Moving Forward

I recently read this mail from someone which had an article about how your salary should be quadruple your age.

I have to say that I had mixed feelings after reading the article. Part of me feels that I could do more with my life and be like that person, and share the same success story. The other part of me just feels depressed since looking at my current position and salary, I doubt if I'll quadruple anything anytime soon.

I've dabbled in several money-generating projects before, but I had to let go of it since my new post would require that I travel overseas, and it would be a real challenge to step out of the office to work on the projects.

Since then, the most I've done is invest in Mutual Funds and the Stock Market just to earn a bit more on top of the regular paycheck. Both investment tools involve certain risks since the principal will never be assured, unlike Time Deposits or Savings Accounts. But then again, they say that the greater the risk, the greater the returns. So I'm roadtesting these two for now to see if the returns are really worth it ;)

With the market correction right now, as well as the problems in the US, I don't even know what the outlook is for 2008. I read this article in Inquirer.net that PSEi might surpass the 4000points index by year end, perhaps as high as 4200points. My Sunlife agent also told me that there is a possibility that this might happen since most fund managers would be gearing up their portfolio for next year. Also, people might start with the bargain hunting already since it's always the best time to buy stocks when the market's low, with the hopes of selling them at a profit later on ;)

For now, I'm just waiting for the Sunlife VUL Equity NAV to hit 1.8 or 1.9, then I'll shift my investments. Yesterday it hit 1.99 already, but since the PSEi gained 5points today, I'm not sure how it will impact the Equity NAV. I guess I'd have to wait and see at this point. But if the index will hit 4000points by yearend, I gotta be ready to move and all that.

For Stock Trading, I plan to buy and hold for 6months to a year, since I don't have the appetite for day trading just yet. Some of the people here in the office dabble in day trading, but I find it too tedious so I'll stick to the long-term route instead. For now at least, since I'm still reading up on Fundamental and Technical Analysis of the stock market. I've also joined this forum which has several threads dedicated to stock trading, from IPOs and Top Picks to the Online Broker which they belong to.