The book taught me so much wisdom. It fueled my desire so I decided to invest in stocks by opening a stockbroker account at COL Financial after trying out the 7-day trial. Having a broker account is a must. You can't invest if you don't have a broker account. This is the number one step to start investing. Call or visit their office and let them know your interest in investing so that they can assist you for the requirements and process of opening an account. You can also search for other brokers if you don't like their platform.

The next step I did is to learn the ins and outs of the stock market and the effective strategies investors use to increase their wealth overtime. This takes passion and dedication so be ready to invest a lot of time if it means to skipping out dine-outs with friends or dinner dates with your wife or girlfriend.

What I found out that works for me is Value Investing.

Value Investing: A System Of Buying Stocks That Are Priced Less Than Its Intrinsic Value

I've read all of the books listed above. In the case of Buffettology, I read it constantly and use it as a form of reference.

I've also read his partnership letters. The Ground Rules is the best book out there that explains the wisdom of Buffett in his early years.

Buffett mentions a lot about his influences when he was young. Besides his father that he considers his hero, he mentions Benjamin Graham, considered to be the father of Value Investing, as the one who influenced his investing style during his early partnership days.

It's also worth mentioning two of the books Ben Graham wrote that every investor should read; Security Analysis and the Intelligent Investor.

The Intelligent Investor is the less advanced version of Security Analysis. I recommend to Start reading Intelligent Investor and work your way up to Security Analysis. Pay attention to Chapter 14, 15 and 20 of the Intelligent Investor. In Security Analysis, pay close attention to Chapter 43.

How To Study To Become A Value Investor

if you don't have any background in accounting and finance, reading the books I recommended above will make no sense at all. Trust me. The way to get around with the confusing terminologies and accounting formulas is to look it up in Investopedia.

Whenever I get across items that I don't understand, I look up the definition in the site. It took me a couple of months to get myself familiarized especially the financial ratios commonly used like the Price To Earnings, Return On Equity, Debt To Equity ratio and a lot more.

I spend my evenings reading books and applying what I read from doing my own company analysis. From 6PM to 12MN, I just read and enjoy what I'm doing. On weekends, I look for Youtube videos about Warren Buffett and watch anything I came across. I must admit, my life became boring LOL. I freed up some of my time I spend on social activities to focus on studying stocks. That's right, the keyword here is FOCUS. When I get exhausted, I go out and have a drink with friends.

If you read all the books I recommended and did some detective work on accounting terminologies and formulas, I would expect that you now know how to read and interpret a financial statement. This is the point where I spend most of my downtime studying. You can't become a value investor if you don't know how to interpret the numbers in a balance sheet or an income statement.

You should spend more time studying if you still have a hard time identifying the items in these documents. Once you are confident enough, the only way to become an independent investor is to apply what you learned in your portfolio.

Applying Value Investing In The Philippine Stock Market

I realized that by studying financial statements, I also get to learn how to analyze a business. By analyzing stocks on a business perspective, I get to find stocks that are undervalued, compounders or income stocks.

My investing strategy involves analyzing the "moat" of the business. By using qualitative and quantitative analysis, I can easily arrive at a company's intrinsic value or what brokers call fair value. If I like the business, I buy it at prices adjusted to a margin of safety I think will mitigate the risk of permanent loss of capital.

I also exercise a lot of patience. I consider market gyrations as opportunities to lower my risk by buying more shares at attractive prices. If I buy a stock trading at P5/share and drops at P3/share next month, I buy more to lower my average cost and increase upside potential. I only do this on stocks I think have a high upside.

The only time I sell is if I think the price is already trading above its intrinsic value. If it underperforms, I hold it and buy more if I feel necessary. I also sell if I find a better stock where I can make a higher return than the previous one.

By studying the business through its financials, you get to find a lot of opportunities. The challenging part in this strategy is the proper allocation of capital.

Currently, I hold a concentrated portfolio of three stocks; a compounder, a stock that's trading below net current asset value with a high dividend yield, and a wonderful real-estate giant selling at prices below intrinsic value. I'm also looking to buy another stock similar to the second criteria and two more compounder stocks.

I plan to limit my holdings at three to six stocks at most. Ten would be the maximum I think.

If you want to engage in active investing but are unwilling or do not have the time and energy to study the stock market, then you can just follow your broker's recommendations. COL Financial release these kind of reports everyday for investors to see.

You can also subscribe to Truly Rich Club and follow the "Strategic Averaging Method" on a portfolio level.

I recommend these resources for aspiring active investors. I'm a subscriber of both of these services and I find it helpful when I get busy at work or run out of investment ideas.

Your Journey Starts Today

As a final advice, look for smart and honest mentors. It doesn't have to be a living person right beside you. It can be in the form of video tutorials, books or training seminars.

Find the best authors out there and read their books.

Find the best teachers and enroll in their courses.

Absorb their wisdom and apply the strategies you learn from them. Learn, learn and learn non-stop. Make investing your passion. That's what I'm doing today.

Happy investing!