Wrote this in 2021 when I was a new father. Updated this to include a fourth parallel between parenting and investing in 2025.

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The most common question I get these days is "So how has life changed since parenthood?"

I will then answer matter-of-factly and unself-consciously, "Overnight I become very preoccupied with money." So it's no wonder that thoughts about parenting and investing germinate (or should I say, ruminate?) in my mind. And hence, this article was born!

I have been a father for a while only, but have already learnt many positive traits from this journey. These traits will serve me well in my journey as a budding investor, I reckon. So, this article is for fellow parents who want to start investing but are apprehensive as to how to do so. Don't worry! If you're a parent, you already have the traits of a good investor!

Here are three reasons why.

Pro-family advertisments never mention this, but no discussion of parenthood is complete without bringing in how babies and toddlers bawl into your ears late at night, bursting your eardrums when they are supposed to sleep.

In fact, I came up with this article mentally in my head because my boy, for some inexplicable reason, was angry about something but lacked the words to express the anger. He wailed as if someone had tore his flesh. He kicked and pushed me away as if my very presence offended him. He cried non-stop.

Same Same, But Different

Initially, I could feel my emotions being stirred up when he did his hollering act. I would either feel irritated with him or lament that my precious evening was gone just like that. But these days, I am seasoned enough to do the right thing.

Which is nothing.

That's right. I don't even try to cuddle him - he's not the cuddling sort. I just lie in bed beside him and wait for his cries to subside. They always do.

Eventually, out of the blue, he will drift off into sleep. Sometimes, I can even hear his heavy breathing - best music in this whole world!

I just need the patience to ride out his stormy tantrum.

Surely, this applies to investing, where life throws curveballs on you, the market crashes drastically, emotional turmoil runs at an all-time high, and you really feel that the world (and your fortunes!) is about to come to an end. What should you do, for goodness' sake?

Nothing. Just ride out the storm.

When you live long enough with your toddler, you learn quickly to instill daily habits and routines in his or her life so that you can somewhat control this unpredictable stream of parenting life. And it's a good thing for your toddler because he or she knows what to expect and can even contribute to the household!

Take for instance the art of undressing. Whenever I undressed my boy, I would ask him to put his dirty clothes into the laundry basket, complete with animated gestures. I didn't have high hopes for this, to be honest but carried it out anyway because he ought to listen to my manly speech as much as possible.

It was slow going at first, but over time, he learnt to put his clothes into the basket! In fact, these days, he will throw a hissy fit if I deny him the golden opportunity to do so.

The same thing occurred with the washing of his hands. Because we got him to wash his hands every day, he quickly picked up how to say "Wash hands" in Chinese (洗手). He built on this laurel by pushing a chair to the kitchen sink because he knew that his mother or I would pick him up to stand on it. This evolved to him reaching out to turn on and off the tap on his own.

Needless to say, he absolutely adores washing his hands.

Same Same, But Different

Because we repeated the same actions on a daily basis, my son was able to make sense of our instructions and follow them. Not only that, but he was able to forge his independence by always conquering a new task that would add on to the list of things that he could already do.

Perhaps you're thinking about dollar cost averaging, right now. Indeed, the same principle applies! Set up a standing instruction with your bank, automate your investment, regularly pump in money into the market, and wait patiently for it to grow.

As with a child's development, compounding happens with money too. When your money earns interest, this interest will earn more interest, and so it repeats in a virtuous cycle. Just like how children grow to gain mastery of their limbs and brains!

I don't know about your child but my boy has recently taken a liking to buses. Perhaps he is intrigued by how big these vehicles can get. In any case, it means that I have to schedule time for him to ogle and awe at glorious buses at the bus stop/roadside/whatever whenever we return home from the childcare centre.

This diversion will take about half an hour.

I can just rush back home and be oblivious to his desire of getting up close with buses, I guess but I will feel bad for leaving his need unfilled. So these days, we "squander" half an hour just to admire buses.

But I figure that it's time well invested because guess what's the first thing he dashes over to when he reaches home (and after washing his hands)? That's right. His wide array of buses and other vehicles. He plays contentedly with them until shower time.

Same Same, But Different

Just as how we plan our children's schedules so that they grow up happy and healthy, we do likewise with our money. In fact, the more zealous among us will budget for every expense category, right down to the 5-cent level. Indeed, just as how I allocate this block of 30 minutes to bus gazing, it's important for me to assign a job to every dollar if I were to attain my dream life in future.

This discussion is gonna be short. Since I wrote this article in 2021, I have acquired another child. In fact, both of them are running ahead of me as I type this, trying to maintain my sanity while taking them to the library.

Anyway, a few more years of parenting has taught me just what a thankless and tiresome job it is. Children falling sick inexplicably. Their vaccinations and learning journeys and homework. Their emotional demands often blasted at the top of their lungs or uttered insistently like a leech which just won’t let go. You get the point.

What has helped me survive this tough period is learning the low time preference principle. If I ELI5, it means ‘good things take time’. I got to marry delayed gratification, regardless of whether I like it or not, because raising good young men and women literally takes years. I’m enduring all these sacrifices on my time, energy, dreams in hopes that I can be around to witness the fruits of my intense labour later on.

In fact, in Chinese, we have a saying that expresses the low time preference principle: 先苦后甜 (xian ku hou tian; suffer first and enjoy later). I need to hold on to this instead of subscribing to 及时行乐 (ji shi xing le; just enjoy the here and now) and stopping being so playful haha.

As with parenting, investing is a low time preference activity. Following the ‘pay yourself’ principle, denying yourself of hedonistic pleasures, putting your money in assets that will take time to flourish. Embracing the long waiting game.

Closing Thoughts

I hope this article put a smile on your face, fellow parent. Remember. Turbulent times will come to pass. You are a consistency machine. You refuse to bow down to the unpredictability of a little person experiencing big emotions and plan his or her day. You can transfer these great parenting lessons to investing!