How an IT Manager feels about Investment

Some time ago, I had a chance to meet an IT manager of a multinational company. I had a short discussion with him on Investment. He is late 30 and he just started to learn to invest in stock market. He told me that it is very important to learn investment and he is now learning investment so that his investment could prepare him for retirement. When I told him that I am from IT background and I just changed my career to Investment line and he said that he should have followed my footstep 10 years ago. He told me also that staying in IT line could only prepare him as a salaried worker, while working in Investment line, he could start his own business by helping other people to invest - Fund management.

Actually what he said is exactly what I am preparing for. I have taken a big step by changing my field from IT to Investment. I have let go a lot of things:- my working experience, my achievements in IT and even my qualifications in IT. My parents and sibling were against my decision at first. But when they saw that I am really serious about this and understand my reasons of changing field, then only they slowly accepted my decision. Most of my friends were surprised at first when learning about my decision. I am not sure how they think about my decision. May be they think that I am brave enough to do so or may be some of them think that I am stupid to let go so many things. Anyway, I am the only who will take control of my own life, so, I will not let other people's thoughts affect my decision. What I am sure is that they will see my achievements in investment after a few years.

What I need to do now is focus on building my foundation in Investment. Learn as much as I can in as short time as possible, push myself to complete 2 papers of CFA in 3 years time and another paper in another 2 years. Hopefully about 5-10 years down the road, after I complete me CFA, I could become a fund manager.

Update on 5 April 2008:- I have involved in Investment industry for more than 6 months. I have seen people with CFA but they are not as successful as I thought before. I am now a full time Equity Trading Analyst and I have seen people without CFA that are very successful as they really have a wide knowledge about the market and they earn a lot of money from the stock market. This made think that CFA might not be a necessity to be successful in this line. I am still considering on taking CFA. I might take it just to gain more knowledge.