Hello everyone, I am James here, founder of SmallCapAsia.com.
Today I have the honour of inviting Felicity over for a short interview.
Felicity is a financial blogger @ http://www.intellecpoint.com/ and the blog has been in existence since year 2010. In this ‘Serious Investing’ blog, you can find her portfolio earmarked for her children’s college education come year 2027. And by the way, it has delivered an incredible 347% return over 6 years and still counting!
Getting excited yet? Let’s move onto the Q&A now!
-
Kindly tell us more about yourself.
With financial background, I consider myself a very serious investor with lots of my own money being put at stake towards my family’s financial well-being. I have been investing since my school days even before I went into university albeit with very little money.
I spend lots of time watching, reading and figuring out about businesses during my spare time as it is something which I like and it becomes second nature to me.
Despite the financial background, my first love and instance of making any investment decision is mainly from the perspective of business. Throughout my career, I have been provided with opportunities to know and learn from some very good business minds.
Hence, my investment philosophy is always about areas that I understand well – i.e. not just the financial numbers.
-
What led you to start your own blog about investing/personal finance?
I have always wanted to share some of my knowledge on investing as this is one area which I know best besides the work that I do.
The blogging came as a result of the need for me to understand the concept of blogging and as this is something which I know well, I thought of sharing my thoughts.
-
Where do you usually get your investment ideas?
The training on finance, is something which I feel it is a given – as one will need to know some basics i.e. understanding income statement, balance sheet, cashflows, time value of money etc. Beyond that, I think it is not really needed.
Reading and watching relevant business content provides me the opportunity to expand my horizon on the sectors and businesses that I try to invest into. I have always like to read biography of successful business people.
Other than that, my on the job training of working with business entrepreneurs gives me a lot of time to practice my thoughts and understanding of current and future businesses challenges.
-
What is your investment strategy and what do you like about it?
Long term fundamental investment – and I meant really long term. Being long term provides me the opportunity to be additionally careful on any particular stock that I invest into.
It also reduces mistakes as only with a long term horizon, I am able to see things clearer. It eliminates the feeling of getting agitated when a particular stock underperforms over a shorter period.
-
Have you faced any challenges in your investment journey? Kindly share one or two of them.
My early days in investment was much more about buying a particular undervalue stock without consideration for its business or how well the business was managed. There are and were many mistakes obviously, but thankfully none that were hugely detrimental.
Of course, I went through the 1994 mini-crash and 1998 massive crash but since I did not put any money into second board counters – my investments were not really that impacted.
I have since changed my strategy to more of buying good businesses rather than just looking at undervalued stocks. This is also because as I get more experience and older, my horizon of sectors and businesses gets wider – hence, I am able to consider more stocks in my investment portfolio.
6. We noticed that you have listed down your holdings in the ‘Felice Fund’. Can you give us more insights on some of the stocks?
Besides being a particular portfolio that I hold and these are real purchases and sale, I am very careful with the portfolio. The reason is that since it is going to be a portfolio which I am to share, I have to be extremely careful and with very strong reasons for its picking.
On the rationale for the picks, I think one can go to the blog and get to understand them. I do not pick a company without providing enough rationale for its purchase. In the event of sale, it could be because I have a better stock to switch to or because it is obviously overvalued.
The fund itself as one can see, is really my investment philosophy of holding a stock for the long term. It is important for me to show that I hold these stocks for the long term as only though this manner, one can really measure the performance of the companies I pick.
I feel that it is very wrong to get in and out from a particular stock over a very short period as it is misleading the investment public.
-
Is there a particular book you will recommend for our readers?
Just read anything on Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch on investments. The newer business minds, one should read Jeff Bezos, Jack Ma.
Equally important are books on personal financial management – even those written by Robert Kiyosaki is recommended although some of them are hard to achieve.
One should also read about economics as to master investments – it is important to understand business and economics.
-
Lastly, any advice or words of encouragement for fellow young aspiring investors??
Investment is something which can be a career where one can choose for ones lifetime. You can start anytime – at 20, or even 60.
If you have the passion and willing to spend time, stock investment is really fulfilling as it is not just the success and / or failure but the process of it is rewarding. It is one of the few reasons, for anybody to pursue lifelong learning.
Thanks Felicity and hope you all have enjoyed our interview series at MyTwoCents. See you next time!
Before you go, Receive your eye-opening FREE Ebook titled – “100 BAGGERS” by Christopher W. Mayer by clicking today!
Last but not least, do remember to Like us on Facebook too as we share the latest investing articles and stock ideas for you!
