Steve Kuhn is Partner and Co-Chief Investment Officer of Pine River Capital Management.
Here’s his best advice to take control of your finances:
If you were going to make one new investment now, what market would you invest in?
I can tell you about an area where we’ve started doing a lot of work, and which I’ll most likely be presenting on at Invest for Kids in November: Japanese value stocks. Right now, we’ve become intrigued by undervalued Japanese companies that are just now starting to take measures to show that they care about shareholder value. I won’t give any specifics right now—you’ll have to stay tuned for my presentation at Invest for Kids.
What is the biggest money mistake you made and what did you learn from it?
Probably the biggest single investment failure was when I stepped outside of my area of expertise and invested in a documentary film. It was a great piece of work about kids growing up in housing projects—socially responsible, very valuable, and ultimately gratifying for me to have played a role in its making—but it wasn’t a good financial investment.
What is the most important thing someone can do at 25 to create a secure financial future? At 35? At 45? At 55?
At any of these ages, the message is the same: The most important thing is that you pursue something that you are passionate about. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing or if you don’t want to be doing it, there is no security. Of course, there are the simple rules of thumb: live within your means, save for retirement, create a plan and stick to it, etc. But without seeking to actually make yourself happy and fulfilled, what good is any of that?
