A primer on investing

FOR OVER 30 YEARS, Goh Yang Chye has been a prominent figure in the financial advisory industry of Singapore, pioneering a number of financial management models and heading the well-regarded GYC Financial Advisory.

Last year, he was asked by local publisher Epigram Books to pen a how-to guide on investing. And this turned out to be an inspired request: Goh writes lucidly and has a knack for explaining complex concepts with very little jargon.

The book titled Simply Invest: Naked Truths To Grow Your Money offers a wide range of advice and information on how to invest in Singapore, and also some hard-won wisdom distilled from weathering various financial crises, such as SARS, the Asian financial crisis, the internet bubble and the great financial crisis of 2008.

He admits: "I was initially reluctant to write this book as we were already so busy with our clients and company projects. However, I was later convinced that writing this book could be a way to help more people not be confused by the often conflicting information about investing, and not be discouraged into thinking that they would never accomplish their financial goals... I wanted to show that successful investing is simple and not as complicated as people may have been led to think."

He is wary of investment books that offer a "secret formula" for making money: "My goal of writing this book is to let people know that there really is no secret formula at all... Instead of spending time and money pursuing some supposed short-cut to instant wealth, we show you why investment success is most reliably achieved through simple discipline and patience."

Goh uses a mix of Singapore and international data to support his statements, and it is his understanding of the local regulatory frameworks that is perhaps most useful for the local reader. Most English-language investment books available in the market, after all, are geared towards American and European readers.

Like many longtime financial investors, he thinks the biggest pitfall for investors is not sufficiently controlling their emotions to think logically about their actions. Other common mistakes include chasing trends (cryptocurrency, anyone?), and getting distracted by potential returns while not paying attention to the risks (you can blame slick financial marketeers for this one).

In the book, Goh also slays some sacred cows. He makes a data-backed argument, for instance, that Singaporeans should choose stocks over property because the former gives better returns. He says: "If people were to receive a valuation of their property on a daily or monthly basis (as with stock statements) and experience first-hand the gyration in prices, I suspect most of them would be less enamoured of property investments.

"With property, there's the emotional aspect of being able to see, feel and touch your purchase. And there's also the benefit of leverage - which is common in property purchases... But if one were to analyse it from a purely returns perspective, the evidence shows that the compounded annualised returns of Singapore stocks and global stocks beat the returns of Singapore residential property. Plus, stocks are inherently more liquid."

Simply Invest: Naked Truths To Grow Your Money By Goh Yang Chye (Epigram Books) S$31, Paperback, is available in bookstores.