Teaching what she's learnt

JASON LOW speaks to a young, savvy investor who teaches her students more than school curriculum

Published March 12, 2007

AT 25, while most of her peers are still busy scrambling to climb up the corporate ladder, Laura Oh is already on her way to attaining financial freedom.

Ms Oh: She took it upon herself to talk to her students about the importance of savings and exposing them to business programmes and concepts when she noticed that schools did not teach financial literacy

A savvy investor and a dedicated home tutor, Ms Oh has indeed come a long way from her humble beginnings. With her near-$200,000 portfolio of equities reaping good dividends and her tutoring occupation bringing in a good five-figure income every month, Ms Oh is certainly on track to achieve financial freedom in the coming years.

Indeed, she has been a high achiever all her life despite coming from a very humble family background. 'Being born into a poor family and having lost my father during my childhood, I had to constantly hold many jobs and manage my studies at the same time to pay for my family's household expenses,' Ms Oh says. 'It was living in such harsh conditions that made me so determined to work myself out of poverty.'

And that she has. Living in a condominium unit of her own and driving her fully-paid-for car, she has set her sights higher on achieving financial freedom by age 30.

Teaching from her home at Loyang, Ms Oh has been popular with students and parents alike. She currently has almost 100 students under her tutelage and is venturing into guidebooks publishing. She is also contemplating setting up her own tuition centre so as to cater for more students.

'One of the first values that I instil in my students is that they are all going to be CEOs one day - the CEOs of their own lives.'

- Ms Oh

'Teaching has always been my passion and I am extremely glad that all my students appreciate and like my teaching approach,' Ms Oh says. She has been truly creative in the education of her students, teaching scientific concepts through basic cooking classes and outdoor learning trips. Her creative and effective teaching methods have received many compliments and much encouragement from her students' parents, and it led her to make the decision to start venturing into guidebook publishing.

'By publishing my work, I hope to help more students in achieving academic success because I truly believe that every student has the potential to make a change in this world,' she says.

Ms Oh also teaches financial literacy during her lessons. 'Having noticed that none of our local schools teach any subjects about financial literacy, I take it upon myself to spend time talking to my students about the importance of savings and exposing them to entrepreneurial programmes and concepts,' she says. 'One of the first values that I instil in my students is that they are all going to be CEOs one day - the CEOs of their own lives.

'So they will have to be responsible for their actions and should seek to out-perform their peers in this competitive world.'

Ms Oh reckons that financial literacy will have a life-long impact on all of us.

'When in school, the report card determines how well we all have performed. Even in adulthood, we all still do receive a report card - in the form of our financial statement,' she says. 'And of course, I hope to score my A-stars soon.'

Asked how she started out in investing, Ms Oh explains: 'Given my family situation, I was taught how precious money was right from the very start. I respected the money that I earned and have been thrifty all my life. And equities provided me with an avenue to invest my hard-earned sum of money to better my financial position.'

Starting work as a tutor at age 17 and toiling long hours in other part-time jobs, Ms Oh managed to save around $25,000 for investment in equities by the time she was 21 - and has never looked back.

Value investor

Being a value investor, Miss Oh has always bought into fundamentally sound and high dividend yielding companies. 'I invest only in companies which have strong fundamentals and high dividend yields,' she says. 'I enter the market only when these stocks are undervalued and I hold onto them for the long run for their attractive dividends. In fact, the stocks in my portfolio have provided me with a substantial stream of passive income. I hope to gradually increase my investments in such stocks in the coming months as it will bring about more passive income for me and also bring me a step closer to financial freedom.'

When asked what she thought about the current market situation, Ms Oh says that she feels it is still the early days of the correction. 'The market has been too volatile after the sustained period of bull run. I would personally stay out of the market for the time being and only buy in when those blue chips on my watch list are undervalued,' she says. 'Trusts might be good defensive alternatives for this period of market volatility.'

For the young people out there, Ms Oh also has some last words of inspiration to share: 'In life, all of us should dare to dream, dare to fight and dare to reach for the sky. I hope these words can inspire you as much as it has done for me.'