When I started investing about 20years ago, I read about Warren Buffett. I really wanted to be like him.

He had the ability to read a company profit and loss statements, balance sheets, cashflows and turn these companies into profits! That sounds amazing! And of course, I learned the power of compounding effect as well.

So I diligently put in lots of hard work, to study materials, learn how to read financial statements, paid lots of money for courses to be able to be like Warren Buffett.

Unfortunately, after more than a decade later, from personal experience and many people I talk to and survey of investors, I realized that most investors actually lose money and underperform what the markets would have rewarded them with over long periods of times.

These are some of the reasons for this.

1. Emotions biases play a VERY big role in clouding our emotional decisions. This is a very big big reason with many factors that can derail us.

2. Most investors look at investments at singular products and not at the big picture to how it fits into their overall finances.

3. Working harder in investments actually led to worse results because constant activity leads to more emotional roller coasters and in turn, to more emotional decisions.

4. The perception of most investors is that they can buy the right stocks or time the market. You might get it consistently right 3-5 years in a row and all it takes is a few crisis to rattle you and bring you back down to earth and you may never recover from it.

5. You were not clear of the personal objectives to begin with.

6. You look at your investments on a single time period basis eg. 3 years, and if it is not making money, you pull out. If it makes money, you put in more. What you are effectively doing is buying high and selling low. It does not make sense right?

7. You are not emotionally prepared for temporary losses from time to time.

8. Mental accounting and emotional accounting is different. When we see our investments as products, we take on concentrated risks in certain stocks and lesser in others. A common example is someone investing significantly on one single stock and lesser on many others and a huge pile of cash on the side for fear of making a wrong choice of stock. So if you look at the overall allocation, the total gains on that one stock, even if it is large, on a total overall portfolio (including cash), may be only a fraction of it. Part of the reason is a drag of dead weight by large cash allocation.

9. I did not have an investment philosophy I could stick with in both good and bad times. There are many many times I sold out way too early!

10. I should not just go after the highest returns! It was not about the highest returns, but more importantly I can sleep well at night, have peace of mind and yet still achieve reasonable overall returns on my whole entire portfolio with significantly reduced risks.

I went back to the drawing block and asked myself some hard questions to rewrite the way I grow wealth.

If I continue the way I do, will I get to my big long term goals like retirement which will run into millions if I want to sustain a reasonable lifestyle.

Otherwise, I had to really do something about it.

I did, through a different set of lens, with significantly reduced risks, I can sleep well at night, have peace of mind and get better potential returns! What a better way to live my life now!

If you or someone you know might want to put on a different set of lenses to help you get to your long term goals, we can have a initial chat to see if there is a fit.