I strongly recommend subscribing to AWARE

Minsu: Hello, I work in the semiconductor industry. I’m 29 years old, and my name is Minsu Kim.

Minsu: I’ve always been interested in the economy, so I was in a Facebook group related to economics. There, I started following Ryunsu Sung’s account, and that’s how I found out he founded AWARE and eventually joined recently. I’ve been following him on Facebook for about two years, and the outlooks he posted were very convincing—and when I looked back 1–2 years later, most of them turned out to be right.

His views were similar to what I was thinking, and I felt, “These are insights worth paying for, and they’re worth more than what I’d be paying,” so I decided to subscribe.

Minsu: Yes. I’d been following the content for a long time, and the forecasts were accurate, so I thought, “If I learn even a bit about investing here, it could help me more than just buying the S&P 500 or investing on my own.” The subscription fee might seem high, but I felt I could get more than my money’s worth, so I signed up. Using the model portfolio as a reference, I’m seeing really strong returns.

Minsu: I subscribed only recently, so I haven’t been able to follow AWARE’s model portfolio exactly. But CEO Sung has shared views like “Big Tech looks good,” and outlooks on specific names that would do well going forward. Based on that view that tech would be strong, I did deeper analysis on Big Tech myself and invested, and I’ve made almost an 80% return. The market has been strong recently as well. Even before AWARE launched, I’d been investing quite a bit, so my performance has generally been good.

Minsu: When I analyze a stock on my own and conclude that it’s good, I can still lack conviction in my own judgment. By subscribing to AWARE, I can understand more clearly why a certain stock is attractive. There are also various AI-related names in the portfolio, and among them were many companies I wasn’t familiar with.

For example, the AWARE portfolio has a pretty high allocation to (ticker). I expected well-known companies like Google or Microsoft to have the largest weights, but instead there was (ticker). Looking at recent performance, (ticker) has actually done better. It shows me things I wouldn’t have thought of on my own, which really broadens my perspective. In the end, as long as your investable capital is above a certain level, you get far more value than the subscription fee, so I feel I’ve gotten more than enough in return.

Minsu: Yes, I have. I was a member of a community run by someone called “Dangbu.” In that membership, they talked about stocks and Bitcoin, but it was actually more focused on real estate, which really broadened my perspective there. There’s also a YouTube channel called “Eoreumgongjang” that focuses exclusively on real estate. By following creators like that, I studied a lot on the real estate side.

AWARE, on the other hand, is clearly specialized in U.S. equities. It really feels like they have deep expertise in U.S. stocks, which I appreciate.

Minsu: To be honest, it wasn’t that hard to follow the model portfolio itself. The tricky part was actually when I first signed up and had to pay with an overseas card. I didn’t have a card that allowed international payments, so getting that set up at the beginning was a bit of a hassle. Other than that, I didn’t really run into any major difficulties.

But for people who are older, U.S. stocks can feel very unfamiliar or even uncomfortable, so I can see how it might be harder for them to use the model portfolio as a reference.

Minsu: This isn’t a strict rule or anything, but… for example, when I tell my parents, “Apple is a great company,” they have a hard time understanding why, even though Apple’s market cap is so much larger than Samsung Electronics. They don’t really use the products themselves either. It seems quite hard for them to break out of fixed ideas like, “How does this company even make money?”

I think there’s a psychological barrier to paying a high price for a company you don’t know, and that creates a gap in accessibility. Back in their day, manufacturing companies were the ones making money, and given how Korea’s economy is structured, manufacturing has traditionally been the main profit driver. So I think that’s why these newer types of companies feel so unfamiliar to them.

Minsu: I make a point of reading AWARE’s research reports carefully and looking at the model portfolio while asking myself, “Why did they give this stock this particular weight?” I try to think that through on my own. And instead of just looking at it passively, I search for the companies myself, learn what they do, and even study their financial statements directly. Using it that way has helped me a lot more.

What really surprised me when I looked at the model portfolio was that, alongside the big household names, there were many companies I had never heard of. As I researched those companies on my own, I ended up learning a lot about their hidden growth potential and other things I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise.

There was also a stock that everyone knows, but because it hadn’t been listed for very long and was still loss-making, I had never seriously considered investing in it. But seeing it in the model portfolio made me take another look. It had the effect of making me revisit stocks I would normally just ignore.

Minsu: If your investment capital is over 50 million KRW, subscribing to AWARE and using the information you get will likely give you a higher return than just investing in the S&P 500 index. You get a lot of value out of it, so I think it’s easily worth more than the subscription fee. And ultimately, we all want higher returns, right? I strongly recommend subscribing to AWARE.

Minsu: Personally, if your seed capital is under 50 million KRW… I think it’s better to put the amount you want to invest into the S&P 500 index, and first make full use of the tax-advantaged accounts that the Korean system offers, like retirement pensions or IRPs. For seed capital under 50 million KRW, I believe the priority should be to increase your earned income or invest in your own development.

Especially at a young age, rather than thinking, “I’ll do short-term trading to grow my seed money,” I think it’s more important to build your career and get a better job. So until you’ve earned that first 50 million KRW, it’s better to focus on self-development or increasing your savings.