When people complain to me about selling and the price goes up after they sell, and they are sad. I always say, you can't complain about making money. Making money is, making money. Whether you make R10 or R1m, it is more that you had, and it didn't take your time!
Here is something you need to get to grips with. So many people come to me and want to talk about investing, and then say but they don't have enough money. Or (and I am guilty of this) is you need lots of money to make lots of money (remember my chat with Grant while running when I realised I was a brat). Our days there are platforms to invest small amounts, if not there are index trackers, fixed deposits etc. It's not about how much you invest, it's about compounding! Invest early, invest what you can and invest as long as you can, and don't lose capital!
So something that confused me to no ends. Was the other day (mid May 2017), Petmin a company I own had finalised a private equity buyout and delisting. The terms were the share would be bought at R1.55 or you could take unlisted shares (on 2 June 2017). The current share price was R1.45-R1.47. This is a signed agreement, so very small chance of failing. So I spent all the money I had buying at R1.47, because I could sell it in less than a month and make 4-5% after fees.
I also tell people when I think I might have something worth looking at. So I told lots of people including two of my work colleagues. Both smart, financially savy, never mind just generally nice people. To which I got the I don't know... I'm not so sure... there must be risk, it can't be right. After a lot of explanation for why this was a good idea, it got down to "I do not have enough to make the investment worth while at just 4%. Like if I invest R10 000 I only make R400". At this stage I left it, as I got to the stage where "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink" realisation hits home, and at least I tried.
So lets hope you don't make the same mistake.
Lesson: The size of your profit does NOT matter. If you want to make a billion rand, you have to make R1 first. In class I use two examples; toothpaste and coffee. If you pay R2 less for toothpaste, you have an extra R414 at retirement in "real terms" (assuming you invest at 20% and inflation is 6% and you are 22 years old) and a R20 cup of coffee knocks off R5 970. Wealth later is about saving and making every rand now (still trying to get buy in from the wife on this one).
If you interested in saving to retiring early, for an interesting alternative view maybe check out: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/
Yes 4% is a small percentage, but 4% a month (was shorter, but for easy of my calculation), is 60% a year when compounded! If they left that money in cash, they would earn 5.5% for the year. If they invested and then left it is cash 9.72%. With cash they went backwards due to inflation, with the investment created wealth or 3.72% (assume 6% inflation). If you invest at a higher return for the remained or the year, that excess return goes up (at 5.5% return for the remained of the year you get an additional return of 4.22%, at 20% additional return is 4.8% - power of compounding, 5 years later at 20% additional return of 10%). When you make decisions base them on percentages, and preferable annualized. Its not about making 100% a trade its about compounding ever 1% you can, because that 1% can compound to a big number.
Think about the tale of the inventor who sold his invention to the king (like 13th century). Where the inventor took a chess board and asked for wheat/rice with the gains doubling every square as his price.... Compounding would have cost the king his kingdom. It all starts with just one grain...