Early Trading Start: Finance Executive Could Opt for Retirement Now

Investing early and making certain choices like not having a car have allowed finance executive Maria Jelen to be able to retire now if she wishes to.

The 43-year-old initially planned to have sufficient funds to retire by the age of 40, but delayed her goal by a couple of years when her second child was born.

She says: “Last year, my husband and I hit our new target. Now, we have the privilege to be able to make an active choice to work as long as we find it enjoyable overall and we can make an impact. So we play it by ear.”

Ms Jelen is the Asia-Pacific regional head of direct sales, relationship management and sales trading at online trading and investment firm Saxo.

The Dane is married to a Swedish professional, also in his early 40s, in the technology and financial services industry. They have two children, in primary school and pre-school.

The road to building a nest egg was not smooth.

Growing up in Denmark without much money, Ms Jelen was eager to get her first job as soon as she turned 13, the minimum age for part-time employment in the country.

“At that time I had four bank accounts – one with every bank in the town I grew up in – to make the best of interest rates,” says Ms Jelen, who is of North-east Asian descent.

“When I was young, I was pretty spoilt. My mum didn’t work and gave me most of her time and showered me with gifts. My dad travelled a lot for work,” she says.

Invest in yourself to gain knowledge and competencies – not just those related to your work but also broader, transferable skills. Also save money for a rainy year so you do not end up getting stuck in a job that is not right for you.

But money became tight after her parents’ divorce, when she was about seven years old.

She had her first finance job at 19 – as a part-time insurance sales consultant while studying – before going into retail banking, mortgage and then pension.

“I started trading actively when I was studying and I wanted to work with investing, which was the missing piece in my work history to have covered all the key personal finance aspects,” says Ms Jelen, who joined Saxo in 2005 after completing her master’s degree in finance and accounting at the Copenhagen Business School.

She left in 2006 but rejoined in 2007, and has been working at Saxo since.

Q: What is in your personal portfolio? A: My portfolio comprises exchange-traded funds (ETFs), real estate investment trusts, a house and an apartment overseas, private equity in companies focused on green transformation and mobility, cash, Central Provident Fund savings and pension schemes.

Stock ETFs, bonds and cash make up over 50 per cent of the portfolio.

My husband and I have a joint investment account with Saxo. Generally, I believe in diversification across equity markets through ETFs. I also use bonds and cash for fixed income and portfolio stabilisation.

Due to work, we have trading restrictions and my husband is very thankful for that, as it prevents me from being more explorative.

We plan to keep buying stocks and bonds through ETFs, and deploy more cash. We are also considering a retirement home, if my husband and I can decide where it should be.

My kids have a sub-account each under the main Saxo investment account I share with my husband, and I want the older one to start taking more interest in investing and be savvy from an early age.

If you are not investing, get started today because each day, you are losing out on your share of the world’s eighth wonder: compounding.

Q: What was your biggest investing mistake? Which was your best investment? A: The biggest profit came from an apartment investment in a prime location in Copenhagen. We bought our dream apartment in 2014, renovated it and then relocated to Singapore in 2015.

We sold it in 2018 and made above $500,000.

The worst single loss was buying Ark ETFs when prices were near the top. The ETFs are managed by Ark Investment Management, founded by American investor Cathie Wood. The loss of $30,000 was painful enough, but luckily it was less than 0.5 per cent of the portfolio and did not change anything in the big picture.

Actually, the biggest loss was a lack of action rather than an actual investment loss; 2020 was the target year for retirement and we played it too conservative in the market. We missed out on a big piece of the rally during the Covid-19 bull run.

That could easily have cost a million, which gives me so much remorse.

The big lesson here is to trust that the markets will go up in the long term, and hence real assets like properties and companies will appreciate over time as long as you buy quality assets or broad funds that will follow the general trend.

Be aware of the cost of not being invested over the long term – even if you don’t see the loss on your account, it’s still there. An investment gap today will be a wealth gap in future.

Q: Describe your lifestyle. A: We rent a three-bedroom condominium unit in the Tanglin area. We don’t have a car, as we find that it is not worth the money, especially in Singapore where it is so easy to get around by other means.

Making small choices like not having a car and generally living well below our means, combined with investing, is what allowed my husband and I to have the option of being able to retire comfortably by our early 40s.

We are lucky to be able to work by choice, and that we both work with wonderful people. When I weigh everything about my job that I like and dislike, what I enjoy far exceeds what I don’t. My work is a great platform to impact and influence the people around me about topics I am passionate about like financial independence, business development and diversity and inclusion.

We are conscious that the lifestyle we want is expensive in Singapore, so we are likely to relocate when we retire. I would like to go to Europe for our next move and be nearer to family.

We are planning to have a base of $120,000 per year and we might add other income streams such as part-time work, increased rental income from our properties or maybe a side business.

Ms Jelen’s top investing tips

1. Invest in yourself to gain knowledge and competencies – not just those related to your work but also broader, transferable skills. Also save money for a rainy year so you do not end up getting stuck in a job that is not right for you.
   

2. If you are not investing, get started today because each day, you are losing out on your share of the world’s eighth wonder: compounding.
   

3. Understand your investment style and be true to it. Don’t go chasing what works for everyone else. If you are a long-term investor who is a net buyer, then make a plan to buy on a regular basis and hold. If you are an active trader, you need to manage your positions to keep the odds in your favour through position sizing and risk management.
   

Repurpose article from the Straits Times.