My Children Invest in the Stock Market, and why I think yours should, too!

         Long time no hear.  I know.  Been busy. Anyway, does this blog’s title sound familiar?  If you’ve read the best-selling book of Bo Sanchez, about his maids investing in the stock market, you should find this title familiar.

          This is the reason why I actually had a long time off from writing in this blog.  Aside from my orthopedic practice, I got hooked up financially educating myself.  So for this post, I will not talk about any orthopedic problem but a common problem of start-up doctors, being FINANCIALLY ILLITERATE.

         Being a doctor, a specialist and a subspecialist at that (I have fellowship training in hip and knee joint reconstruction, just in case you forgotJ) with several letters after my name (MD, DPBO, FPOA, FPCS, ABCDE, - ok just joking on the last one), I thought that I am highly educated, and that success will be proportional to my academic success.  I am highly-credentialed, I should earn money. (That’s what my parents told me.  Study hard, get good grades, top the boards (I wish) and you’ll get your first Jaguar car in no time. )

          But while it’s true that pursuing high academic knowledge is important, I realized that it’s not always directly proportional to financial success.  In fact, sometimes, it’s inversely proportional!

          My journey to financial education started with reading Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I learned there the definition of being financially free.  And my interest in investing was fuelled by the book of Bo Sanchez with almost the same title of this blog.  You see, most new start-up doctors, including me, have always complained (I am still complaining) of the difficulty in starting private practice, especially in Metro Manila. The obstacle course of setting up our practice sometimes is too difficult to overcome . Too much competition, too little reimbursements.

          Society (and BIR) thinks that doctors earn very well, but doctors sometimes just need to project that image in order to attract patients, or get a referral.  We need time to build our practice.  I also realized that while our senior colleagues are very willing to help us deal with our difficult cases, they are usually not willing to help us in our private practice, unless you are the son or daughter of a doctor.  Whether we like it or not, we are their competition. And why would a doctor, or any person, tell the secrets of the trade to a competitor? Life is unfair, get used to it - Bill Gates.

             So, instead of complaining and procrastinating , I just thought that there must be a way to deal with this.  In between patients or surgeries, I tried to educate myself financially to increase my financial literacy.  In this information age, there are a lot of blogs in the internet about financial planning and investments.  I tried to learn on my own. I realize that people have different investment philosophies, investment risks or appetite, but all of us must invest, especially doctors. Because no work, no pay.  I know of colleagues who are high-income earners but are poor.  How can that be?  Because their expenses are higher than their income.  Besides, all rich doctors I know have investments.

            Now, going to the title of this blog, why did I use this? Before I read Bo Sanchez’ book, I thought that the stock market was like an alien monster.  My colleagues who dabble in this, spoke in some language spoken only in another planet.  I couldn’t understand them. But I learned that you can invest in the stock market using the book “My Maid Invests in the Stock Market”, for as low as P2,000!

             So now, I put some money of my kids in the stock market, hoping it will grow as they grow up.  The growth will not be a straight line, but history says it will grow.

              While doing surgeries, or seeing patient in the clinics, money is growing for them.

               Isn’t that great?