Another Harvard Dropout?

Clickbait, I hate it the video below was a good story about Coupang which is potentially the Amazon equivalent of Amazon. After watching the video I learned the Bom Kim stopped his graduate studies in order to pursue his business. The title of the video made me assume that he was an undergraduate who became successful and had a similar story as Zuckerberg and Gates. Dropout sometimes means a person failed college as well.

It was a good story though which may be typical of graduate students who has started businesses and was made to choose between furthering their education or continuing the entrepreneurial journey. The first iteration of the business was a Groupon copycat which is probably a story in every country that had ambitious young entrepreneurs at the time. Locally there was a lot of people who tried. Some are still in business but I think a lot have closed shop since. This Coupang story follows the startup model where your initial idea doesn't end up as the final product. It is now an ecommerce platform larger than what probably Bom Kim ever imagined.

Viral Content: Children with Down Syndrome Pose as their Favorite Characters

A photographer took pictures of children with down syndrome in costume as their favorite cartoon character. Looking at the smiles of the children they seemed to having such an enjoyable time doing this. I initially saw this on a story by the Today show.

Theranos Scam

Looking at one of the biggest scams in recent history. Here's the story of how silicon valley can get be charmed by a grandiose idea and an aggressive charmer. I'm sure there are probably more stories like this but this should be on of the more elaborate ones. WeWork, while not a scam I think can also be one of the good sobering stories for the startup industry. I will post a video (not mine) about it as well.

Event: 2020 Vision: Eyes on the Prize (BPI Trade Market Forecast Event)

I've started looking into stocks about middle of last year and from the content you can see on YouTube it's seems to be a good place to earn additional income. In some of the talks that I attended it seems some of the speakers have struck it big. As I have learned it does take some time to get comfortable in investing in the stock market. As a fresh graduate I actually put some money in the Petron IPO but since I didn't really understand how it works I pulled it out as soon as I got some profit.

Last year though I seriously tried to look into it. With all the available materials and content on the internet I slowly got comfortable with it. I started with watching some bank sponsored marketing events and some YouTube channels. I also attended basic stock market seminars by AB Capital. I started using online tools such as Investagram where you can virtually invest money and trade through and app, it was a good way to "practice". Here are some things I learned from looking into it:

1. Having an understanding of the stock market helps you better understand the various investment instruments the bank offers. Everyone want to get better interest rates and the bank offers different products and offering which are based on the stock market.

2. Stocks generally offer better returns on your investment. Depending on your risk factor and ability you can get short term or long term investment.

3. You can definitely lose money. You have to mentally prepare for this. As they say win big, lose big.

4. You don't have to be really smart to invest in the market. In fact, there SEEMS to be patterns which you can follow which can help you earn more.

5. Long term, it's a good place to keep your money. Just invest on blue chip stocks.

6. Learn and listen about investing until you get comfortable with it. There are a lot of terms but try to understand it.

7. You don't need a lot of money to invest in the market. In fact, I have less than Php5,000 invested in one of my accounts.

8. You can directly invest in the stock market and trade online. It's easy an convenient once you've set up your account.

9. You have a platform to practice with "play money" via apps or various websites. The downside with this though is that if you make good investments and earn - it's not real money. I say this because my trial account did really well.

10. Lastly, if you are really intent on investing do not over think it. Just dive into it just like what I did. Currently, I'm down about 10% overall but that's ok. It may potentially bounce back. If I leave that negative stock out (Jollibee), I'm up 5% overall. That's seeing it glass half full. But just go and have a good enough idea of the safe stock to invest in.

After all that, keep on learning.As a beginner, stock trading has a lot or terms that you need to familiarize yourself with. My strategy just to get comfortable with the industry speak is to keep listening to talks and videos whether through events of the internet.

Last November 25 BPI Trade had an trade market forecast event entitled "2020 Vision: Eyes on Prize. I think I saw a post about it on their Facebook page and I eagerly signed up for it. I looked forward to it because it was being held in a nice venue, the Shangrila Hotel in Makati and I was looking forward to whatever I could learn.

The event had four parts, an economic outlook which which I vaguely comprehend but understand the overall purview of what was said. The 2nd talk was about the stocks and strategies to invest which I felt was a good talk especially for beginners like me. The 3rd was about REIT, which I believe is a new product which BPI will launch soon. Again, I have little knowledge of these financial stuff but I feel I know enough. And I believe that this would be a very good investement instrument.  The 4th speaker spoke about their forecast for the stock market on 2020.

We didn't have free events like these when I was younger so I try to attend as many of them. It's a good platform to increase your knowledge base and familiarize yourself with things you're not comfortable with. Best of all the was free food!!

Below are BPI's stock picks for 2020.

Product Comparison: Water Bottles

I purchased my Kleen Kanteen bottle 5 years ago. It was around P3,000 pesos maybe more.I started avoiding softdrinks a long time ago just because it was both an unnecessary expense and it was an unhealthy habit. I justified the cost of buying an expensive water since I felt it will save me a ton when I do eat in fast food restaurants - I would no longer need to order food that comes with cola. I believe that my savings has since paid for the cost of the water bottle. Given I live in a tropical country it comes in handy with the weather. I mostly just put water in it and I bring it with me everytime. It keeps water cold at least 12 hours even when left in a hot car.

While wasn't looking for another water bottle I just found a product comparison video a waste of time. I was just curious if there was even a difference. While there is a difference what made the video more interesting to me was the B Corporation Certification. This certification was new to me. It's essentially a certification given to products or companies that have high ethical standards in terms of the environment, employee satisfaction, and community development.

The video below start with the explanation of what the B Corporation is all about. I'm glad that Kleen Kanteen is on the list.

Here a link to the B Corporation.