For years, this question seemed to have no meaning to me. I was young,
wild, and free. If I wanted to have or do something, the formula was so simple –
work hard, save, and spend. Easy, isn't it?
Thinking about future gave me a headache. Besides and eventually, it will
just come and, to think about it at this age, seemed very odd. Isn't it nice
just to think about this Friday night’s party and what am I going to wear? That’s
what I thought until it came to my senses that I wasn't getting any younger as
another day passed by.
We recently had a reunion and I saw my younger cousins grew up so fast as
if they were given super boosters. Are growth hormones really that effective? I
should have bought one. But, seriously, some of them are already graduating in
college, some are professionals, and some are even taller than me. Was it just
two or four years since we last met each other?
Reality reminded me that I wasn't as young as the Ivan of two years ago and I was
now carrying this cute little creature while walking down the stairs. Nope, I’m
not a father yet but an Uncle.
Back at the office, I am one of those very few guys that are not yet
married. And whenever I was asked about
when will I be marrying, I easily get goose bumps. I simply smile and answer - “Oh,
I’m still very young and nothing to hurry”.
Well, part of it was true. Only a part of it because deep down inside I
realized that I simply wasn't prepared for it – yes, financially. I was only
using my age as an excuse of not doing something that I could have done
beforehand.
My feelings were even intensified as I saw very old people in our
office still working past their retirement age. Some are even having troubles
coming up the stairs. Yes, they are holding positions in the top level
management but that is not something I can be envious with because these guys should have been relaxing and enjoying the fruits of their laborious years already.
Funny thing is that I work for a bank but never did I learn how to grow
my finances aside from opening a bank account and saving. If I wait for a YEAR,
it’ll grow at 0.5 percent which translates to 1 Peso in every 200 Pesos or 5
Pesos in every 1000 pesos of your savings. But, that’s not good enough if I wanted
to make my life better.
So, I said to myself – ‘I have to learn something new. I have to find other
ways. I've got to do something about this. I don’t want to grow old and still
be working’. Those are the reasons that urged me to learn investing. It only
took a cup of coffee, a 30-minute break, and an open mind to read the 29-pages
book about investing in the stock market written by Bo Sanchez. And that’s
where I started.
But, when people hear about words like future, investing, stock market,
finances, etc… they would normally and immediately tell their excuses like:
1.
I don’t have time.
2.
I’m too young to worry about the future.
3.
I’m too old to start.
4.
I don’t know anything about it.
5.
I already know it (but did you put in action?)
I’m not saying that I know everything about this stuff, but the thing
is, at least, I did something about it. As Einstein said, nothing moves unless something
happens. And just yesterday, one of my friends already started investing in the
stock market and I’m certainly going to tell you how he got to that decision in my
next blog post.
If you think you’re still too young or you think that it’s already too
late, you've got to think again because you've got to do something now.
You can do it,
Ivan Jude
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