“The stock market is filled with individuals who know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.” — Phillip Fisher
The year 2022 was a tough year for investors around the world. It was the worst year since the financial crisis hit us in 2008. Many investors are still licking their wounds especially those who bought digital assets at their highs in early 2022.
Having said that, I would consider 2022 to be the best year ever for me to buy my desired ETFs at big discount.
I am happy to hold on to my principle of buying ETFs according to my asset allocation rain or shine. Ignoring short term market noise will be the best policy for long term investor likes me.
Market Performance in 2022
Below are major indices performances in 2022
| Index | Performance |
| S&P 500 | -19.4% |
| Dow Jones | -8.8% |
| Nasdaq | -33.1% |
| STI | +4.09% |
| KLCI | -4.06% |
STI is the only market that clocked a positive return in 2022. KLCI was down 4.06% in 2022 and for those who have bought glove related stocks 2 years ago, they are still sitting on big losses at this moment. I do not believe in stock picking because I am not good in analyzing companies. Getting average return is good enough for me.
My USD Portfolio Performance in 2022
My USD portfolio performed poorly in 2022, registered a return of -16.6%. I am still about 3 years away from my retirement date, a significant market downturn is actually doing me a favour, making my monthly purchase of VWRD, VUSD and IGLO cheaper.
I have been sleeping well for the last few years after investing almost 60% of my extra money in ETFs ( except a few nights of insomnia due to disturbing calls from hospital). Temporary market fluctuation has no more bearing on how I buy ETFs. My strategy is simple– I buy monthly every time I have extra cash- ignoring the direction of the market!
I used to be looking at my portfolio value every day many years ago, worried about losing money in the market. Nowadays , I seldom look at my trading account because I know the value of ETFs is unlikely to drop to zero ( Imagine if you have bought Luna Coin USD or Serba Dinamik during the peaks!).I am telling my wife actually I am happy to see my USD portfolio value drops USD30k or 40K a day because I know that specific day will be the best day for me to buy a few more shares of VWRD or VUSD!
It is the Easiest Plan
Trust me, ETFs investing is the easiest and safest plan for you to achieve your financial freedom if you are like me, an investor with no financial background and have zero knowledge about reading a company financial report!
No one likes to be average but you can get enormous return just being average in stock market. You just need to remember two things- don’t lose your money and let compound interests do the magic.
And of course, be patient along the journey, market is volatile and unpredictable but as long as you have a time horizon of at least 5 years, you are in good hands.
I had invested in individual stocks, properties- local and overseas, REITs, IPO, businesses, start-ups etc, none of these investments gave me good sleep at nights! The worst part, I lost more money from all these ventures and got cheated by so many people before!
Conclusion
I think all Malaysians and Singaporeans should achieve financial freedom at some stage during their career paths provided they save and invest regularly!
Don’t be too bothered and carried away how much your friends make in their investments because every one is different in this world. Stick to your own plan and follow it religiously!
Thanks for sharing
Reader from Singapore
Dear Desmond,
Thanks for dropping by. Hope you learn something from my writings.
Hi Dr Goh,
I invest USD 1k into VWRA monthly and I’d like to ask if you take conversion fees into your overall expense ratio?
I find that if conversion fees are included, the expense ratio increases noticeably, unless I dump a larger sum of money each month (based on total fees/expense ratio in %)
Dear Alcatraz,
Thank you for your comment, I would suggest you to keep USD1k every month and only invest quarterly instead of monthly. This will reduce the cost of transaction and I don’t see the difference between monthly and quarterly investment in term of long term returns but you will certainly save in fees.
Thank you.