What is your background, and how did you get into the financial industry?
My professional background is in Information Technology, working as a business analyst. I’ve always been entrepreneurial growing up with a family business. I first got into the financial industry back when I was planning to have children. I wanted to be able to spend a lot of time with my babies replacing my IT job with profits from stocktrading business. I began to share my learnings with friends in a blog which rolled on to a book on stocktrading for women “High Heeled Traders”
Were you successful initially, or did you have problems at first? If the latter, how did you keep motivated and pushing forward?
I was bad. I thought I knew what I was doing until I lost all of my $15,000 capital. My problem was that I didn’t have a system, psychological preparation and overall business plan for a stocktrading business, I thought it was all just stock-picking. I was motivated by the thought of being financially free, to devote time to my growing children and the belief that the business is lucrative for those who are trained and experienced. I found “heroes” like George Soros, Warren Buffett who were able to acquire wealth from investing / trading in stocks. I made a list of all the knowledge / skills that I locked and worked to eliminate them until finally, my performance was profitable and consistent.
Can you tell us a little bit about your current job and what you do?
I left my IT job when I was able to replace my earned income with income from stocktrading, to fully focus on my new job as an author and share the business skills of trading to private investors especially women.
Do you have any secrets for balancing being a mom with succeeding in your professional life?
The balancing act is indeed essential. My secrets are probably just as applicable in trading as in any kind of worth endeavor. Time management and integration. I just wake up early when I needed to do a lot of studying, prepare the procedure for my business and following them. I drew out a schedule of the best times for my trading activities amongst school work, career and family. As a mother, I think a big part of my success is integrating activities of motherhood and family with my trading. To prepare my kids for school, I was teaching alphabet and numbers with the stock quotes and prices, drawing charts with colors etc. Whenever possible, I point out big name companies that we patronize. In short, I made trading a part of my everyday life.
What advice would you give to a busy mom who is interested in entering or moving up in your industry?
A busy mom has to first believe that this business will make her life better, something really worth the hours of study, waking up early or late nights. (Or it would be so easy to give up!) The first investment to be made is not into a company or stock, but to one’s self – the education necessary, the self-improvement in the psychology side, as well as giving herself the time to really learn the business.
What keeps you motivated?
When I started, I was motivated by the thought of having a lot of time for my kids and money for those “loving expenses” – the special treats for the kids and nice shoes! In recent years, I just wanted to have wealth and abundance to share and become a “living proof” of how rewarding this business is - that one ordinary mom like me became financially free.
Can you share a little about your family with us?
I have three kids and we lived in Sydney, Australia but now travelling in Asia promoting mom’s book.