It is very limited.
I started with insurance, life insurance. It sucks. I get no benefit from it because I am sure as hell that I am living up until my early nineties feeling like a 30 year old.
It still is in the negative because the holding period is 6 years. That started around 2 years ago, so I still have 4 years before I can cash in.
The good thing about it though is that it became my conservative investment. Bonds and fixed income.
I also got into SDA (special deposit account). Oh what a joy. Or so I thought. I was unaware that the tax is ridiculously high relative to the gains until the statements came to me a month after the placement.
I pulled out on the next maturity date.
Then I discovered mutual funds. I found a website detailing the 2009 earnings of various funds in the Philippines.
I thought, hey, this is a really nice horse. I can ride this one.
So I did.
I got a net return of around 12% in around 2 months. Take that SDA.
Now, compared to SDA, to me, that was awesome. I did not do anything (or so I thought), and I earned that percentage.
During those periods, when I had time, I read business news. I did because I noticed that the news affected stock prices especially in the short term. Generally, good news -> price up; bad news -> price down.
I was particularly interested with company financial information (historical figures, forecasts), growth strategies (projects), and changes in stakeholders.
So what have I learned so far?
Diversify my portfolio
I need better fundamental and technical analysis processes
Will post some more in the future.
