Should have, Could have and If only when it comes to property

I saw a Facebook image by a friend. It was ‘liked’ by many and I think it’s appropriate that everyone of us gets reminded again of what we did not do many years ago and the regrets of today. Let me start by telling you about some regrets that I have. They are all investment related. Haha. This is after all a site called kopiandproperty.my and not some relationship or politics site lah. When I bought my second property, Regency Heights, I actually booked another unit. Honestly, at that time if I were to proceed, my wife and I would have struggled like crazy to pay for three homes at the same time if we could not sell or rent it out once its completed. We were staying in our first apartment and the second one was supposed to be an upgrade. We would have to use up everything we have under the ’emergency fund.’ We gave up the booking after 2 weeks. We were worried if we proceeded, we may go bankrupt. Anyway, to cut the story short, if we proceeded, it would have been a huge profit and it could help us in buying more properties. Should this be a regret? Haha. What if what we feared did happen? It would have been the end of the ‘investment road’ for us and we were both still young then.
I love stocks and I normally buy stocks which people would normally look at me with a strange look. Many years ago, I bought Vitrox, a small Malaysian company. I sort of know the people working inside and they work extremely hard and some even stay behind for OTs and even during weekends. It was only 67 cents I think when I first started. I continued buying up to a point that I felt that if I were to buy any further, it would be extremely dangerous. Again, I refrained from touching my ’emergency funds’ or even sold my property to fund it. I felt diversification was important. Vitrox suddenly jumped due to successive good results and today, it’s trading at RM3.55  I should regret because if I had bought more, the profits would have been enough to cover many units of properties! However, what if the world market collapsed?
My parents bought insurance to ‘protect’ me when I was younger. When I started working, I increased what they bought. When I got married, I increased the amount I bought. I added in a medical card despite my company covering me with a medical card. I bought insurance for my two children too. It has been smooth sailing for me all these years and I am so glad I have not claimed much from all the coverage I bought. Should I regret that I have wasted a lot of money because if I did not buy them, perhaps I would have had more money for travelling, a new smartphone or perhaps upgrade the current car I drive? Seriously, what if something did happen?
Dear readers, there’s little need to regret what we did or what we did not do. Personally, the most important thing is always to understand what we should do and make a decision to do it. Anyone without sufficient business experience but starting a business would most probably fail. This is the same as buying a property without even checking what’s the current value and what would be the risks involved. If the price is too high, we may be the last one to buy and the first one to lose money when the market crashes. If the price is too low, somehow something is wrong somewhere. Else, how did you get that offer in the first place!? Happy deciding today or regretting 5 years later. Choice is yours.
written on 6 Apr 2016
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