No Nonsense Seminar on Finance

Last weekend, I attended Randell Tiongson's No Nonsense Seminar on Finance: How to Invest in the Future. I've been following his blog and Twitter account ever since I got curious about investing and wanted to know more about investing opportunities here in the Philippines. He writes in a way that even the most financially illiterate can understand investment concepts without sounding condescending. Naturally, I wanted to attend one of his seminars and I'm glad I didn't pass up this chance because he is as engaging as a speaker as he is a writer.

What I liked best about the seminar is that Randell emphasized right at the start ia that the BEST PERFORMING ASSET IS YOURSELF (yes, I have to write that down in all-caps =D). I totally agree that educating yourself is the best type of investment. If you want to learn more about a certain topic or skill, then you study about it, plan accordingly, and take actions. And it's not true that failing is not an option, it is what you do after failing matters the most.

Marvin Germo, a stock expert, was a guest speaker in the seminar. His talk complemented the things Randell said about investing. He also emphasized setting your goals before investing on anything and to diversify investments (i.e. do not invest on a single entity). While I know some of the basics of the stock market, it was really helpful to learn about it in a Philippine context, where the examples given were local companies and trends. The one hour allotted for him was too short!

It was an afternoon well-spent. I'd recommend this seminar to anyone who wants to learn how to start investing because it's very sensible (no nonsense indeed!) and empowering.