Investment Lessons We Can Learn from Warren Buffett

Investment Lessons We Can Learn from Warren Buffett

(This article is based on Warren Buffett’s annual investment letters to his shareholders )

Who is Warren Buffet?

Most investors know who Warren Buffet is, but for the benefit of those who don’t, here is a short bio of him:

Warren Buffett is currently the 4th richest person in the world according to 2020 Forbes ranking. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful investors of all time. He is the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, a company that oversees more than 60 companies, including insurer Geico, battery maker Duracell and restaurant chain Dairy Queen.

Aside from being an investor, he is also a philanthropist he planed to donate over 99% of his wealth. So far he has given more than $41 billion away. In 2010, he and Bill Gates launched the Giving Pledge, asking billionaires to commit to donating half their wealth to charitable causes.

Warren delved into investment at an early age, he bought his first stock at age 11 and first filed taxes at age 13.

What can we learn from Warren Buffett?

1. Invest for the long term

Buffet always encourage investors to see themselves as a part of the company they are investing in, this will make them stick longer with the company, resulting to long term investment.

In his 1996 annual letter to his shareholders, Buffet wrote, “Your goal as an investor should simply be to purchase, at a rational price, a part interest in an easily understandable business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher 5, 10, and 20 years from now.”

Buffet advises investors to invest in companies with strong fundamentals and keep their eyes on the long term. He wrote, “Holding for the long term is key, and the best way to accumulate wealth. If you aren’t thinking about owning a stock for 10 years, don’t even think about owning it for 10 minutes”

2. Investigate the company you are buying into

Warren Buffett has a famous quote: “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” This simply means that before you invest in any company, go deeper in knowing more and give it a detailed evaluation.

In his 1996 letter to shareholders, he wrote, “What an investor needs is the ability to correctly evaluate selected businesses. Note that word “selected”: You don’t have to be an expert on every company, or even many. You only have to be able to evaluate companies within your circle of competence. The size of that circle is not very important; knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”

In his investment journey, Buffett has heavily invested in financial stocks like Wells Fargo and consumer discretionary stocks like Coca-Cola.

Although he was skeptical about the tech stocks for a large part of his career, on May 15, 2016, he took a giant leap by purchasing 9,811,747 shares of Apple for $108.99 a share, making his first foray into the tech world.

3. Don’t buy into the market’s emotionalism

According to Buffett, it’s important to stay calm as an investor.

He wrote in his letter, “Remember that the stock market is a manic depressive. Markets will rise and fall for many reasons, but most of the declines will be relatively temporary. It’s important not to be manic depressive along with the markets. You do this by keeping your eye on the future and ignoring short-term market gyrations.”

4. Take advantage of opportunities

“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies, and they will briefly rain gold. When downpours of that sort occur, it’s imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs, not teaspoons.” Buffett wrote in his 2016 shareholder letter.

As an investor, you should always stick to the principle of buying low and selling high. With patience you’ll have plenty of opportunities to purchase great stocks at bargain-basement prices, as it’s currently happening with a number of stocks affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is the period regarded as the best time to buy stocks.

Excited by all the words of wisdom by Warren? Take advantage of current realities by investing in some of the best stocks around the world. Download ARM Stocktrade app today to start investing. You can open a stocktrade account at www.armstocktrade.com and start investing.

 

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5 ways to maintain mental sanity during a pandemic

When there’s a pandemic or during periods of uncertainty, it is natural for the human mind to go haywire with fearful thoughts that affect the mental capacity negatively.

We are living in such times at the moment with the emergence of the Corona Virus which has disrupted our way of life and forced us all to adapt to the new normal. It is, however, critical that one maintains mental sanity amidst the current circumstances in order to navigate life and be mentally prepared for life after the pandemic.

Here below are five ways that will help:

1.

Because doing these will add to not just mental, but physical strain to your body.

2.

Don’t get inundated with news from every available source to avoid confusion and lack of focus.

3.

Staying active also helps clear your head and gives you clarity.

4.

There’s a lot of false information circulating via social media as well as undue pressure regarding various life issues. Take a breather from all of that every once in a while.

5.

Reach out to the ones you love, providing the needed support as well as receiving it. That love keeps you going in spite of what may be happening around you.

Never forget that to function to your optimal in every facet of your life and realise your greatest ambitions, you need mental clarity and sanity – and it is your duty to claim that for yourself.

Stay safe out there!

