How I Got Into The World of Investing?
Me, Reza Fahlevi. I would like to begin my first post by sharing my personal introduction to the world of stock market investing. I was first exposed to investment concepts during my university years, when I studied Economics with a major in Accounting at Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh. My involvement in investing became more practical after I opened my first investment account with RHB Sekuritas, starting with an initial capital of only IDR 100,000. From that point on, I began to learn about the life journeys and investment philosophies of successful investors such as Warren Buffett, Lo Kheng Hong, Masayoshi Son, Bill Ackman, Michael Burry, and many others.
After only a few months of investing, I decided to seriously commit to long-term investment principles. I officially started investing actively through RHB Sekuritas in mid-2018. The first stock I ever purchased was FILM, which had just gone public through an IPO and experienced a sharp price increase shortly after. However, as my understanding improved, I realized that the company was valued at a very expensive level. I eventually decided to sell the stock, earning nearly a 50 percent profit—though the gain was calculated from an investment of around one hundred thousand rupiah hehehe.....
However, despite FILM being significantly overvalued at that time, its share price continued to rise and has kept increasing to this day. When the company went public in 2018, its IPO price was only IDR 210 per share. Today, the stock is trading at approximately IDR 11,700 per share. The decision to sell was not a mistake, yet the extreme valuation dynamics within the entertainment industry—particularly the business model in which FILM operates—represent a level of irrational exuberance that is extraordinarily difficult for an accountant to quantify or predict using traditional valuation frameworks.
Since then, I gradually developed the habit of setting aside a portion of my monthly income to be transferred into my Investor Fund Account (Rekening Dana Nasabah/RDN) at BCA under RHB Sekuritas. Along the way, I spent more time reading and studying investment principles, building a solid and sufficient understanding that gave me the confidence to invest with much larger amounts.
At the end of 2021, I was accepted as a civil servant at the Audit Board of the Republic of Indonesia (BPK RI) and began earning a stable and adequate income. From that moment onward, the amount of capital I invested in the stock market gradually increased.
During this journey, I once listened to a podcast on Spotify that profoundly influenced my perspective. From that experience, I realized how significant the privileges of civil servants are, particularly the ease of accessing bank funding. I chose to use this privilege wisely, inspired by the sophisticated strategies employed by many global billionaires who focus heavily on financial efficiency and tax optimization. However, I must emphasize that utilizing such privileges requires extreme caution, as the risks involved are substantial—especially for those who are not professional investors.
This introduction will end here for now. More detailed discussions can be found in my other writings.
"Although my investments are concentrated in the financial sector and capital markets, I always strive to view every stock I purchase as a real business—one that I would be willing to acquire and own forever."
