Never invest using other people’s money

One of Warren Buffett’s advice is never to invest other people’s money unless you are 100% sure you will not lose those money. And I live by that rule. Not that I have people flocking over me to give me their money in order for them to be part of my “shareholders”. No, I don’t. I’m not Warren. :D

What I mean here is never to get other people’s money in order to invest – banks included. Because the risk will always be there when it comes to investment. What if the money you get from others, or you borrow from others, started to become lesser than the original amount? Will the “investors” panic? Will YOU panic? How are you going to pay them back? What if there’s a sudden need to repay that amount of money?

For money from banks, it’s worse because it involves interest rate charges. If you are not able to pay the bank on schedule, they will even charge you penalty fees. If the losses in investment don’t kill you, the bank loans will.

That’s why it’s best not to use other people’s money to invest. Even if it’s your own money, you should only use your extra money and not your emergency fund. Because whenever you want to invest in something, you must always begin with a mindset that you are prepared to lose.

Even Warren Buffett cannot be 100% sure he will earn money every year. If you can, do drop me a message, I would love to know how. :)

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Comments
MyAvatars 0.2

He’s right, use your own $ is the best way to avoid having to do a payout later.

Harmonys last blog post..Plane Crashes into Hudson River

MyAvatars 0.2

@ Harmony
Yeap, it’s just too risky to do so.

MyAvatars 0.2

I like this post. The OPM (other ppl’s money) principle is only there because people do not want to lose their own money if things go wrong. It may sound bad but interestingly OPM usually happens with the permission of the parties concerned. With strings attached of course, such as interest or profit sharing.

We are all guilty of OPM. When we take out a car or housing loan, we are using OPM – money from other ppl’s savings account. Same thing with credit cards. Banks are the kings of OPM. They take your money as deposits, roll it in the market, and give you back 1.5% interest. Your savings (assets) is their liability, but they are supposed to have enough to cover it in any eventuality.

Where there is interest charged, there is OPM. Our entire economic system thrives on OPM. We often don’t realize we are party to it as well.

MyAvatars 0.2

@ Damien
One can hardly escape from using OPM actually, esp when it comes to big purchases. However, it’s not recommended to use OPM to invest or to do something which you are uncertain. I know there are people who still do that, but it actually makes the entire process riskier than it should be. If i’m using my own money, then I have no problem since I’m responsible for my own mistakes. But if i’m using other people’s money, then things might get complicated if i screwed up.
But if i’m a heartless person who don reli care about other people’s money…..i don think it matters. :P

except for the interest charges.

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