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The average person on the street believes: you reap what you sow your return is commensurate to the effort you put in; and there is no free lunch. The belief may be - you have got to put in a high amount of effort before you see any returns. Indeed, action junkies demand constant turnover of reports, writings, calculations and graphs, before making any decision. That belief from daily life, in turn, translates to a belief that active investing is the way to produce high ret

Weights and cardiovascular exercise are doable to some. You work certain muscle groups or pump the heart, and over time, with consistent effort and showing up, you are certain to see a certain noticeable result for your efforts. To others, even repeated physical exercise is a pain and a difficulty. You need a certain willpower it seems to get yourself off your behind, to show up at the workout facilities, that may or may not be nearby. But, as they say, if you drag yourself

At pre-twenties age group, for example, you're probably more interested about girls and guys at the bar. You're just discovering your own identity and fashion particularly is another area where you want to explore, decking yourself out in the latest trends. More improtantly, life has only just begun for you and studies are your priority at the moment anyway. You've just discovered freedom from the secondary school teachers, you may or may not already have a car to get around

You never guess right. In 2025 you thought the world markets would have a bad year, perhaps still due to covid19. In 2026 you may think the markets remain overheated and is due for a correction if not a crash. You are left in doubt. And you ne ver get the guesses right anyway? How could you? You're relying on the advice of a financial advisor, and ultimately your own gut instinct is based on the stories you hear during the course of your work and daily career. You're r

Whilst there may or may not be a general appreciation for this blog, the question that comes out at the turn of the year is whether this writer will disclose his results. After all, we are judged by the extent of weight we can attribute to the writer and the authority by which he writes. That weight and authority gives us comfort that we are listening to the right voices. And that we are chasing the right information and sources towards the right goal. Summarily, please assu

The rich are judged by how clever they are. What car they drive. What credit cards they have. The richest people are in mansions as well. One book that made the classics all those years ago, is the Millionaire Next Door. If you thought to judge your neighbour by car, credit cards and mansion, you may wish to revisit your opinions of the same. At least, that is the findings following research by certain individuals in a land far, far away. It may not even be particularly how w

Is there anything much you can buy on Bursa Malaysia in terms of stocks and shares? Bursa Malaysia feels a bit undersold. Out of focus. Ma laysia has suffered not just from the covid19 like everybody else, but are arguably a small nation competing for global trade and capital without much headway for the longest time.    It does not help that there are plenty of competitors out that who are vying for the same attention from global investors. In this context, it appears uncl

Do you really need insurances? Do you really need to draft a will at a young age? Considering (critical) illness, permanent disability and life can seem morbid and downright negative. It is even harder to talk about such things with loved ones. Even if you wanted to address the matter or talk about it, the insurance companies and wills companies price their products so that they profit. There is no way that getting into such things is an advantageous deal. But is it advanta

Instead of concepts like democracy, open competition and free or protectionist trade, some commentators have suggested that the key to understanding China and its market is through 3 particular features unique to China - Confucianism, centralised government and communism. To address your probably reaction to the above, no moral judgment is passed on China’s politics, and it is acknowledged instead that economically, China is arguably one of if not the world’s largest economi

You cannot help but ask, is investing in Asia the same as investing in a Western nation? After all, a lot of the literature is written for the purposes of investing in the USA or otherwise Western countries. Common concerns are that USA is a homogenous market - one market, one stock exchange arrangement, and one language binding the country together. Even with China as a main feature, Asia is, by contrast, a hotpot of different markets, stock exchanges and languages. Even i

You just looked at the stock performances for 2025 and noted the stocks that returned more than 100% for the year. Money minded and starry eyed, you want a piece of the pie. Is there a book out there that addresses this question? You would bow to the sensei if there were! Caveat It would be irresponsible if this website were to promise you 580% returns (apparently Sandisk went up by that much throughout 2025). Furthermore, it is nigh on the impossible to hand select a single

And your belief is money just comes and goes. Between finding the spare cash, spare time and the Herculean effort... You need all the money you can get, immediately. There isn’t any opportunity to save. Aging parents, family, children and your pet dog are more important to maintain over the long term in love and perhaps even for your own peace of mind. You can always make more money later. One of the world’s bestseller books is confident it can navigate all these concerns

We are constantly looking for feedback from our visitors about what they would like us to write about. Do leave a poll vote about the kind of things you would like to hear. If you voted for ‘others’, please let us know in the comments section what your subject(s) of interests are. Indeed, the more you elaborate for us, the more it helps! We look forwards to providing you more quality book recommendations, and addressing any potential misconceptions you may have.

X.com is filled with output from established entrepreneurs. You might as well learn from them for free. Why spend your precious Ringgit on materials that you can get online on the Internet, at no cost at all? You have just got to know where to look. And figure out the stories of the different individuals. Heck, why not just follow whoever is the most active and popular at the time! The entrepreneurs there are authoritative, well established and you can get information, upd

With apologies to any visitors from the land of the free. How is it that there is so much to say about business, investment, and personal finance when all that matters in the performance of a business is the sales, revenue and bottom line?? Why overcomplicate a simply process? One of the approaches we try to practice here is to keep things simple, if possible. And to recommend books from authors with results only, perhaps. Warren Buffett recently retired from the businesss o

Investing and personal finance is a bit dry. A bit taboo. A bit hard to get your head around. Why should you try to read an investing book, for example, that was written by Benjamin Graham during the Great Depression? You want action, man. You want excitement, adventure and a right proper journey of discovery. Open that textbook from 100 years ago, read a page, and decide it is not for you. Part of what Southpaw Confessions is trying to do is to generate a community around wh

A foreign friend just told me he attended a destination wedding with free flowing imported champagne, all paid for with cryptocurrency. Is cryptocurrency something that you understand? It's easy to see your friends make it big on the waves of a new cryptocurrency trend, and question your very existence - what you're doing with your life, what's wrong with your financial self, and why you didn't think of investing on the fad yourself. Especially when they just served you the a

At least based on recent experience, there may be a couple of types of people that exist when it comes to investing and personal finance. There are those who are risk averse. Then there are those who believe that you should be extraordinarily optimistic towards life and its possibilities. After all, what goes around comes around. Which might you be? Every person that comes through your life has a natural disposition. You're not wrong either way - you are who you are. This

Hi there! We already have requests to hold a physical meet-up. Give you an opportunity to meet like-minded people. If you are interested to meet at some point, you could leave a note in the comments section below. Watch this space! Yours, Mr Southpaw.

I had previously written about the difference between qualitative and quantative analysis, here. Put in another way, financial literacy is important – I just never appreciated how much so! Everybody has a different experience in trying to apply mathematics in real life. Some people take to it naturally, while others (like me) prefer to think in words, stories, and qualitative patterns. But over time, I learned that even a basic grasp of numbers can make all the difference in