I ended up preferring to do index funds such as AXA's Chinese Tycoon Fund (worth PHP 3,000.2 per month which did a good job in curbing my extravagant lifestyle), I decided to buy some more index funds on GInvest to extend the inventory (powered by Seedbox and ATRAM, both reliable and also awarded sources), and any other indirect way. I feel like my attention deficit disorder (ADD) can be a serious disadvantage if I decide to directly trade stocks. However, with some studies, I could do some minimal stock trading as to reduce the risk. I did get into the Retail Treasury Bond (RTB) and the Long Term Negotiable Certificate of Deposit (LTNCD) as a start due to a lower risk appetite. My appetite is moderately risky so I decided to use AXA and GInvest to help regulate it.
I remembered being told someone (never knew the person) borrowed PHP 1 Million (or I think even higher) to invest in the stock market. The person may have decided to put the PHP 1 Million in stocks hoping to get rich quick. I think the reason behind the attempted suicide was that the values went down. I think the person thought that stocks would make him rich fast. What the person may have ignored is that investing money should hold this rule--invest what you don't need now.
One of the most foolish moves people have done is to buy high and sell low during a crash (read here). It would be like buying excessive stocks when everything is green and selling when it's red thinking it wouldn't recover. However, Warren Buffett's advice is to buy devalued stocks from good companies. Others suggest to do cost averaging where you invest the same amount of money regardless of market conditions. I prefer to do value cost averaging should the market go down but not to invest too much either. It's like I'd allocate PHP 1,000.00 per month by default (especially during a bull market) then I allocate PHP 2,000.00 to PHP 3,000.00 per month during a bear market.
Are people dropping out of legitimate investments because the investment didn't get them to get rich quick?
Maybe, someone bought the Variable Universal Life (VUL) insurance from AXA and said it's all a scam because the money got "lower and lower". However, VUL insurance is meant as a security and not to increase personal spending. Maybe, someone went to check their AXA funds involving stocks and found out it got lower. I checked one time during an all-time low and the Total Fund Value (TFV) got so low. The reason has to be the stock market being at a low at this point. I saw my TFV of the AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund got high during a stock market high. It's because the Net Asset Value Per Unit (NAVPU) is dependent on the overall stock market performance. So, I guess the person decides to say, "AXA is cheating! It's robbery in broad daylight!"
This makes me think maybe that's why some people have the problem of not investing and doing gambling instead (read here). It even reminded me of one of the articles I wrote was about was the irony of saying AXA is "a scam" while playing Axie Infinity thinking that it's an "investment". I guess they just wnat to get rich quick and the investments didn't give it to them. This makes me think of why some people may even want to pull out their indexes (resulting in making their paper loss actual losses) so they can start buying Axies. Just hearing about how Axie Infinity was supposedly a life-changing encounter for Filipinos. Yet, Axie Infinity has been known for its poor security (which is why I wrote about why I'm not "investing" in it) and it's really just gambling. Why would I want to play games where I earn and lose money for winning and losing? Games are just supposed to be recreational whether online or offline. Sure, there's the need to pay to play online these days (due to maintenance) but any promise to pay you to play is absurd.
After watching Trust No One: Hunt for the Crypto King (read my review here)--I really felt one of the reasons why people get into cryptocurrency is the promise for fast returns. Initially, it may work such as what if PHP 5,000.00 I invested into cryptocurrency will become PHP 15,000.00 in just a short amount of time? However, one should be alarmed if the money goes up or goes low too fast. That's what also happened during the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The stock market fell down because of a lack of regulation. Until cryptocurrency can be regulated--I'm really not going to get into it. Chinese-Canadian Tong Zou even shared his experience he lost his life savings due to cryptocurrency. However, Tong Zou managed to recover (somehow) even if that sum of money was lost forever.
I'd say it's a lack of patience that really caused it. I can get pretty impatient which was why I fell for a bad customer 10 years ago. Common sense is lost during times of impatience and greed. That's what I keep in mind when I have my AXA Chinese Tycoon Fund or my GInvest funds--I don't expect instant millions. As Proverbs 13:11 says that wealth that's gained dishonestly will dwindle. There's nothing honest about get rich quick schemes. After all, Ponzi schemes will always be, "You steal from X to pay Y. You steal from Y to pay Z." In short, any gains you get momentarily from a get rich quick scheme was based on somebody getting swindled to make you get that gain.
Maybe, I can share this quote by the late John Gokongwei whose companies are still in the Philippine-based index funds:
Success is not necessarily about connections, or cutting corners, or chamba (chance)--the three Cs of bad business. Call it trite, but believe me: success can be achieved through hard work, frugality, integrity, responsiveness ot change, and most of all, boldness to dream.