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

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 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 we

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 decided to pen down my own personal investment philosophy. I believe that having a philosophy in life, for any area, gives us clarity on how to act. A guiding philosophy helps us control what we can control: our decisions. It allows us to stop wondering about the infinite possibilities and focus on what is important. This allows us to make better decisions. My philosophy is that investment is a long-term strategy where investors are rewarded for discipline and commitment ov

Are you feeling a little bit down and out about not seeing the performance you expected or had hoped for in your investment efforts? Here’s a story about numbers to tide you through this waiting period. Whenever you’re in doubt about playing the long game in investing, here’s one thing you can go back to, trust the data. Data, data, data on the wall: Who’s the winner of them all? Let’s take a look first at the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World Index from 2000

Economists and Mathematicians are often believed to be in a better position when making decisions on finances. Their training in all things numbers would give them an edge in making smart decisions and being able to capitalize on what they have to build greater wealth. However, this training can backfire, especially in the unique case of buying insurance. This realisation came to me when I read an article about what insurance we should get. Its recommendation for readers is t

In this article, I write about some steps we can take to prepare for black swan events i.e. unpredictable, possibly catastrophic, events that disrupt our usual way of living. It is important to be aware of what we can do to prepare for them, even if we cannot see it happening. Let’s introduce Cajun the Chicken. Cajun is a broiler chicken. He is fed on a steady diet every day. He doesn’t do much, except eat. Sometimes he plays with his friends. But his routine is mostly eating

If you have been following the news closely, you would be aware that the US Federal Reserve has been increasing interest rates. It is one of the major levers the Feds use to adjust the economy. But how will it affect Singapore? Or are we immune to such effects? I invite Ivan Ong, a mortgage specialist, to share some thoughts he has about the rising interest rate environment, and how that might affect Singaporean homeowners and decisions they may want to make on home loans. Th

In my last article, I examined the advantages and risks of using Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) as an investment strategy. Many proponents of DCA champion this investment strategy for its convenience and ease (in comparison to other strategies) to multiply your wealth. It is not uncommon to hear something like this: “If you set aside $200 a month for 25 years, and get a return of 5% annually, you will receive $119,000 from investing just $60,000!” It sounds like a great strategy

I was told recently that the easiest way to invest is to DCA (dollar cost average) into a world index fund. And yes, it is the EASIEST way to invest. However, is it the best investment strategy? What is Dollar Cost Averaging? Dollar cost averaging is merely a strategy of buying regularly. This allows you to average out the cost of purchases, since when markets do badly, you are essentially buying it cheap. Dollar cost averaging, especially into a world index fund, is probabl