Fintech exec began developing her investing acumen as a teen

Her initial better-safe-than-sorry approach has given way to a higher risk appetite now

- Prisca Ang

Fintech executive Alice Liu adopted a better-safe-than-sorry stance to investing in her younger days but that approach has given way to a higher risk appetite these days.

Ms Liu started developing her investing acumen when she was just a teenager, focusing on low-risk investments that provided stable returns while helping to build her confidence as she navigated financial markets.

Her parents taught her the basics of investing and gave her access to a trading account that she managed independently, with their advice.

Ms Liu, who is in her 40s, used a combination of personal allowances and cash from red packets received during Chinese New Year to buy stocks and funds that she carefully picked out according to market trends.

“By getting into investing at an early age and now opting for a high-risk, high-return investment strategy, I hope to grow my assets enough to be able to live a comfortable retirement.”

However, retirement still seems to be some distance away for Ms Liu, who is chief executive and co-founder of digital payment solutions provider dtcpay, which allows merchants to process payments in both fiat and cryptocurrencies.

Ms Liu, who has a bachelor's degree in economics from China's Shandong University of Finance and Economics, pursued a traditional finance career for 15 years.

She held roles such as managing director at China Minsheng Banking Corp, where she led corporate banking operations at the Hong Kong branch.

Ms Liu, who is single, pursued further studies in 2019 and enrolled in the National University of Singapore's (NUS) Executive Master of Business Administration programme.

A Singaporean classmate told her about a challenge he was facing at work: Several payments had been delayed for a month due to undisclosed issues with an intermediary bank.