Define Your Own Meaning of "Wealth"

Who is the wealthier person?

• Someone who drives a P1,500,000 peso car to work with P50,000 savings in bank OR someone uses a bicycle, has P1,500,000 pesos worth of company stocks and has P10,000 savings in bank?
• Someone who frequently buys DVD or someone who frequently buys books?
• Someone who eats fast food or someone who cooks his own food?
• Someone who buys foods in the supermarket or someone who grows it himself?
• Someone who has P2,000,000 worth of a house OR someone who owns P2,000,000 worth of rental property?
• Someone who can afford high medical expenses OR someone who can avoid medical illness?
• Someone who throws a big party every year for their birthday OR someone who invites friends over every night to hang out?
• Someone who earns a lot of money abroad and leaves their family behind OR someone who leaves their work abroad to BE WITH their family?
• In that sense, who is wealthier? Someone who spends time with work OR someone who spends time with loved ones?
• Someone who has a lot of things OR someone who has and needs nothing?
• Someone who can't leave work OR someone who doesn't want work?
• Someone who can see their money in the bank grow OR someone who can see their child grow?
• Someone who pays to fix things in the house OR someone who can fix things in the house?
• Someone who dresses fine, in suits and dresses in the latest fashion OR someone who buys quality (not necessarily in the latest trend) and never have to buy again?
• Someone with a big family OR someone with a small family?
• Someone who owns a gun OR someone who can avoid a fight?
• Someone who follows a religion OR someone who's mind is free from any religion?
• Someone who feel bored when there's silence OR someone who is comfortable with silence?
• Someone who feel bored alone OR someone who is comfortable being alone?
• Someone who knows the latest news OR someone who knows history?
• Someone who knows how to use the latest tech gadgets, know their specs and latest apps OR someone who can create such gadgets, specs and apps?
• Someone who follows other's opinions OR someone who follows his own intuition?
• Someone who can make roaring speeches OR someone who prefers silent deeds?
• Someone who prefers to talk about the problem OR someone who reflects on his own problems?
• Someone who has no time OR someone who has a lot of time?

The Pursuit of the Black Belt

On my list of goals, I said that I want to obtain a black belt in a martial art. Here comes, the hard part, what martial art should I pursue?

This kind of activity is much like investing, it takes careful planning because, at the course of the pursuit, there will be times of doubt, once I know that I have made the right choice, the higher the chance that I will stick to it and obtain the belt.

I have been thinking a lot about this, since obtaining a black belt in a martial art means investing my time, money and body (you may get injured).

Let's see the given variables (me and my condition).. I'm in my 30's, not getting any younger, I'm small, cerebral and doesn't want to get knocked out. I value my brain cells and would like to live a normal life in old age, without punch drunk, dementia or any brain damage. I don't want to fight.

I have a previous experience in martial arts, a knockdown full contact karate, old school style called Kyokushin. Its like muay thai with bare knuckles, no gloves, and you win only when you knock your opponent out or down. And this experience has taught me, fighting will either make you a monk or a maniac.

I became a monk. Metaphorically speaking, fortunately.

So I also want a martial art that does not harm people. But equally effective when there's no other choice. Karate is out of the picture since its a hard style. Bruises and broken bones are its cup of tea. Muay thai and boxing is out as well, even though I admire those arts. I think any form of striking is out. Its either brain damage for me or brain damage for my opponent. Both of which I don't want to have a part of.

Which leaves me with grappling arts.

What's amazing about grappling is you don't need much strength to practice the art. You don't need to be taller. Its cerebral and it doesn't hurt the other person unless you want to. Its the perfect art for me.

My first option was aikido, after reading the book "Angry White Pyjamas" and watching some demonstration from youtube of a master throwing people like paper, I almost got into it. There was one little problem with the art. Nobody would hold your wrist in a fight. Aikido's techniques needs to be performed when the opponent holds your wrist. In the times of the samurai this would have been relevant, as your enemy might try to prevent you from drawing your sword and thus hold your wrist. But today, if someone wants to hold you, it would be more than just wrists.

I always wanted to learn judo. Perhaps if I had been more attentive in my youth, I would have learned the art. But circumstances has made me miss the chance. I'm contemplating the possibility of learning judo, but the thought of it as being physically demanding, makes me a bit wary, same goes for Greco-Roman Wrestling.

Jujitsu. This I think is the perfect art for me. I did attend one class just to try it out, and I liked it. Less focus in conditioning and building strength and more time with sparring / rolling / techniques. No striking and less injuries. The art is effective, because every training session, you go against a person who will 100% defend or resist your attacks. A focus on technique rather than strength. I have seen smaller guys tapped out someone bigger than them. In striking arts, this is not possible. As proof than even 5lbs advantage from a boxer can kill.

I think I found my art now comes the pursuit of the goal.

The Case for Investing and Trading

A couple of years ago I was into trading, it was a fun ride and very educational. I learned the value of money, time, patience and discipline. Trading has thought me, that emotions get the best of us. However sound your trading strategy may be, it will always turn you to the losing end.

Both trading and investing will teach you patience and discipline. Trading on the other hand, is more stressful and instantaneous. Wrong decisions are punished immediately, right decisions rewarded just the same.

Investing will teach you slow money. You wait for years for your fruits to unfold. But in a sense, its more accurate than trading.

I felt that trading, even though having good success with trading, is much like a gamble. No matter how many times I have seen a pattern on a chart, I know what the next scenario would be, and I would trade accordingly, still I am not sure if it will come to my favor or not. For me, it felt like gambling.

I do not like the feeling of having to "guess" no matter how sound the decision is.

Trading is fast, but it comes with a price, you will need to trade your time for the fast reward. Investing is slow and comes with luxury of time.

When you trade, you spend time waiting in front of the computer. From the opening session to the closing. With investing, I feel like I'm reading a book. I'm not in a hurry to buy a share. I want to finish reading the "story" before I could decide. The story is seen in the balance sheet. Comes the time, if I like it, I'll then decide accordingly. In trading there is no such luxury. You are always pressed for time. Trying to outsmart/outspeed the other buyer or seller. I do not like the cut throat environment of it, nor do I see the need for such haste.

I think investing is better, when it comes to comparing resources used for the return on investment. Money should be ignored, assuming both a trader and an investor use the same amount of money. What we have left to consider is time.

A trader will have to spend more of his time to earn. It is the actual time trading. If the market opens at 9:30 and closes at 3:30pm, he just spent 6 hours of his life, everyday to earn a living. An investor may read a company's balance sheet at his leisure, before sleeping or at the breakfast table with his coffee, buy a stock for 5 minutes to get an order and go hiking somewhere, take his wife to a date and play with his kids, travel with his family for the rest of the week.

Its all about the quality of time spent for the amount of reward. Let's say that a trader manages to return 50% on same year (difficult but not impossible) and the investor manages to have a return of 15% (average). I feel like that the investor has a better life when you think that the trader spent his whole year looking at a computer screen 260 days and 6 hours per day (1,560 hours), and the investor spent the same amount of hours with his family, learning new things, traveling and what not. To think that a 30 year old person only has 200,000 hours (give or take) left for his life, I feel that life is too short not spending it with your loved ones.

A trader may "make money from having money" but its the investor who "makes money work for you". Because of the two, its the investor who have the free time and let money do the working.