Money is a reward, don't waste it

Does a surgeon make a good investor? Certainly, they have the smarts and the ability to read large quantities of material and absorb the content – they are big pluses. But according to Laparoscopic specialist and general surgeon, Aileen Yen, she is not yet a good investor.

Aileen’s philosophy is simple, she works hard and wants her money to be her reward. She does not want it to be wasted. “I could spend it on other things, but investing is wise as it is planning for the future”, she says.

Her interest in investing was sparked after a friend recommended investment advocate, Peter Thornhill. She went to a seminar, read one of his books, and put what she had learnt into practice – perhaps Aileen is a better investor than she thinks, and those skills mentioned earlier have already come into play.

But Aileen does still consider herself a novice investor, although one that is eager to learn more. She has asked friends that also invest for advice but has already learnt not to act until she has done her own research.

Aileen’s early investments were in bonds, which is where she was introduced to the offerings of Citigroup. When the Australian wealth and retail operations of Citi were purchased by NAB last year, she followed her relationship manager across to NAB, and has been pleased with the additional wealth offerings the combined operations provide. Already, Aileen is looking at new income stream products like Nerti’s and hybrids for diversification. However, she is still in the learning space.

Although Aileen is not keen on foreign exchange (FX), she has setup an international trading account, but has yet to fund it as there are too many events occurring internationally to give her confidence to invest at this stage.

Despite a busy workload, Aileen educates herself in between breaks with information provided by platforms like nabtrade, but also other avenues like LinkedIn, which has a lot of investment news and educational content provided by companies and individuals.

The later has given her opportunities into start-ups, which she is looking at cautiously. 

Like many, Aileen’s first investment was an investment property, followed several years later by shares and bonds. She felt nervous getting started but was prompted into action by colleagues talking about what they were doing. She has dabbled in fintech stocks but withdrew when performance was well below her expectations.

To provide diversification to her portfolio Aileen holds several listed investment companies: “It provides the balance I’m looking for and I don’t really have a preference, except that they are diversified,” she says.

Aileen’s advice for new investors is “do your homework before you commit, and never look down on anyone, as you never know where good advice will come from.” She also doesn’t think men or women make better investors – “we are all as bad as each other”.

Aileen’s goal from investing is for steady growth, and for general advice on life, she says: “Don’t spend more than you earn, and never borrow more than you can.” 

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