The Secret of Getting a Payrise and Making Wise Investments

Saturday, 11th August 2007

I shared a couple of days ago about getting a 2nd payrise in the space of 9 months.

What is the secret you may ask? Read on...

With the recent buoyancy in the property as well as equity markets, what should the new covenant believer's response be? Read on...

There will be those who stay away from together. After all, the market is full of gamblers and speculators and institutional investors who will eat the man-in-the-street alive, what less one who is a not-so-street-smart Christian.

But if Christianity is supposed to be relevant for everyday living, then it should be useful in helping us to make everyday decisions as well, and not just the more "spiritual" ones like where to serve in church, or which cell group to join, or which D&N courses to sign up for.

It should help us to make less "spiritual" decisions such as what career to take, which schools to put our kids in, which house or car to buy. Yes, even which investments to make.

Jesus said in Matt 10:16 that He has sent us into the world as sheep amongst wolves, hence we are to be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.

Therein lies the secret! We are sheep, and Jesus is our shepherd. In John 10:4, Jesus tells us that His sheep knows His voice. When Jesus ascended into heaven, he promised that He would send us the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. This same Holy Spirit is now within us to guide us in making wise decisions (and that includes making wise investment decisions).

Let me share a personal testimony with you. I was in Price Waterhouse from 1991 to 1994, after which I left to do some internal audit and IT consulting work. I returned to PwC in 2000 to join their accounting and payroll outsourcing arm.

Between the years 1994 and 2000, I had accumulated several stocks and shares. Having returned to the audit firm, I had to dispose of all the shares of practically every one of these companies because they were audited by PwC (Price Waterhouse had just merged with Coopers & Lybrand and about 75% of the listed companies were their clients). I was reluctant to do so because it would mean realising losses amounting to tens of thousands of dollars. But the partner-in-charge of Risk Management gave a very stern warning during one of the briefing sessions: there would be an audit check conducted, and if anyone selected was found to hold such shares, he would be sacked immediately. I had to choice but to realise those heavy losses.

Fast forward to a Saturday in February 2006. I walked into the POSBBank near my place, and an advertisement for a unit trust-linked fund caught my eye. I went to see the customer relationship officer and decided shortly thereafter to commit quite a substantial amount. At that time, there was no investment analyst recommending this fund. Yet, somehow I felt an inner peace within.

Now fast forward again to July 2007. That investment that I bought in Feb 2006 had appreciated by more than 35% in a mere 16 months! There was a penalty clause for early redemption of 5%, 4%, 3%, 2% and 1% in the 1st 5 years respectively. Yet, even after deducting the 4%, the profit was more than what I had expected over the entire 5-year period, so I decided to cash out.

And the profit earned on that one single investment more than restored the losses realised when I had to sell those shares while working in PwC! When God restores, He always over-restores!

Since then, the market has softened and had I held on to it, the investment would have depreciated by about 10%. So I sold it at around its peak.

When I look back upon the investments made between 1994 and 2000, and that single investment made in 2006, I realise that I am no genious when it comes to timing the market. If I were, I would not have gotten burnt to begin with.

So what made the difference, you may ask?

Something happened to me in July 2005, which I blogged about here.

In those earlier years of making poor investments, I was not tithing! The LORD wanted to bless me, but I was preventing Him from doing so!

Now that I have been doing so, the floodgates of heaven have been thrown open wide! Hallelujah!

It does not matter whether the amount is 10 cents or $100,000. When we tithe our 10%, God sanctifies the other 90%, and that prevents the devil from touching it.

I give my daughter $30 as an allowance each week. Now that she does not stay back for any CCA, she gives $10 of that to church each week. Oh LORD, bless her heart (I am crying when typing this because I thought I was the one who was generous...). As her earthly father, I feel moved to increase her allowance to $100 already, so that $10 becomes 10%. If an earthly father who is evil know how to give good things to his children, how much more so our Heavenly Father?

The LORD says in Matt 25 that those who are faithful in litte things will be put in charge of many things.

Let's paraphrase that here.

If you are able to tithe $100 on a $1,000 salary, then the LORD will allow you to tithe $200 on a $2,000 salary. If you are faithful in being able to tithe $200, then He will put you in a position to be able to tithe $300.

I myself was giving more than 10% to the church in the past year, and the LORD caused the base to increase, not once but twice.

And that's the secret to getting a payrise :-)

How about the secret to making wise investments?

In Eph 1:13, Paul refers to the Holy Spirit as the one who marks us with His seal. So instead of following the market, let's follow the Marker when making investments.

So what is the secret to getting a payrise and making wise investment decisions? Tithe, and be led by the inner witness of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking of tithing, do you know that it came about even before the Law of Moses? Fellow churchmate and NTU Alumnus Philip Ng has blogged about this here.