5 types of people since ease of lockdown

5 types of people since ease of lockdown

The Covid-19 situation has brought about a new normal that not many have been able to adapt to. The past few weeks have seen residents of major Nigerian cities like Lagos, FCT Abuja and Ogun on total lockdown to enable the Federal Government to contain the risk of spreading the virus; while other cities observed partial lockdown.

 

While on lockdown, many acclimatized to doing remote work while a host of others found ways to pass the time while growing themselves through books and online courses. Parents also have to figure out online education for their kids and businesses begin to find a way to work around the situation.

 

And just when it felt like there was no end in sight to the lockdown, the Federal government eased the lockdown allowing minimal movement while enforcing the use of face masks, hand sanitizers, washing of hands and social distancing.

Here’s how different people welcomed it:

1. The ones who raced out of the house like they’ve been in prison despite not having any reason to go out.

FREEDOM!!!

2. The ones who grudgingly returned to work after enjoying the freedom of not having to wake up so early.

Oh well, back to it!

3. The ones who defy the social distancing warning and go to pull and push at the banks.

If I perish, I perish.

4. The ones who are not ready to take chances.

They peep at those going out from their windows.

5. The ones who go out armed with their hand sanitizers and covered from head to toe avoiding every human contact.

Because everyone is a suspect.

———

Whichever category you fall under, we encourage you to make sure to observe every NCDC recommended safety measures and stay home if you don’t absolutely have to go out.

 

Don’t forget to stay safe out there when you head out. Corona Virus is real.

 

Protect yourself, protect others.

 

#StaySafe

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ARM Academy CPD Certification award

The Professional Development Consortium is home to the CPD Standards Office, the CPD Research Project and the Provider of Training Excellence. Their wealth of knowledge and research within the Learning and Development Industry and their team of industry professionals on the Expert Advisory Board are a few of the reasons that contribute to the detailed and rigorous assessment processes they have in place.

ARM Academy is proud to announce that we have recently achieved accredited CPD Status with the CPD Standards Office.

To achieve the accreditation, ARM Academy passed through a rigorous assessment process that focuses on the development and delivery of training programmes including our educational authority, how we collect and utilise our delegate feedback and ensure our content is kept up to date.

Now that ARM Academy has achieved this accreditation and status as an accredited CPD Provider, we are committed to working hard to maintain and exceed, the excellent standard we have already set.

ARM Academy was set up in 2014 with the objective to use learning and development to drive corporate strategies, innovation, develop talent and leadership and sustain the ARM culture.

To keep dollars in cash or not?

Hello Financial Experts,

Since this pandemic and lock-down started, my wife and I have been advised by friends to hold on to the cash we have at hand especially dollars. Do you advise us to keep our dollars in cash?

Thanks.

Michael from Lagos

Dear Michael,

We won’t advise you to keep dollars in cash because you’ll be losing income that you could have earned if that cash was invested.

We encourage you to invest instead in dollar-denominated funds such as Eurobond Funds to protect against downside risk (devaluation of the naira).

In dire economic situations like we have today, we advise investors to take on a risk-off approach by investing in safe haven assets such as Money market funds and Government securities with some degree of cash to fund anticipated liabilities. The current economic climate faced in Nigeria has found several investors seeking to lower their exposure to the naira relative to the US dollar as the nation braces for increased currency uncertainty.

We hope we’ve been of help at this time.

Thank you.

ARM announces DAAYTA 2020 winner

[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]The finalists pitch event for the 2020 edition of the Deji Alli ARM Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) programme held on March 6th, 2020 at Four Points by Sheraton, Lagos with Eferobosa Oguegbu of The Paper Packaging Company emerging winner to claim the N12 million grant.

DAAYTA 2020 focused on identifying start-ups with a minimum viable product (MVP) and at least one customer. Having received about 425 applications from start-up entrepreneurs and following a rigorous review process, the top 6 contestants were chosen. These six presented their pitches at the event in a bid to win the grant of N12 million – an amount that is earmarked to assist the winner to grow his/her business idea and make a sustainable social impact in the community.

The Deji Alli Young Talent Award (DAAYTA) programme is a youth awards initiative founded in 2015 by ARM in honour of its founding CEO Deji Alli. The goal of the award is to provide support to young entrepreneurs with smart and innovative ideas that have a positive impact on people’s lives and the communities that surround them.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][image_with_animation image_url=”8746″ alignment=”center” animation=”Fade In”][vc_column_text]The top 6 finalists in their order of winning at the DAAYTA 2020 were:

1. Winner – Eferobosa Oguegbu with her idea of The Paper Packaging Company which provides a biodegradable paper-based alternative that is friendly to the environment.

