There's an age old story that goes like this.

==

There's a certain rich man who owns a lot of estates. One day, for some reason the rich man is required to travel to a far country. So he summoned three servants, and put them in charge of his wealth. To the first he gave 5 millions. The second he gave 2 millions. And the last one he gave 1 million. 

There's not much instruction given but just a simple command, 'do business till I come'. 

So the first servant went and multiplied another 5 millions. Likewise, the second servant also multiplied another 2 millions. But the last servant, for fear of his master, hid the money underground so that a single cent was not lost. 

Finally, after a considerable long period, the man came back and summoned his servants once again so that they could present their accounts. The first one said 'lord, you gave me 5 millions. See, I have multiplied it with another 5 millions', to which the master replied 'well done, good and faithful servant, you're faithful in the little thing, I will put you in charge of many things.' 

Likewise, the second servant presented his account, and received the same applause.

Now it was the third servant's turn. The servant said 'i am afraid of you, because you're a harsh man. You are very calculative, and you blame people who lost your money. So because I'm afraid of you, i hid your money. See now my master is safely returned, see the 1 million is here, I have safeguarded it.'

You know the reply of the master. Furious, the master said 'Out of your own mouth I will judge you. You know that I am a harsh man, collect what i did not deposit, and reap what i do not sow. Why did you not even take an effort to put my money to the bank? At least I can gather some interest by now!'

So the first two servants received the praise from his master. But for the third one, he is expelled and slewed. 

==

Though the original record is found in the gospel account of the 'New Testaments' (dated around 50~100 AD), we can perhaps extract some lessons for the investors:

1) Investing as an act of stewardship

Whether you are investing on your own, or your family fund, or your company's fund, there is a direct relationship between investing and stewardship. Investing has to do with putting money to work for a greater return, while stewardship has to do with proper discharge of service. In short, as investors we must always be answerable to our master concerning how we use the fund entrusted to us. 

While not many of us are in charge of other people's money (especially fund managers), I think this principle will help us to be vigilant prior to committing the purchase of securities. Think of your loved ones, your dependants, your future family... how you invest today will have an impact toward your ability to provide for them in the future.

2) Investing requires effort

It is a blunt act to be hasty and dump all the funds into the hottest stock today, and pray that it will go up.

While we understand that everyone at i3 community here desires a greater return than the pathetic FD rate, we should understand that for stock picking, FA & TA, all these take skills, experience, and much learning to yield an above average return. 

Since you already started the journey to investing, consider putting some effort into it. Just like that how you want to do your job well, your study, and any task assigned to you. For FA players, it means understand the company prior to committing purchase. For TA players, it means continuous learning on generating profitable trades based on technical signals. Forum may provide interaction, but homework must be done always.

3) The comparison effect

Just want to make a third point (a minor one) so that the article has at least some meat for readers. If you note it well, you will find that the master gave different amounts to each servant, perhaps due to their ability, or maybe it's just random. It is understood that all of us started off with different size of funds. Some are ikan bilis, some are seasoned retail investors, or some fund managers alike. I know that it's tempting to calculate how much % you need in order to be like them someday. So that you can enjoy what they enjoy now.

It is not wrong to set target, or to admire the financial brillance of some of the most succesful investors today. Just that sometimes we need to remind ourselves to play our own games. It is easier to get RM100k a year when you have RM500k capital. But to expect RM100k return with only RM50k capital only over-stretch the expectation, which may risk employing strategy which is destructive to your portfolio.

One day you may enter the 1 million club. Or 1 billion club. Or you may never enter it. What is more important is that you multiply it more than what you had initially. That would be considered a success already.

p/s: This article does not mean that if you lose a lot, you're bound to be a failure to the master. After all, this is only hypothetical for investing wisdom. It simply means that investing is an act of stewardship. Just like a home buyer will make sure its house is well cleaned and furnished, so likewise an investor will safeguard his asset while at the same time seek adequate return. 

Jiayou ba....huat ar~