Stay invested!

As someone who works in the financial industry, one of the most common questions I'm asked when I meet new people for the first time is "what investment should I make?" The other most common confession that follows is, "I'm a terrible investor!" And this even from friends who themselves work in the financial sector!

Some of us are indeed better investors than others. A famous example is Warren Buffett. Some stats indicate that between 1965 and 2024 (the period of his leadership of Berkshire Hathaway), he had a compound annual return of 19.9% vs the US market S&P 500's 10.4%. Over those 60 years, he ended up with a total cumulative return of 5.5 million percent, compared with the S&P500's (already very impressive) return of 39 thousand percent!

Still, even Warren Buffett doesn't outperform all the time. Most recently, in the Covid/post-Covid tech rally, he tended to underperform, sometimes significantly. And let's face it, the vast majority of us aren't Warren Buffett!

But there are some things that are almost always useful to do. You don't have to "strike it lucky" with some moonshot investment. Suppose you keep $10,000 in a bank account at 2% interest per annum for 20 years. But your friend invests that same $10,000 conservatively and makes say just 6% per annum over the same time period. At the end of 20 years, your $10,000 has grown to $14,900 (49% cumulative).  Not bad. But your friend's $10,000 has grown to $32,100 (221%)!

And the gap just gets bigger. Over 40 years, the return is $22,100 (121%) for you and $102,900 (929%) for your friend! 

This is illustrated in a joke in the 1997 movie Austin Powers, where the villain Dr Evil is re-animated after decades of being frozen in cryo-stasis. He hatches a nefarious plan to blackmail world leaders, and demands payment of... ONE MILLLLLLLLION DOLLARS! And the world leaders respond with hilarity, "that's it?!"

I encountered this myself several years ago. I don't know how many of you are 80s kids, but there was this cartoon series called Mask, which spawned an absolutely incredible toy series. In a fit of nostalgia, I rewatched some old episodes, and in the very first 1985 episode, the villain Miles Mayhem (you just gotta love these villain names) gets his hands on a world destroying piece of asteroid. 

As he gloats over his evil plan, he intones, in his own immortal words, "Here is a list of the countries that would love to buy the most destructive weapon on earth! Tell them the bidding starts... at 15 MILLLLLLLION DOLLARS!! Muahahaha!!!"

I think the REAL destructive weapon that Miles Mayhem was talking about was inflation :D

The point is, that even if we are just regular or even sub-average investors, the one thing that we can't screw up is time. The earlier we start, the sooner compound interest starts to help us hold back the inexorable tide of inflation.

But investment isn't just confined to financial instruments. It's a sterile and meaningless life that finds value only in money!

What else can we invest our money in? People!

Readers will know that my friends and I spend a fair chunk of time and yes, money, to support a school in Batam. The money doesn't produce any financial returns. It's spent on people. And the great thing about people is that they GROW! 

Recently, a group of my friends attended the year-end graduation ceremony. I saw the faces of the graduating students, and realised I could pick them out of the pictures we took when we first started supporting the school, and these kids first enrolled as students. 

It was such an incredible joy, such an amazing sense of growth and progress, to see such visible evidence of these little kids growing up and graduating as proud alumni of the school! And I trust that God will keep helping them grow, steadily compounding the investments we have made, until little becomes much, not just for them, but for their families and neighbours!

Separately, I sit on the board of some charities, and it's so gratifying to see management share with us this same journey of investment producing compound returns. Kids, parents, the sick, the elderly and the marginalised, who see dramatic improvements in their lives, because of the work of the amazing leadership and staff of these charities, and the investment of donors, small and big. I've literally seen kids who were never expected to be able to walk, start to walk, because they are given access to quality care that was previously unavailable to them.

So we don't have to think of giving as mere charity. It's actually an investment that produces amazing returns. It's just that we don't keep the returns for ourselves. The returns are re-invested in the recipients and in their families and spheres of influence, as they themselves often give back.

We can do this in our personal lives too. Spend time with friends: older people who need companionship. Younger people who need mentorship. Peers who need counsel. Pay for lunch. Spend our time and energy. Invest.

Over the years, it has been such a joy to see students and young colleagues grow, build their own careers, families and ministry, become peers and better yet, surpass us, and give and serve in their own right. 

So what's the lesson for myself? Stay invested! Don't dig a hole and hide my time and money for myself. Instead, put it to use. And keep going - not investing as a mere one-off, but consistently keeping at it, so that it compounds over years. And then see the abundance of life (and not merely money) that arises out of generous giving! Let's join together in this endeavour!

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:19-21

"Remember this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:6-8