Sources to Learn about Investing Basics

Thai investors need to learn more about investing in different assets, now

In the past one year, I have run into a number of my parents’ friends and relatives who have been affected by our government’s policy of low interest rates. These elders are suffering greatly as their interest income from bank deposits diminishes swiftly. What they receive now – at their retirement age – is only a fraction of what they used to get a few years ago.

I have sympathy for them, and a lot of other fellow Thais, who never had a chance to learn much about investing. They put most of their life-long savings in bank deposits and jewelleries or antiques, which have low liquidity.

Our government has shielded our economy from the global economic environment for so long that we never needed to learn about how to invest properly. For us, bank deposits were the only means to save and grow our money.

For those of you who still have time to study and make a difference to your personal wealth, I would recommend that you spend some time learning about investment. You will find that the sooner you know about it, the better off your future will be.

If you have access to the internet, the websites below are excellent starting points.

www.fool.com

www.money.com

www.schwab.com

www.thestreet.com

www.ici.org

Since these are all American sites, you will find that some of the terms and topics are irrelevant in Thailand. You may also notice that all of them discuss at length about investing in stocks, college planning and retirement planning, the concepts of which are quite alien to most of us here.

Locally, there are not many sites that provide basic lessons. The best one I have found so far is www.thaibdc.or.th, which gives basics on bonds. Others that either provide statistics or some original articles are:

www.bot.or.th (The Bank of Thailand)

www.sec.or.th (The Securities & Exchange Commission)

www.mof.go.th (The Ministry of Finance)

www.thaifin.com (personal finance site)

www.silkspan.com (financial superstore)

www.qthai.com (financial news and information)

If you don’t have access to internet, you can also find the following (English) books worth reading. (You should be able to find them in bookstores specialising in foreign publications.)

‘Investing for Dummies’, by Eric Tyson

‘Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing: What the Rich Invest in That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not!’, by Robert T. Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lechter

‘The Wall Street Journal Guide to Understanding Money & Investing’ by Kenneth M. Morris, Alan M. Siegel and Virginia B. Morris

‘Mutual Funds for Dummies’ by Eric Tyson

Again, these books are written in the American context, but you can still learn a lot of basic investment practices from them.

You will find that the above-mentioned websites and books have some similar lessons and concepts:

Before investing in anything, always set your investment objectives and evaluate your own risk profiles first

Diversify your investments in various asset classes such as bank deposits, bonds, stocks, gold and properties

Invest some of your assets for longer term to reduce short-term fluctuations

By learning about proper investing, you will be better prepared for cyclical economic downturns that will most likely hit Thailand again in the future. The sooner you start, the better. As I have read somewhere that “the best time to invest your money was yesterday!”