I just put in $10,000 into buying an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that mirrors the S&P 500 index and it feels like I’ve just laid put the first foundational stone on my future life.

(It wasn’t part of my plan to start investing on the day of the 2024 US elections. As you’ll eventually learn, I don’t intend to monitor the markets.)

In this post I’m going to explain why I’m investing now. Tomorrow I’ll talk about the specifics of the long-term investment plan I’ve put together.

My dad’s investing strategy

I remember that time when I introduced my financial advisor to my parents. He sat everyone down and looked at my dad.

He asked my dad what he invested in. My dad paused for a second to think and replied that he doesn’t know what he’s being asked.

After a bit of confusion and follow-up questions, we came to the conclusion that my dad – a successful business – had never invested before. Well, he had effectively been putting his money into growing his business, and on the side, spent a lot of it on cars (one each for his three children) and a nice home.

But till that day, at age 62, my dad had never invested in bonds or equity.

I remember this moment well, because I knew he had money. He bought a house in Singapore, plus a car for each of his children, for my mum, and one very expensive car for himself.

I also knew I wasn’t going to take over his business (I wasn’t and still am not interested in the casino business).

That meant that I could either start my own business to have enough money for the rest of my life, or I would at least have to have an investment portfolio of some sort to invest in other people’s businesses.

I was 28 or so then. I had finished my bachelor’s at a prestigious university and felt confident I would be capable enough to earn a decent living.

I also knew about inflation. I knew we need to beat inflation so our money doesn’t depreciate over time.

But that was what I thought “put your money to work” was entirely about. Beat inflation so $100,000 in the bank doesn’t become the equivalent of $60,000 by the time I’m too old to work.

I failed to grasp at the time that the number of years left to live after a traditional retirement age of 65.

After 65, there’s still probably 20 good years to live. $100,000 (after beating inflation, yay) split over 20 years is $416 per month. What kind of life can one expect to live on $416 from 2054 to 2074?

I also couldn’t fathom at the time that I might actually want need to have long breaks from work during my 30- to 40-year career, and that investments that grow exponentially over time (due to compounding) could enable those occasional sabbaticals, stress-free.

Well, now I know better.

I’ve been to work for almost 10 years now and boy do I wish I could work whenever I wanted, on things I’m interested in, with whomever I want, for as long as I want (I’m paraphrasing a passage from The Psychology Of Money here).

I’ve also become a dad three years ago and I can see clearly how much it means to me and my daughter that we spend time together. I can also seeing the effects of aging on my body and my wife’s.

“Time is money” means if you want to control your time, you need to have money.

You could of course spend less money in general, thereby having more money, which in turn gives you more time. But to me there’s a clear lower limit to a frugal lifestyle before life becomes rather uninteresting.

So what’s the solution?

Yep, invest. Make money make money. Luckily I have a functional brain that I’ve used to cut down to the fundamentals of finance to know that there can be a simple investment strategy.