Ep485: Satima Meanlamai – Never Stop Investing and Learning

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning in our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it, go to my worst investment ever.com and join our Facebook group to connect with our community of guests and fellow listeners. Fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests. Satsuma Mian Lumie or Tao. Tao. How are you? Are you ready to rock?

Satima Meanlamai 00:39
Yes, I'm ready.

Andrew Stotz 00:41
Yeah, I'm excited to hear your story. Let me introduce you to the audience. Ladies and gentlemen. Tao is the founder of Vietnam value investor group in Thailand. She works full time as an architect, but believes long term stock index investing in Vietnam would grow her savings with less effort. Her motto is, when in doubt, just keep investing and learning Dow take a minute and filling further tidbits about your life.

Satima Meanlamai 01:13
Okay, thank you. Well, so I was born and raised in countryside of Thailand. And then I came to Bangkok for studying architecture. And during my college years, like 14 years ago, I had opportunity to visit school in Hanoi and Vietnam. And then I got JETRO scholarship to to Japan for a short period, like this study. And one thing that surprised me the most is about the contrast of students in both country, like the one in Japan, berish and the one in Vietnam. were poor. Yeah, but yeah, but nevertheless, they both were smart and hardworking. Right? And, and then let us my friend in Vietnam, they got a scholarship to study in Japan, and, and UK and Denmark, and 10 year later, we met again, and they look more confidence and become barriers. And I think if you have a friends who were already rich and smart and 10 year letters become barrier, you may not notice much difference. But if you have a friend who's more smart, hardworking but very poor was and then 10 year later, they become rich is would be like very remarkable sharing. Yes, sir. So I'm very surprised how my friend like grow up and sharing that time. And this is the reasons why I asked interest about the potential of Vietnam. And yeah, and so that,

Andrew Stotz 02:47
that connected you with Vietnam? Yes. Like, Mm hmm. How did your friend get rich?

Satima Meanlamai 02:54
Because they, they, they are very smart. And then they get a job in Denmark and like in in UK, and then they come back? And since some of them still be there. Yeah. So. So I feel that and I feel that Vietnam mishap like fighting correcto that they are very tough. Something like that. That's for

Andrew Stotz 03:17
sure. I went to school at Cal State Long Beach, and we have a huge Vietnamese community all around my university in that area. Vietnamese people definitely are survivors.

Satima Meanlamai 03:28
Yes, right. And other reason that I invest in Vietnam, I would give credit to Dr. Levey at him. Like he's inspired me to invest in high stock market last 12 years, and when I'm stalking my get about six year, yes, yeah. And that's not going anywhere. I simplify things, the way of investing and make it easy to for everyone to understand.

Andrew Stotz 03:56
For the international listeners out there, Dr. New Way, is a lovely gentleman, who is really a master of value investing, and could be considered the Warren Buffett of Thailand, but also has a real kind spirit. And so I think he has inspired a lot of people in Thailand.

Satima Meanlamai 04:18
Yes, that's, that's yes. I've very admire him. And that's about my life. And I started in Vietnam. And just

Andrew Stotz 04:27
to, to close out. One, two last things. The first one is it seems strange to some people that an architect would start to become kind of an expert in investing, value investing, you know, that type of thing. And so I'd like to just understand how you know how that happened. And the second thing is Vietnam value investor group. Tell us why you started it and what you know what you're doing with it.

Satima Meanlamai 04:58
Okay, so as some I think when when I first thought of investing is because there's that I see the bank interest rate is so low and I just went to one coffee shop and then open the magazine and say that like one one hospitals in Thailand get like six 6% dividend yield, and then I just invest and that time like the hospital stock go a lot. And then it was like, wow, maybe part of luck not my talent much so that's why I guess that. And for Vietnam value investor good, actually is kind of, I don't mean to be that because when mostly when people open pitch, they have the knowledge about things, and they want to share. But my case is I don't know anything, but I have the feeling that I want to learn about Vietnam, then I wrote an article about it. And some people read it. And I remember like the first step to Vietnam, like, six years ago, I kind of fumble I go with my dad, but my dad has bought like x pi in because

Andrew Stotz 06:12
he couldn't leave Thailand airport. What?

