My son has been saving part of his allowance ever since he started primary school. It was a habit my wife and I wanted to build early — to help him see that money isn’t just for spending.
Recently, we did a little “audit.”
He’s now in Primary 3, and to his surprise, he had saved $400 — from a weekly allowance of $10.
He was thrilled. Almost immediately, he started calculating how long it would take to reach the next $100.
That’s when I asked, “Would you like to learn what investing is?”
Naturally, his first question was, “What’s investing?”
So, I began explaining — as simply as I could — that investing means putting your savings into things that can grow over time.
But his next question caught me off guard.
“Will the investment always grow?”
I told him, “Not always. It can go up and down.”
“Then why should I invest if it can go down?”
I’ve read hundreds of articles, attended courses, and worked in finance long enough to know all the textbook answers. But when a child asks why you’d put your money into something that might fall in value — you realise how fragile our adult explanations can sound.
That question made me reflect on my own approach to investing — not the technical side, but the convictions behind it.
Investing in the Face of Uncertainty
My own investment approach is simple: I trust in the long-term growth of the world — of businesses, of people’s creativity, of progress.
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Build a globally diversified portfolio made up mainly of companies, both large and small.
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Exclude speculative assets such as commodities and currencies.
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Keep adding to it steadily until I reach my goals.
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Stay invested through the ups and downs — no forecasting, no timing.
Some people around me have said this approach seems “lazy”, and that the returns are too “average” to be worthwhile. Surely, they argue, we can do more — especially with all the knowledge and tools available today.
But even as we speak confidently about returns, risk, and diversification — we’re all, at some level, grappling with the same questions my son asked:
Can I trust this process?
Will it really work out?
Good investing, I’ve learned, isn’t about certainty.
It’s about confidence — knowing that while markets can go down, we’ll still be all right at the end of the journey.
And this confidence comes from having enough patience, having the discipline to spend below our means, and accepting that we cannot predict the future.
Where Our Work Adds Value
Of course, this is easier said than done. But that’s why the work we do at Providend goes far beyond investing. It’s about equipping clients with sufficient clarity and awareness so that they can invest in the face of uncertainty.
It’s about equipping clients with the clarity, structure, and awareness they need to stay the course — to invest well even when the world feels uncertain.
Because for any investor, it’s almost certain that there will be seasons when their portfolio declines.
When that happens, two questions matter most:
- “Are my investments right for me?”
This means ensuring your portfolio is broadly diversified and aligned with your goals — not built around speculation or trends.
Having the right investments isn’t about chasing what performs best today, but owning what gives you the resilience to stay invested through tomorrow’s uncertainty.
- “Am I making investment decisions based on facts or noise?”
In a world saturated with opinions and forecasts, investors can easily mistake noise for insight.
Our role is to help clients separate evidence from emotion — to focus on enduring principles and data, not short-term headlines or fear.
Helping clients find confidence in uncertainty — that, to me, is the real work of investing.
Conclusion
When I told my son that my investments are designed to grow with the world — even though I don’t know what will happen next — he paused for a moment and said,
“So, it’s like planting a tree. You don’t know how much fruit it will bear, but if you plant it with care, you will be rewarded.”
Exactly.
That evening conversation reminded me why I invest the way I do — not because it’s certain, but because it’s a way to participate in growth that’s bigger than myself.
And maybe that’s not such a bad lesson for a nine-year-old — or for his dad.
This is an original article written by Ray Zheng, Client Adviser at Providend, the first fee-only wealth advisory firm in Southeast Asia and a leading wealth advisory firm in Asia.
For more related resources, check out:
1. Active Investing That Adds Value to the Client
2. Here’s Why We Charge a Higher Fee Than Robos
3. Investing in the S&P 500 Alone is Not the Silver Bullet
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