The Financial Meltdown
It seems like only yesterday that the world was faced with a global financial meltdown. Global banking giants were in danger of going into bankruptcy; so also were the insurance giants. The automotive giants followed suit. To be sure, some of these former giants did go belly up, while others were thrown a lifeline by various national governments.
But that was yesterday! The situation has improved today. The stock market has recovered somewhat, and so has the property market to a certain extent. It seems we are going through a typical boom-bust-boom cycle again.
This reminds me of the early years of my working life. As a fund management/advisory person, my first lesson is that the stock market moves in cycles, and investor sentiments follow suit.
At the beginning of a bull run, the investment philosophy is Buy Low – Sell High. If you missed out buying low, then the next investment strategy is to Buy High – Sell Higher. And if you still missed the bull run, and you find yourself at the pinacle of the bull market, relax – you can still make money by adopting this next strategy (in those days before short selling was banned); you basically Sell High – Buy Low. Again if you miss it, you can still benefit from a mid cycle bear market, namely, Sell Low – Buy Lower. And when you reach the bottom of the bear market, you start all over again with Buy Low – Sell High! See how money makes the financial world go round?
The problem of course is that you can’t always catch the right moments to make investment decisions. Sometimes the speed of market turnaround catch everyone by surprise – including the experts. And when that happens, billions or trillions of dollars are wiped out from the financial system globally.
It was reported that last year, more than $4 trillion of American wealth vanished in a 2-week period! Erstwhile billionaires were facing personal financial ruin. And hundreds of thousands of employees found themselves either jobless or in danger of being jobless.
But this is not surprising. The bible says: “the power of the wicked will be broken” (Ps 37:17), and “the wicked shall perish, and the enemies of the LORD shall be as the fat of lambs: they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away” (Ps 37:20).
Do you know the application of these verses? These speak of the wealth of the rich and powerful vanishing suddenly, as it were, being consumed by fire. The wealth is gone, disappeared like a puff of smoke, like fats in flames.
Are you ready for the next financial meltdown? There is only 1 way to be prepared – store up treasures in heaven!
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