Dr Tee has been working in semiconductor industry for about 20 years in the past, climbing up corporate ladder from engineer to manager to director to VP, eventually I am CEO of my own company (10% semicon consulting + 90% investment education).
I was the General Chair of 10th EPTC 2008 Conference (Top IC packaging conference in Asia), 10 years have passed since then, good to gather with many old friends in tonight’s 20th anniversary of EPTC 2018 conference again.
I am glad to meet up today with a few Ein55 students who are working in semicon industry in Sentosa Resort World Convention Center. I have also shared my experience with younger members in semiconductor field, here is the summary:
1) Semiconductor is cyclic in nature. Staff could work hard (sometimes overnight without sleep, I did that in my early years as well) for company to make money but when business is bad, company may not show mercy to layoff staff, simply Hire & Fire when needed.
2) It is important to plan ahead during bull market when company business is doing well, converting the active income into an investment portfolio before retirement. A professional job should be a hobby for us while investment by right is an hobby, should become primary focus for us.
3) You may need to a PhD for engineering / semicon but only need primary school (PSLE) qualification for stock investment. In fact, many smart people lose money in stocks, even university professors are interested to know how to invest to profit in lifetime, not just depend on a job with salary, working till retirement. Stock investment can be very simple (if following step by step on proven methods such as Optimism + FA +TA + PA) but also can be very complicated (if you try other speculative ways such as listening to news and rumors).
4) When working in semicon / technology field, stock investment should be on other industries (eg. property, healthcare, F&B, etc) for diversification as each sector has its own cycle. If work and invest in only 1 sector, risk is high when sector crisis comes (eg. Oil & Gas, Dot Com bubble, etc)
5) We were in Genting Resort World, so I use the example of shareholding is as if owning a casino table within the big casino, sharing the profits gained without need to put in any active effort, therefore it is called passive income.
There is a fine line between job and hobby if we know how to balance. We only need to invest 10% time on investment but the outcome can be more important than 90% of time spent in job which help other people’s company to make money. Invest in oneself, not others.
I will share more life lessons (investment / work) with members in tomorrow session during EPTC 2018. For others, you are welcomed to listen to my 4 hours free investment course, register in www.ein55.com, this could be the best investment of time, learn with open mind, it is not a sales talk.
