Sabil Ardie

What else would you expect from a self-announced investor like me?

Ever since I’ve started living in Jakarta, I have always been in the service business. The first thing I tried to do (unsuccessfully) was selling a Hospital Information System as a freelance. I failed selling it to big hospitals, but I moved on. I then tried selling different kind of things as freelance sales until I got my first big break in 2007, when I got a contract to build a Data Center for the Police Force.

I got good commission out of it, but I lent most of it to someone who I thought could return it quickly (with handsome interest, of course). Well, that was too good to be true. I still consider it as a stuck-investment that will eventually pays off, but one of my best friends assured that I might as well consider the money is gone.

So, I was back in square one.

Then, in mid 2008, I got my second big break. But then I decided to get married, so about one-thirds of the commission I got went for the wedding. One-thirds of it I keep for my savings, a married man has to be prepared, you know. And the rest of it went to what I consider investments.

One of the so-called investment is to lend it to (yet another) someone whom I believe is going to pay me quickly (Uh-oh, de ja vu), and the other one is to trade stocks. Guess which one already paying off today? The stocks, of course.

While I’m still waiting for the other “investments” to pay off, I keep getting profits from the stock market. This is because I have a competent partner in the field, a high school friend who went to school for this kind of stuff. He executes the trades, I simply need to approve or disapprove any trade.

I get around 3 to 5 percents per month out of the stocks. It’s good enough for me. But then I thought, many people I know would love to get that kind of return on their investments. The highest rate for bank Cash Deposits interests are at around 10% p.a., so that’s less than 0.8% per month.

So, I decided to offer them a chance to invest in the stock market. Me and my friend would take commissions out of the profits we get. We would need to setup a new company to manage the investments. I think it’s doable. I will sell our investment products to close friends and acquaintances, where I can give my personal guarantee to take care of their money.

I’m still considering between two investment package to offer, though. Would people prefer a set rate of return, i.e. 3% per month? That way, I will then be responsible cover the difference if at certain month the investment is less than that. But they will be missing out of a chance to get more if the investment performs better, i.e. 5%. Because I will take the 2% above the specified rate.

Or would they prefer, whatever the return, simply take my commissions out of it, and they receive the rest? That way, if the investment is performing poorly, I have no obligation to them. But they will get more if the investment is performing above average.

This is where I stop writing and start thinking.

*Image taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Banknotes.jpg