神水の真髄
The Essence of Shinzui no Zo
There are multiple reasons why this website exists, how I will use it, the meanings behind, and some of the key ideas you should carry with you as you read through. I hope to make your raffling through the records of my journey of starting to invest in fine whisky as interesting as possible, and for that - a Foreword:
神水の神髄
Starting Position
I am blended from birth (normally called a “mixed kid”) who generally loves analytics and needs a dram to chill out. Finance and investing had a very strong pull on me as soon as I learned I wasn’t cut out to work at a particle accelerator, and I had the good luck - but not fortune - to ride the early fintech startup wave, now working in a more stable finance job. Having been around startups (which is all about scaling up with multiple parallel bets), media, marketing, investments and analytics, several things have became clear to me.
More than diversified portfolios, diversified income streams is where the game is at, especially in tough times.
Stronger networks create new opportunities, and if they can also be wide, that adds to the opportunity.
Invest actively. Not for the earnings - a passive portfolio can do that for you - but for the learning. Ultimately, a diversified portfolio will be at the whims of central banks and macro policy, but learning enables capitalizing on the opportunities. If you can also invest off the beaten path, all the better.
To become excellent enough at something to have better opportunities as a result of the learning is very difficult. Sticking it through can come from either passion, discipline, or both. My day job takes a lot of my discipline, so finding a passion project has been a priority for a while.
If reflecting on the process and the results, no effort is ever wasted - no matter how strenuous. Times in my life when I have worked hard at something have all taught me incredible amounts - either about myself, or about some topic that someone else has found valuable, or both.
倉の財宝
Why Investing in Asian Whisky
It blends a love for investing with a focus on Asia, allowing me to discuss investments openly with enthusiasts and those similarly looking to find something off the beaten path. It will be a great opportunity to liven up my travel itinerary as well! While not anywhere near in scale, advising banks on how to incorporate hedge funds in clients' investment portfolios has definitely given me a taste for alternative investments and I find it very exciting to wet my lips and tasting this personally. Beyond the pure fun aspect, there is an investment rationale both for the capital I will commit, and the effort in documenting the process.
Investment Rationale
Macro: The investment case looks strong to me. The world is gradually getting flush with money, but at the levels at which other assets like stocks trade, I find it ultimately extremely difficult to justify investing in highly risky financial assets. On top of this, I expect people to do more drinking at home - alone or with close friends. Having a nice bottle - or at least a special one - will liven up any evening.
Micro: I’ve seen demand grow, but I think that the market is still very nascent relative to fine wines, champagnes or cognac, especially from an investment perspective. Especially Japanese whisky, which has seen significant supply shortages as of late, I think will have a lot of interesting classic bottles increasing in value, along with a flood of new distilleries capitalizing on the demand - some of which I think it will be worth betting on to succeed.
Value(able Learning): My investment is influenced by a traditional mindset - invest in what you understand, ideally something you believe in as well, and that will add value beyond the financial statements. For me, this venture is an opportunity to learn about multiple topics like Asian consumer trends and marketing across borders. Additionally, I look to learn more about web design, marketing, SEO, and overall to get to share in other people’s great insights.
Accessible Diversification: As a financial management consultant specializing in risk management for private banks, I have been offered a few peeks behind the curtains. This showed me how some of the wealthiest people are advised on their investments, with a full view into just what products they might be offered by their bankers. Often, I have been asked to help support analysis on the value of adding alternative investments - like hedge funds, private equity investments, startup investments, and expensive art - into a portfolio. It consistently shows that if you can create a different exposure than the market (don’t buy a hedge fund which basically buys the same stocks as everyone else) that investment leads to a chance to have a much lower risk portfolio with roughly the same overall return. But where I can’t invest in a private equity fund which bought into a hot tech startup at a great price, I can easily invest in a portfolio of whiskey bottles!
Showcase: Working in the financial services industry, it is rather uncouth to discuss actual investment recommendations or showing my holdings of standard financial products publicly. I might now or later need to work for a firm strictly advising against that position! I also know a lot of financially savvy people who are under the same restrictions. However, no bank will add a particular expression to their “recommend sell” list! Hence, this will allow me to show my overall investment thinking, invite others to share in theirs whether they be interested in whisky or (alternative) investments in general, and have a relaxed conversation on investment themes. Hopefully this helps crystallize my thinking, and to network with some really interesting people.
意味合い
Notes
Given that this will be a record of investing in Asian spirits, particularly Japanese whisky, I think that a lot will be lost if I do not attempt to look at cultural significance and understanding topics in greater depth. This involves a lot of context, and while I will never absorb it all or get it right most of the time, it is a reminder to make a sincere effort to engage with that level of nuance and context. Hence, all of the key areas, titles, etc. will carry a Japanese term to allude more or less poetically to the topic at hand. These are not a translation of the English titles accompanying them, but a different refraction of a feeling I want to communicate, further distorted by my lack of understanding of the actual Japanese language. If you do happen to have a deep understanding, I hope to offer more chuckles from the puns than offense from torturing the words, but anything offensive I am made aware of will be changed.
For example, the name of this website, Shinzui no Zo (神水の倉 - “cellar for divine water”) was selected with some thought to it. 神水 was chosen because there are a lot of homophones with slightly different nuances, which have even been played on earlier on this exact page. It also has a very nice double meaning of 1) water drank to seal a vow with the spirits, and 2) water from which miracles spring forth. A fitting description for whisky overall, especially if I am now making a commitment to this investment and putting my hopes for miracles into it. While not the most common translation of “cellar”, 倉 was chosen for its additional implications of “treasury”, “granary”, and “repository” which some of the other kanji with the translation of “cellar” do not - to my knowledge - share.
As a highly pretentious tribute to one of my favorite authors, the podcast (whenever it goes live) has been named 飲物語 (Nomimonogatari). This is effectively a combination of 飲物 (nomimono - thing you can drink) and 物語 (monogatari - tale or story, originally only in spoken format). Hopefully this is a good primer for how I think about meanings and puns. Oh, and if you figure out or know where that reference is from, I owe you a glass! Hit the Contact section to collect on a dram. Make it two drams if you can tell the second creative influence and why that matters to me.