2. 1stt runner up – Emmanuel Ezenwere whose business idea Arone focuses on revolutionizing courier in Africa by providing a faster, cheaper and more eco-friendly delivery solution using autonomous drones.

3. 2nd runner up – Chidi Nwaogu of Publiseer which at no charge lets independent African creatives distribute their creative works on over 400 digital stores worldwide, and they receive their royalties via African tailored payment methods, which are convenient.

4. 3rd runner up – Debo Odulana with Doctoora e-Health Limited – a platform that aggregates underutilized capacity in existing medical facilities so that healthcare professionals can rent to attend to patients.

5. 4th runner up – Bright Williams of Neohaul Technologies – a company that provides an AI-powered IoT device that can be attached to trucks to figure out realtime job status/irregularities using AI algorithms.

6. 5th runner up – Ahamefula Uzoma with Livekampus Technologies – a platform that provides students with details on accommodation vacancies off-campus. It allows schools to gather off-campus housing data in real-time and provides valuable insights for stakeholders looking to explore the student housing market for investments.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][image_with_animation alignment=”” animation=”Fade In”][vc_column_text]Speaking about the event, CEO of ARM Jumoke Ogundare said “I’m glad to say that the event went successfully as envisaged and I say big congratulations to the winner Eferobosa Oguegbu of The Paper Packaging Company and all runner ups. It is our belief that they all have what it takes to make a sustainable impact in their communities and we can’t wait to start recording success stories as we have with the past winners of DAAYTA since its pilot edition in 2015. I also appreciate the entire team; sponsor and partners who have supported this initiative to enable us to achieve the aim of enabling young entrepreneurs with innovative ideas change the narrative in their various communities.”

The team of judges who delivered the sound judgment were: Dr. Ndidi Nnoli-Edozien – an Angel investor who has dedicated a major part of her life to building bridges between large businesses and entrepreneurs, helping thousands of people at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP) in Nigeria live better lives; Eric Idiahi, a Co-founder and Partner of Verod Capital Management Limited, a private equity firm with over $300M under management focused on making investments in West Africa; Kola Aina, founding Partner at Ventures Platform, an avid angel investor and mentor to start-up founders; Mitchell Elegbe, founder of Interswitch; Sadiq Mohammed, Deputy Group CEO of ARM Group; Folashade Olusanya, a Partner at Jackson, Etta & Edu and Victor Asemota, the Africa Partner for Alta Global Ventures, a US-based venture capital company.

DAAYTA 2020 was proudly sponsored by Tangerine Life and coordinated by TechnoVision Communications LLC.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]About ARM

Established in 1994 as an asset management firm, Asset & Resource Management Holding Company Limited (ARM) has evolved into one of Nigeria’s most innovative and respected non-bank financial institutions with a focus on Traditional Asset Management and Specialized Funds. ARM is a leading investment management firm that provides a diverse range of asset management services to a substantial and diversified client base that includes corporations, foundations and charities, high net-worth individuals, and small savers. See https://www.arm.com.ng/ for more details.

About Tangerine Life
Tangerine Life provides reliable financial services that create and protect wealth through digital financial solutions. By merging deep consumer insights and cutting edge technology, every product developed helps improve the quality of life for our clients.
See www.tangerinelife.com for details

About TechnoVision
TechnoVision is the brand name for TechnoVision Communications Limited a technology services company that advises clients on technology-led transformation and early-stage entrepreneurship in Africa. See http://tvcng.com/ for more details.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

LABS by ARM 2.0 Accelerator Programme Commences

The ARM Group is pleased to announce the commencement of the second cohort of the LABS by ARM Accelerator programme on the 10th of February, 2020. Similar to the maiden edition ARM is partnering with Ventures Platform to support and fund compelling fintech startups solving key problems in innovative ways around the financial industry, unlocking verticals and markets thereby changing how users access and consume financial services.

During the 12-week Accelerator programme, we will work intensively with each FinTech startup in a series of activities aimed at exponentially advancing the growth of their companies within the short time frame. We will also invest $20,000 (twenty thousand Dollars), offer office space, Amazon Web Services (AWS) credit of up to $10,000 (ten thousand Dollars), access to the ARM network capabilities and support the companies with carefully selected mentors comprising seasoned business leaders from the fintech industry who will provide hands-on support to the companies.

