Below was written in 2008: in the middle of the financial crisis.
Making mistakes in life is innevitable, but to give up is un-forgivable.
Why I am still hopeful?
1) I learned a great deal (risk, value, good business vs. bad business) in past few months: from the market unravelling, to CFA books, to words of wisdom from the great investors (Buffett, Lynch etc.)
2) Knowledge alone can not make money. Discipline is more important, because we as human being have emotions (fear and greed) which can hurt our investing if we don’t know how to control those.
Fallback scenario
I will continue to program for food, gas, my family needs…as long as I am healthy. This is not too bad actually consider I am paid better than many programmers in China (at current time, may change in future if dollar worth less in the future).
This is the 5th year since I invested in the US stock market (started Fall 2003).
Of course, I can buy the index fund. Or better yet, I will buy Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B), and leave the investing job to the Mr. Buffett.
(Update 04-03-2025) Note today is the 1st trading day since the current US administration announced the big tariffs across the board. Expect a volatile trading day and a lot of paper loss across the board (for me and for many others). But if we control our risk, we should still come out okay.