3 Books Local Singapore Investors Wrote That Shape My Investment Philosophy

Having started on the books that help started my investment journey, I was curious if we have local Singaporean investors writing any books. I mean, if there were investors in Singapore writing about their success stories, it shows that we as readers reading their books can make it in Singapore too.

These are the books I manage to buy and read up. The authors are based in Singapore and books were purchased 10 years ago. I bought them because they document their real case studies and I would follow these case studies. The case studies they presented generally follow the same trend on:

1. Financial Discipline
2. Delayed Gratification
3. Magic of Compounding Interest.

They all rely on the above 3 areas to approach their real life scenarios and it was interesting to read their investment journey. There were many details and process that you can pick up from the books to use it in your Investment Journey.

Here I would speak about each book and what are the interesting bits they have written in their case studies.

4 Steps To Financial Freedom by Sean Toh

4 Steps only then you can be free financially! What a concept. I would label the author as Singapore's Arnold Schwarzenegger who started off as a body builder to become a successful motivation speaker. 10 years later, I did a search on Sean Toh. I would say he is still a motivational speaker? Not much I could find out about him.

His book basically sets out the basis of his financial education which is generic and pretty standard on how to ensure the passive income out grows your portfolio income and ultimately exceeds your earned income. The books documents his personal life story on how he overcomes life's challenges and became successful in his defined version of success.

What was interesting were some of his case studies he used to explain to educate yourself financially. His premise on the book is largely generic and simple but I do learn some of his points:

a) Creating a spreadsheet to detail your day to day expenses and then tabulating them each end of the year to really know what is actually spent.

b) Discipline to delay gratification. He gave some examples worth noting and it kept popping up in the other books I read.

c) Ideas on how to create you passive income to generate more than your portfolio income.

Overall, it was nice to read a local Singaporean doing well for himself and he written a book to share his processes that help him succeed. Again his definition of success is different from you and me which is also different for each of us. Otherwise in general, he advocates like what I mentioned about the 3 ideas these books tend to follow:

1. Financial Discipline
2. Delayed Gratification
3. Magic of Compounding Interest.

Secrets of Self-Made Millionaires by Adam Khoo

Every Singaporean who wants to know how to manage finances should start with this book. It generally explains the idea of financial freedom.

There are not much secrets and it can be achieved by any individual. The main focus is your mindset and determination to set your goals and develop a plan to achieve it.

The book also touches on the similar 3 points of:

1. Financial Discipline
2. Delayed Gratification
3. Magic of Compounding Interest.

What is different is that Adam Khoo is someone in Singapore who really made it as a millionaire, real legit millionaire. He could possibly be a billionaire by now, but most definitely made his way to financial freedom.

What is useful in his books are his stories written in our local context and how we can easily relate to the situations. If he can find financial freedom in his situation in our local context, why not us? His many examples in the book are real inspiration and he has given specific advice and examples to explain what you could and should avoid or should do towards your financial freedom path.

Overall, it is definitely THE book to read to get your mind prepared for financial freedom in a Singaporean context.


Salary Man Cracking the Property Investment Code by BY Tiang

This book is about property investment and the author is sharing his experiences as a Singapore PR working in Singapore with properties in Singapore but also investing in Malaysia as he is a Malaysian.

The experiences he shared are before the government updated the Buyer Stamp Duty and other restrictions. So it may not be so relevant to our current situations. Nevertheless, it explores an alternative option to look to Malaysia to invest in property. With the current political circus in Malaysia and if you have no relatives or social connections there, it would be risky to pump your hard earned money.

What is useful is he details each decision making process in a spreadsheet and accounts for most of the nitty gritty details when we buy property. I learnt on to assess and develop my own spreadsheet to analyse property prices. A few insights from other books, I was able to formulate my calculation and criteria to assess the "actual" property price I should pay.

This book gave me insights and perspective on a common salaried worker like myself on how we can develop creative solutions to leverage on financial frameworks to help us strive towards financial freedom. In this case, this author focus on getting rental properties to be financially free.

In his book, he too emphasized the same 3 points many other books did but in a different manner. It touches on:

1. Financial Discipline
2. Delayed Gratification
3. Magic of Compounding Interest.

These 3 points are reflective in nearly every investment books I read up. Really interesting noteworthy points.

Summary

I would say again the 3 points:

1. Financial Discipline
2. Delayed Gratification
3. Magic of Compounding Interest.

They were repeated in each book in some form or another and the concepts are similar. What is different is their approach and mentality of creating solutions to achieve a common goal of financial freedom. I think that makes it interesting to read up on and it helps you to think on your way to create your personal solutions towards your investment journey.

I guess the book by Adam Khoo generates the spark and motivation in oneself to work on your financial freedom path. So if you really had to choose, choose the book by Adam Khoo.

~tschuss!