After the application deadline for LABS by ARM 2.0 , we had one hundred and ninety-one (191) submissions that were eventually reduced to thirty-three (33) and further reduced to eleven (11) companies after a tedious third round of evaluations. These eleven (11) companies were invited to the ARM headquarters in Ikoyi, Lagos for a chat with seasoned professionals, and technology entrepreneurs.. Finally, five (5) of the companies were selected and have now been invited into the Accelerator programme. They are:

TRUESAVER:

Truesaver provides access to zero-interest loans by leveraging rotational savings. The solution is a contact-based platform where contacts can save a set amount monthly over a period with lump-sum savings being given to each saver monthly in rotation.

OWOAFARA:

Owoafara is building tools and platforms to curate, verify and match small and medium-size businesses with financial institutions for loans as well as provide support for companies that do not qualify for financing to enable the businesses grow their business and better prepare to access financing.

RISE:

Rise helps Nigerians grow wealth by connecting customers with the best investment opportunities around the world, cheaply and seamlessly.

KWABA:

Kwaba is a property rental financing platform that is solving bulk rental payment problems for low to middle income earning Nigerians Kwaba makes the upfront rent payment for retail customers and these customers are able to pay their rent on a monthly basis.

QUANTIS FINANCE:

Quantis is leveraging technology to automate trading and investments in order to make financial markets and instruments more accessible to local investors.

Henrietta Bankole-Olusina (MD, ARM Financial Advisers)
Barbara Ezeife (Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, ARM)

ARM

Established in 1994, ARM is a leading Nigerian diversified and integrated asset management group firm that offers wealth creation solutions and opportunities through a unique blend of traditional asset management and alternative investment services to retail, high net worth and institutional investors.

ARM currently manages total assets of approximately N 1.25 trillion (as at December 2019). www.arm.com.ng

Ventures Platform

Ventures Platform is creating inclusive and sustainable wealth in Africa, by building the capacity of African entrepreneurs and innovators leveraging technology to create sustainable solutions to the most urgent problems on the continent. They are one of the most active early-stage investors on the continent.

Ventures Platform also works with big corporations in driving innovation internally and in building lasting relationships with the startup ecosystem to help fuel business growth and achieve innovation goals.
www.venturesplatform.com

5 life facts to remember

Life is an adventure that is meant to be lived and enjoyed! Yet, there are many dos and don’ts peddled around as a manual to life but there are a few pointers about life that we’ll like to reiterate even as you begin the journey of a fresh year and decade. Here we go…

Life is for the living

The pressures of life and the high demands we place on ourselves often force us to worry too much that we stress and burn out fast. The moment you truly understand that only those who are alive get to enjoy life, you’ll let go of the toxic emotions that steal your joy and peace of mind – and then you can enjoy life.

Life has a fair share of bad people disguised as good

It’s possible to trust that friend who will betray you tomorrow, or that spouse who may leave you one day – or even that sibling who will not cater to your family in case the unexpected happens. While lots of good people exist and you can take definitive measures to identify those within your circle who you can trust, it is imperative to not take chances especially if you have dependents. Secure their interest with an Easy Will.

Life can get tough

Even the strongest and richest of them all gets kicked tough by life in some way, at some point in time. Understanding this basic principle of life lets you absorb the shock when life gets tough and helps you understand the importance of having an emergency fund in place for the ones you love so that when life gets tough, there is a cushion to help them absorb it.

Life is fleeting

Nobody likes the thought of demise but it is one life phenomenon that we can do absolutely nothing about. It is even trickier because no one knows when it will be their time. Some people have been called before they even attained adulthood. Some others never had the chance to get married or even have children. Yet there are some who an entire family depended on and when they were taken, the world fell apart for their families because rats came and stole the fish meant for the children. That is why if you have children, putting an Education plan in place is the best way to secure their future.

There’s life after retirement

Many of us live for now, spending all we labour hard to get on momentary needs. We forget that we’ll one day retire and life continues even then. How comfortable life gets upon retirement is however dependent on the plans you place today against tomorrow. Live life today but don’t forget to save for retirement by constantly making Additional Voluntary Contributions to your Retirement Savings Account.

In conclusion…

At ARM, it’s our duty to make life easier to handle by providing you with all the products to plan your life at every stage that matters.

Explore our webshop at www.arminvestmentcenter.com to find a buffer for whatever stage of life you’re currently in.