MY parents and some of my dad's friends used to invest in the stock market. At that time, they were lured into investing a significant amount in IPOs. Unfortunately, they lost a big part of their investment. But more importantly, they lost their appetite to learn more, and be open to investing further. Similarly, I also tried investing and somehow failed to earn at the start.

It was in 2008 when I made my first investment. At that time, I just learned about mutual funds from some financial forum and decided to give it a try. I invested P30,000.00 in one of the mutual funds offered by a reputable financial services company. A few months after, the global financial crisis happened. In less than a year, I lost 40 percent of my investment. Being a first time investor, I panicked. I knew it was paper loss, but decided to just stop investing more.