their life. But it’s a perennial pearl of wisdom that teaches us about this scarce resource called money which cannot be cultivated naturally with water and sunlight.
It takes hard work to earn, plenty of discipline to save and most of all time... It takes time for money to grow and compound over many years. Patience is needed to build wealth that can sprout and blossom into a large canopy and provide shelter for life’s moments. As such, weeding out the leakages and cutting wastage is key.
Every Ringgit saved can add up. Be reasonable with your spending and remember what your mom taught you when she gave you pocket change every day. If you respect money, money will respect you. Don’t squander it away by being reckless and treating money with disrespect.