How did you become so financially woke so early?

Hi Anon,

For me personally, I think I was lucky that my dad pushed me to pick up investing at a relatively young age. He explained to me that I have the benefit of time on my side and even if I make bad investment decisions today, I will have the time to ride it out.

I started reading up about investing when I had a little free time in 2018 during NS, but did not start investing till 2019. (That too, I only started with bonds, a relatively safe investment tool). I just started investing in equities this year.

My advice is, no matter how small, you should just get started. The investing process has become much more democratised over the past few years, with the emergence of robo-advisors and comission free trading etc. Once you get started, you'll have a thirst to learn more, and hopefully make better investment decisions.

Not sure if my late twenties are still considered early. I first got interested about personal finance when I was in army. Friend of mine gave me a book called "Rich Dad Poor Dad".. I'm sure you've heard of it before too. Was eye-opening but didn't knew what sort of 'assets' Robert was referring too. It's not as though I could just buy property and gain capital from it in Singapore.

Fast forward a few years I got to read up more about investing... Seedly also helped out a lot when I was starting my journey. How to create brokerage account etc... when to join an investing course and the rest is history. Now I continue learning and reading up whenever I'm able to.

Only when I started investing, I realise how much I should've saved/earned when I was younger. Nevertheless, it's never too late to start.

I had an acquaintance, who was in MLM (please DO NOT fall prey into these pyramid schemes), lent me her "Rich Dad Poor Dad" book to read. This led to more research which took me to Mr Money Moustache, theEscapeArtist.me & Millennial Revolution. Local financial content creators such as InvestmentMoats, Seedly & TheWokeSalaryMan are also helpful in my financial journey. Do note that I am emphasized that it is a journey so please do not feel discouraged when you start late as you are probably doing much better financially than most people who are addicted to consumerism & dopamine rushes from instant gratification

I wasn’t born into a rich family. Realised that poor financial decisions caused some stir within the family. Decided to pursue investing as I found through many success stories of people learning to invest with calculated risks and having the financial freedom. The feeling of retiring early and having the freedom to enjoy a lifestyle worth having was what drove me to be woke.