RAP Strategies

How do you deal with it? I mean, in your personal life, when you make plans for the future, what is the approach you take? What about in your professional arena? Or even in your day-to-day activities when meeting with friends? How do you deal with it?

What is it?

Well, do you start taking actions only when things happen? Like, does it need to be when the situation gets bad enough only then will you take action? Or do you take a proactive approach to take the initiative to prevent something from happening? Or do you learn to anticipate what's going to happen and start taking action?

For instance, some people let their savings dwindle to a level that hits them before they take actions. Some may take a proactive approach by looking at how they can 'protect' their savings and start an investment account so that their savings can grow. However, I believe, there is a small group of people who would anticipate what's going to happen to the economy or their jobs, so they start taking actions immediately.

So, how do you deal with it? I believe all of us uses a combination of all three approaches in various aspects of our lives. But the more successful people use the anticipative approach in their lives and that's why they are successful.

Let's look at each approach in detailed. Some of us are more reactive because we may not know enough of the situation we are in, until something happens, then we'll take action. For instance, with the collapse of Lehman Brothers, some people were caught unaware and only when the news were out, then they panic and decide to take some actions to cover their losses. And the reason why they only take actions after the news was out was because they didn't understand what they are in for.

In another scenario, someone may take a proactive approach to investment. That means, even while they are comfortable, they will take the initiative to speak with others, read up, and then draw up an action plan to grow their savings. While this approach is good, it may be limited to their own skills in terms of research and analysis.

However a savvy investor will look at what might happen in the next few days, or weeks, or months. Like Oei Hong Leong, who anticipated that AIG might be bailed out and hence their shares will recover, bought the shares at a low and made a tidy sum in the turn around. Though many may say, well, he has the market knowledge but it is too risky. Or is it?

We will continue to discuss how you too can learn skills to develop or enhance your ability to anticipate...