I’m an ardent fan of investing. I truly believe that it’s one of the most important things you can do in life. Still, for a whole bunch of reasons, it seems to be a topic that most of us avoid.
Even when I was young, I would ask about investing. Problem was, no one could give me an answer about it, or was willing to talk about it. The other problem was that it never seemed to presented in an understandable way. Plus, there was always that thought, “yeah, I’ll worry about investing later.”
The Philosophy
Looking back on my life, I’ve already lived through at least three stock market cycles and two real estate cycles. With the benefit of hindsight, I would have made some very different decisions had I understood what was going on in the markets.
To me, investing is not so much about money, but about trends, how people behave and cause and effect. Investing is about ideas, because your mindset makes all the difference in the world of investing. So this site is about exploring those ideas.
The Writing and Speaking
Sometime during the tech boom I started to dabble in stocks. I didn’t really pay attention, and so my stocks went up, and then went down. Given that I’m an MBA, have worked on Wall Street, and had worked for a major consulting firm, this was downright silly. So I started paying attention. And that made a huge difference. I also started writing about my investment decisions, just for myself. It was purely a matter of discipline; writing forced me to be more complete in my thinking.
In early 2007, I started publishing those articles in an online website called www.asiancemagazine.com, thanks to the very kind editor, Jaymie Moran.
In late 2008, in the midst of the credit crisis, I gave a talk on investing, at the suggestion of my good friend Joe Tseng of Tseng, Lee & Wu LLP (www.cpaus.com). Since then, I’ve been giving talks on investing several times a year.
And, in March 2009, given all the volatility in the markets and how fast things were changing, I decided to start a blog to keep track of things.
Professional Certifications:
- Registered in the State of California as an Investment Adviser
- Licensed California Real Estate Salesperson
Work Experience:
- McKinsey & Co., Los Angeles
- Goldman, Sachs & Co., New York
- TaiwanVest/ChinaVest (Venture Capital, Hong Kong/Taiwan).
Educational Background:
- MBA and a MA Political Science, Stanford University
- A.B. in Government, cum laude, Harvard University
- Certificates of Study, Institute des Hautes Etudes Internationales in Geneva, Switzerland