Refreshed 13 Jul 2026 — original published 3 Sep, 2023 I wrote on my personal investment philosophy 3 years ago and I think now is as good a time to revisit it. With all the noise in the market, how do we act? But why is a philosophy important? A philosophy gives clarity on how to act. A philosophy empowers us to control what we can control: our decisions. It narrows an infinite field of possibilities down to what matters, and that alone tends to produce better decisions. My

Not Loch Ard but on the Great Ocean Road. During a trip to Melbourne, my family and I drove out along the coast and stopped at a place called Loch Ard Gorge. My wife, our children, my in-laws — none of us really knew what to expect. It is a beautiful stretch of coastline, with views that take your breath away. Then I read the displays. I cannot tell you now exactly what they said, word for word. But they told the story of a shipwreck, and something in it stayed with me long a

Photo by Kelli Tungay on Unsplash Towards the end of my teaching career, I started giving each of my graduating students a colour pencil. One pencil. Each of them, as they left. Being a teacher was a privilege and the journey with the students was always amazing. The graduation day was a stark reminder that our journey was ending. We would soon part. I wanted to give them something to think about. I wanted them to leave with a deeper reflection of what their actions meant. I

Part two of a two-part reflection on Lee Freeman-Shor’s The Art of Execution. Read Part 1 here In part one, I wrote about Illusion, the idea that more data doesn’t necessarily lead to better decisions. The lesson was that we often respond to how risk presents itself, not to the risk itself. Here, I want to turn from how returns feel to how they actually arrive. Outliers Most individual stocks are bad investments That is not pessimism. It is arithmetic. J.P. Morgan’s Michael C

Part one of a two-part reflection on Lee Freeman-Shor’s The Art of Execution. Read the second part here. I read a book whose ideas run contrary to my own investing philosophy. Lee Freeman-Shor writes in his book, The Art of Execution, about a High Conviction approach. He gives a group of fund managers a single rule: invest only in your ten best ideas. When Lee studied the 1,866 investments they made, he found something humbling. Only 49 percent of those “high conviction” inve

All things considered, still a great trip. This is me, with the car, on the F1 Montreal Circuit (opened to public, I had no idea) I want to tell you about something that happened to me recently. It reflects badly on me; but the lesson it left behind is one I think is worth sharing (and a good reminder to myself). Just last week, I was in Canada. I rented a car from Avis to get around. When I returned it, I made a point of asking the counter staff to confirm that the tank was

Photo by Ben Kim on Unsplash This post is part of my ongoing series on investment philosophy. If you haven't read the earlier pieces, you can find them at https://www.williamseah.com/blog. It has been roughly two months since the Iran war began. The Strait of Hormuz — one of the most critical chokepoints in the global energy supply chain — remains restricted. Oil and fertiliser shipments have been disrupted. Energy facilities have been hit and will take time to rebuild. The w

This post is part of my ongoing series on investment philosophy. If you haven't read the earlier pieces, you can find them at https://www.williamseah.com/blog . This post is part of my ongoing series on investment philosophy. If you haven't read the earlier pieces, you can find them at https://www.williamseah.com/blog . Let me ask you something honest. When you check your portfolio and it is down — even slightly — how does it feel? Now think about the last time it was up

This post is an addendum to my earlier piece on Investment Philosophy 101: What Investment Means to Me . If you haven't read it, I'd encourage you to start there. In my earlier piece, I wrote about why I believe in long-term, disciplined investing. The philosophy is straightforward: stay invested, weather the storms, and trust the data. The market rewards patience. But a question I often get asked is this: if we believe in staying invested, when do we ever get out? When do

The war in the Middle East has now entered its fourth week. Like life itself, it has its ebbs and flows. For those of us outside the conflict zone, the impact is felt through higher oil, food, and flight prices—and a general sense of unease. For those living in the region, the cost is far greater: lives lost, fear endured, and trauma carried. War is always destructive. Over the weekend, President Trump claimed that talks with Iran were underway. Iran quickly denied this. Head

I’ve always believed in stewardship. As a financial planner, it’s second nature to watch spending, track budgets, and encourage financial...

My Legacy is the Life I Live. Live Fully, Give Early: Rethinking Wealth and Legacy in Singapore We work hard. We save carefully. And one...

"Retirement isn't just about having enough money—it's about having a life worth retiring into." When we talk about retirement planning,...

“We don’t see the world as it is, we see it as we are.” – Anaïs Nin How Our Inner World Shapes Our Outer Lens We like to think we’re...

I decided to pen down my own personal investment philosophy. I believe that having a philosophy in life, for any area, gives us clarity...

I wrote this article for Autoimmune Diseases SG. The full article is on the page, while here is an abridged version. August is a special month for me. Other than being my birthday, it is also the month, when I was warded in hospital for Guillain Barre Syndrome, for the second time, in 2016. Guillain-Barré (Ghee-yan Bah-ray) Syndrome (GBS) is an inflammatory disorder of the peripheral nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. As an autoimmune condition, it is when the immune s

Earlier this year, I was invited to Catholic Junior College to share with the students on financial planning. This was an interesting...

Are you feeling a little bit down and out about not seeing the performance you expected or had hoped for in your investment efforts?...

Everyone wants big wins. We want to be the first. We want to have a big breakthrough in our work, in our lives. If I daresay, we live for...

I decided to do a personal update for this post. How quickly time flies. It is now mid-year. And a good time to review the year, if you...