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The Path to Wealth Starts from You

A survey on Thai teenagers in January 2024 by Rocket Media Lab in collaboration withPath2Health Foundation shows that students at the secondary school level across all regions of Thailand want to learn finance and investment in school the most. The survey didn’t go deeply to find out why they think they need it. But if we want to learn more about something, it means we have an unresolved problem, and we are not good enough at it.

So, why do most students have a problem with money management? Or why do they want to make more money? The simplest and most common answer is that the money they receive from their parents (or earn by themselves) is not enough to meet their needs. Moreover, social media content often stimulates them to spend more.

In this issue, we want to ‘alert’ our young readers that before we learn about finance and investment, apart from the knowledge, we must have “fund” first.

The initial capital comes from two ways; your own savings or the money borrowed from others. If you are a student or don’t have any credit from an investor or a bank, then you are left with only one way to get the fund; that is from your savings. You need to spend less than you earn.

The simple equation is “money earned – money spent = savings.” Then these savings can be used for investment. It’s so simple! Spend less, then use the remaining for investment. That’s it.

The heart of investment, especially for students who have only one source of income or office workers who don’t have much knowledge about investment, is “thriftiness.”

The truth is people don’t have to invest more at all; they only need to save more. Their savings may grow even faster than their investment portfolio (try tracking your shopping history on online shopping stores or monthly credit card statements).

I guess that many people who want to know about finance and investment don’t want the answer like “Save it and you’ll be rich”, just like the monk’s sermon – Keep the 5 precepts, then your life will be good. For them, that’s not classy, not cool. They want to sit and look at the graphs, to trade stocks, to have crypto, and so on, thinking that “I want to know about investment not because I want to save money but I want to increase my income to buy things! I want to raise my status quickly! I want to know about it! I already have savings, I’m ready to take the risk and can accept some losses because my life is still long, and I can make more money. So, tell me how!”

Well, there is a method. You only need to understand some simple numbers, with some additional expertise. We’ll talk about this in the next issue.

As for those of you who don’t want your savings decrease against rising inflation, just becareful with your spending and put the money in a savings account, a longterm deposit or buy bonds that offer at least 4% interest rate per year. This way, your return can beat the inflation.

As for other options for bigger return, we’ll talk about that in the next issue.

The full version is available in the 5000s magazine issue 56. Subscribe Now.