Satima Meanlamai 06:14
Yeah, so I go there. And I, I, I leave on the news that they have a Vietnam airport star, which is cheap, cheaper than ties, Thai airport stop, like 10 times, and they have like, 12 Or sorry, 22 Airport. And I see like, the Vietnam is like so almost 100 populations and, and everybody's like the country is so long and like is I feel like I have a chance and then I go there and I don't know how to invest I just carry some money on my backpack and go there and and then because it's like Farnborough and then I forgot to declare my money and my Booker said I cannot invest because I forgot to declare. And it's like what I feel like what the country by I don't understand anything. So just posting thing to five friends through interest and then we can share things and that's that's how

Andrew Stotz 07:15
that's a great story. You know, it's the organic development you know, like I think everybody likes to learn and watch someone learn and grow with them. So you know that's very valuable. And are you able to the money that you brought in were you able to invest it or you had to go out again and come back in or you had to go declare it somewhere or were you able to invest it

Satima Meanlamai 07:40
so i i cannot invest the time to pull the IPO I carried by big money and scared that I would get wrapped around the country and go back Thailand and then I have to buy Apple stock like two times more expensive because I just forgot to declare and like it's fun finally you

Andrew Stotz 08:01
Yeah, that we always see this the documents whatever on the airplane if you have more than $10,000 Please declare the money yeah, here you go. All right, well, now it's time to share your worst investment ever and since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to then tell us your story.

Satima Meanlamai 08:26
Okay, so I think it's probably like the most people you interview have the worst investment at the beginning and they learn and then they improve and then success but my case is different. My best investment so far until now was at the beginning and my worst is in the middle. So at the beginning I have less knowledge about financial thing I and your success P E ratio dividend you and I just invested in the company I like and but I buried look at the detail of the company. Yeah, and but the stock I pick like retail airports hospitals turn out like 10 banker for some years. Yeah, I was lucky but that time I just graduated so I don't have money, Mr. Very small money. So is that doesn't sting thing. And then when I start to be more aggressive, yeah. And I put all my stepping into stock. And then I have like structuring there that because maybe five fear letters like tight economies slow down and so my stock like that, and that my stock EPS grew slowly compared to the P E ratio above 4050 some time, so yeah, it's still gonna grow but slower, and then the market don't give the value like high PE anymore. So and that time I know that the stock I like is very expensive, but I didn't put any effort Prior to study new stock of new loose net, I learned to invest outside Thailand. So my entire portfolio got stuck. Yes. And then yeah. And then

Andrew Stotz 10:12
when you say stuck, what does that mean? It didn't go up and the market went up or it went down and you were feeling like you're stuck in it

Satima Meanlamai 10:20
is doesn't go up and the market doesn't go up to. Yeah, it's now that PE is slowing down because the earnings go up, but nobody is not bullish anymore. about it anymore. Yeah. And that at that time, and then, like Dr. Newbery wrote a article about Vietnam and I Purcell's personally believe in is has potential. So I started investing in Vietnam equity market like six years ago, and then I diversified to US and China because like Gerber brands products never live in Vietnam or Thailand. So So yep, that's and and now I feel that like, my investment life is being underwriter again, that I enjoy learning new thing, and I'm satisfied with my performance. And I think I like the code that Charlie Munger just said that, like, there are values by of value investing, just like fishing, but the first level of fishing you have to be bad fish. And maybe other fish more fish outside Thailand. And yeah, that's, that's my sorry.

Andrew Stotz 11:38
That's great. And how would you describe the lessons that you learned from this?

Satima Meanlamai 11:43
Lessons From my experience, right. So my overall portfolio was hurt in the middle of my investment, because I didn't keep learning. Like, I kept investing, but not keep learning. And the maybe my big profits at the beginning is because of luck. And I start investing in high stock might get in good timing, not my talent much. So but but the last one builds you long so that you have to invest in yourself and never stop learning.

Andrew Stotz 12:24
Um, so maybe I'll share a couple of things that I took away from your story. The first thing I wrote down was the home country bias. So many people only invest in their home country. And I always say to them, you know, if we were sitting in London, and we had a million dollars that we could invest anywhere in the world, would we invested in your home country? Probably not, we will be looking around the world for opportunities, but because we understand our home, and you know, we understand how to operate here, we just invest in our home country. So congratulations to you for moving beyond home country bias. Then the second thing I wrote down was start with luck. You know, it's interesting, the number of people that do start with luck, and then they bet more and more and more, and then all of a sudden, reality comes right. And, you know, your reality wasn't so brutal. You didn't like lose all your money. But the point is, is that sometimes having luck in the beginning, is a curse. Because then you think, Oh, this is kind of easy. And I think the third thing that I take away is, you know, I like you're saying just keep investing and learning that you mentioned before. And I think the point is, is that one things I love about finance is that now it's almost 30 years that I've been in the world of finance, and every day, I'm still learning. And, you know, I decided to go and do my PhD. And I did that. And I learned so much more. And I just did an analysis of the balance sheets of US banks and how they performed during the crisis of 2008. And this current crisis, and I learned more in this thing. It's endless learning. Now, maybe that's the case, in all professions. But truthfully, some professions are pretty standard. Think about architect as an example. You have to learn some foundational principles. But it's not like something completely different is going to change in the world of engineering, or science or architect or something like that. So that's the other part that I just think that in finance, you're constantly having to adjust to the system that you're investing in. So anything that we would add to that

