Running out of ideas on how to pay your university tuition fees? Ask Samuel Goh, an ex-A&F student. He has been selected as the MoneySENSible Youth of Temasek Polytechnic for his knowledge and experience in investing and managing his finances. Although Samuel is tight-lipped about exactly how much money he has earned from stock investing, he reveals that the amount is enough to pay for his first-year tuition fee of $7,000 at the Singapore Management University (SMU).

So how did the 20-year-old Samuel get started in investing? His first foray into investing was actually just 2 years ago when he used his uncle’s trading account. However, that did not work out well, as he bought stocks based on his friend’s recommendations without conducting his own prior research and made some losses.

After that experience, he spent 2 months picking up fundamental stock analysis from his relative working in the financial sector before venturing to invest again. Furthermore, the technical knowledge he picked up from his SAPM project has enabled him to analyse and understand factors affecting companies’ stock prices and the economy. Specifically, in this subject SAPM (Security Analysis and Portfolio Management), students form teams of four to invest $250,000 on paper in their choice of investments as part of their project work. The goal is to make as much profit as possible through trading in real securities listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).

To further improve his investment know-how, he also did a 2-month internship last year with an investment consultancy firm under the Student Internship Programme at TP and passed a few modules of the Capital Markets and Financial Advisory Services (CMFAS) examinations.

Having just graduated from TP with a Diploma in Accounting & Finance in April 2007, Samuel will be enlisting in national service in September. After university, he hopes to work as a fund manager and invest on behalf of others. We wish Samuel the very best and congratulate him on both his win and his winnings.

Source: http://www.moneysense.gov.sg/