Satima Meanlamai 14:48
about I think about that,

Andrew Stotz 14:51
anything I mean, does that make sense to you? Or

Satima Meanlamai 14:54
yes, very makes sense. And I really admire you for doing many things and keep learning so much like, I think like, I keep learning is easy to say but difficult to do. And I still feel Valley laces some time to learn new things. Yeah.

Andrew Stotz 15:12
So let's challenge ourselves and challenge the listeners out there. You know, what are you learning today, right behind me is a lot of books. And last night, it was three in the morning, I couldn't sleep, I woke up. And I went and grabbed one of my books called Six puzzles of finance. And I started reading again about some very strange things in the world of finance. And, you know, that was, you know, fantastic. And it's great to be learning. So I think that is an ultimate challenge to the audience. I also have a little connection, by the way with architects because my great grandfather, his family, immigrated from Germany to America in 1839, a long time ago. And then eventually, he started an architectural firm in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And then my father, my grandfather took over that firm and ran it with his brother until they sold the firm the firm still exists in Pittsburgh, it was started in 1898. My father and myself didn't do architecture. But my grandfather and my great grandfather have about 900 structures in Pennsylvania particularly Pittsburgh, that they were architects on so it's amazing and I have all these drawings around my house of my grandfather did. And I just admire the ability of architects to draw which I can't draw at all. That's my little connection with architecture. So let me ask you, I want you to think about you know, young people out there who were where you were in the past. And what I want to ask you is based upon what you learned from this story and what you continue to learn. what action would you recommend our listeners take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Satima Meanlamai 17:04
I think yeah, we talked about learning sir I would say that like keeping invest thing and learning but if if I had to put this one day I would say keep learnings but but I think one solutions that because I'm not like hardworking person and I feel they see at time to learning things so I feel that light so shine that book for me is to mingle with people who love learning is like the classic who say you are the average of five people you spend time with and so to encourage myself to to like not to stop learning but non stop I create my own pet now and I told myself to keep posting thing every day and I have a book of investor through retail investor to do like online presentations like 111 person one stock and then so that we can share and discuss idea something like that. And I also organize seminar and meeting like every year it's like once a year at least and for investor who interest about Vietnamese doc so they can catch up and share things. And yeah, right. And also the ally does not as to make your big potential papers help you God in terms of investing but in regarding health, I try to Tomiko myself is my friend who loves exercise. And, and maybe I'm doing worse in my group in terms of exercise, but you know, my close friend, like compete like 100 kilometre trails and some like 100 My trails, so even the worst in the group, but I have done like 10 full marathon 42k So this is better than address paper.

Andrew Stotz 19:04
It's much better. So I guess lesson I'm taking away from that is if you'd feel lazy at times, if you feel like not learning or not exercising, hang around people who are doing it, who are inspiring, who are motivational, and it will rub off on you and you don't have to be the best but you got to just get out there and do it.

Satima Meanlamai 19:26
Yes, I agree. I do believe that making with the right friends is important.

Andrew Stotz 19:32
Fantastic. So last question. What's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Satima Meanlamai 19:39
Sir, as for me now, my main goal for next 12 months is to travel to Vietnam as fast as I can because I think I now get to boxing gyms and I think next Monday they go into opens and so that I want to understand the numbers and actually a business but maybe not palms are ready. But, but I love seeing the dynamic of the cities and how they grow and change every time I resist. Like Peter Lynch says, like VCs visit things store and like our testing the border is one analyst job, sir. So I am sure that the cost of traveling in back to Vietnam, I could get it back from the stock ladder. So,

Andrew Stotz 20:28
yeah, you're doing your research, and you enjoy it. That's great. Well, listeners, there you have it another story of laws to keep you winning. Remember to go to my worst investment ever.com and join our Facebook group and connect with our community of guests and fellow listeners. As we conclude, dow I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy, I hereby award you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Satima Meanlamai 21:04
Just keeping investing and learning.

Andrew Stotz 21:07
That's great advice, ladies and gentlemen. Keep investing and keep learning and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz St. I'll see you on the upside.