When it comes to planning, i am a strong believer of trusting the person who is supposed to be an expert in the industry it’s in. When there is enough trust, alot of work can be lessen off and things can move fast. However due to human kind, some of us tend to abuse this trust and as a result, there are many others who had bad experience.

I would highly recommend that you as a consumer, need to assess your consultant inside out when it comes to financial planning for yourself. Make sure that this person is not out to earn a commision from you and what he say, he must do it himself too. If you meet an agent selling you ILP, do ask for proof of himself buying the plan too. I’m sure you dont want to buy from an agent who is insufficiently covered or worse still, doesnt even own this policy himself.

Ask him what are the type of planning he has done for himself? If he takes a second to think and tell you, it can only show that he/she is not sure of their planning and thinking of a good excuse to tell you.

Do you have a consultant who only sells you saving plan or recommend that you should start saving since young? Well not that the theory of saving since young is wrong but it’s just that if one commits too much into saving initially without fufilling the insurance coverage, the end result will only be one thing: Lapsed policy.

By lapsing, the customer is the biggest loser so that’s why i always advice my clients to tell their friends not to buy saving plan. Despite all that has been said, there are still many young people falling into the saving plan trap. Rich consultants are the one that selling you saving plan because they earn the most out of it. You hardly see them selling you term or limited pay plan because of the minimum commission.

In short i just hope to highlight to readers that trust is to be earned and not to be given so easily to your financial planer. Make sure that they are really keeping track of your insurance portfolio as a whole rather than always going for saving for long term approach.

It’s been almost 2 months since my last posts and i am deeply sorry about it. Many of my friends have asked me what happened and my reply was ‘No time’

But today i receieved an email which motivated me to want to blog more. I got an email from CPF board to invite me to write articles for their upcoming ‘Are you ready’ Campaign and i really feel very honoured to be on their invited list. They are going to launch this initiative in 9 Oct 2011 and the purpose aims to educate singaporeans on how to make key financial decisions in their lives.

So therefore the next few weeks, i am going to write a couple of articles so that they can use for the campaign and hopefully through this event, more people can be educated financially.

If you guys have any other topics or areas that you are interested to know more, you can email me or drop me a msg at the chatbox. i will listen to you and share with you my knowledge to my best ability =)

Stay tuned!

Enough has been said about all kinds of financial planning or products available in the market. However does one sit down and reflect that despite all that has been said, somehow, all of the knowledge just doesn’t seem to do any good or make any change in one’s life?

As with any other aspect of our lives, financial planning too requires an important ingredient – discipline. All requires Consistency!

If you are consistent in revising your homework everyday, it won’t come as a surprise if you score A’s in your exam. If you are consistent in reading your bible, you will find yourself getting closer and closer to God. If you are consistent in exercising, you will always be in shape. If you consistently save $50-100/month since age 18 from your pocket money or salary, I can assure you that your yearly holiday trip will not blow a hole in your pocket, but instead be easily splurged on.

Nevertheless, theoretically speaking it seems an easy enough habit, however the application into reality often fails us. We are often distracted by other unrelated matters (objects of desire) in our life and easily allow it to overtake the important matters. I hope that all of us can solve this issue by really asking ourselves this question – WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT? Is it financial freedom? A nicer body? Being healthy? Growing closer to God?

Fix your mind to your end goal and abide strictly to it and the end result will definitely be much sweeter. Forget about short term discomfort, we only need to focus on long term gain. Do you really want to sit by a coffeeshop when you are old and complain about how the government does not help people in the middle-income level when you actually did have a choice during your younger days to make a difference for yourself? It could be creating a sum for your retirement to having a closely knit family or developing a multi-million dollar business, the choice is in your hand.

For whatever possessions that wealthy people have, it is all because of their hard work, and efforts placed into reaching where they’re at. (of course there are some who are blessed with a silver spoon in their mouth from their births, but are you?) It is never truly just dumb luck (are you sure you’re not rationalising to make yourself feel better?) For what you sow is what you reap. So folks, I hope that after reading this article, you’d be inspired to be more consistent in whatever you are doing.

Just remember: You can move a big mountain by first learning to move away the small rocks

In my recent appointments with my new clients, I realized that many of them are really in need of proper financial planning simply because most of them are lacking the basic foundations of saving. What I mean is that more often than not, they don’t know how to save money in a systematic way and never realize the importance of first setting aside money to save before deciding to spend that same amount of money.

How many of us as we are reading this and are reminded of the friends around you who behave in a similar manner? They earn quite a decent amount of income but they always complain to you that they do not have enough to save. Yet at the same time, you see them wearing new clothes, bags etc. I bet that you must be nodding your head and having that particular friend in mind right… Or perhaps even yourself?

If you do care about this particular friend, I urge you to ask this friend of yours to meet ME! Having spent a certain amount of time in this industry, I have had my fair share of viewing how industry workers work. And while there are many competent consultants out there in the market, I too know of many others out there who do not place much emphasis of understanding their clients and designing a tailor made plan which will help them to maximise their outcomes using minimum resources. Many consultants fall into the trap of advising based on what is best for them instead of recommending based on what is best for the client’s sake.

Personally though, I have always retained the mentality of “If you give others what they want, others will give you what you want.” Having that in mind helps me a lot as I grow with my clients, and they see that through the years as I keep them up to date with their plans, and how their finances have grown leaps and bounds, without them having to leave their comfort zone. As such, it is of utmost importance that you ask yourself this question whenever you meet a new consultant – “Is he/she in it more for me or more for themselves?” If you get the slightest notion that they’re not the least bit concerned about what you’re saying(about your life, your family – which all factors into your decision making process), my advice would be to leave. The consultant has the responsibility to grow with you!

Coming back to the topic of getting the basics right, I believe that every individual needs to first have that desire to WANT to plan because without this desire, there is no ‘NEED’ to plan. A person will not be motivated to do anything when there is no desire. Once he/she finds that desire, the execution and planning part will come hand in hand. It is not easy in the beginning but once it becomes a habit, it will be of second nature to you. So the important question is this – What kind of foundation should you have? Well that is exactly what I am going to share my two-cents worth of knowledge with you.

Tips on getting your basic foundation right:

1)      You need to get the formula right: It is supposed to be ‘Salary – Saving = Spending’. NOT the other way around.

2)      Set up at least 4 bank accounts! One for daily expenses, one for emergency fund, one for luxury/entertainment and the last one for long term savings which can come in the form of normal bank savings or endowment plans.

3)      Allocate 10% into the 3 accounts and set the remaining for expenses account.

4)      NEVER buy a savings plan first.

5)      Set aside $10 per day for meals. Double it up on weekend. This way you can limit your monthly expenses for food. There is no need to eat expensive food when you know the next moment, it will turn into ‘waste’ – literally.

6)      Say ‘NO’ to credit card DEBT! Use credit card wisely before it kills you back.

7)      Don’t buy a car unless it can be used to generate more income or to serve your family. The amount of money that can be saved by not buying a car is enough for an average Singapore to hold a simple wedding in 1 year’s time.

      Live simple!

Yes, my last tip to get your basics right is to LIVE SIMPLE! Our grandparents eat porridge everyday and yet manage to live up to 80+ years. In today’s society, we eat nice seafood, Japanese ramen etc and still we all die at an earlier age in spite of all the nutrients. So what does this indicate? There is no need to splurge on unnecessary things and just focus on leading your life in a more meaningful way. The person that told you that getting everything you want in life will make you happy was lying to you!

I thank you for taking the time to read this article and I hope that you will take away these tips and apply it into your life. Do let me know if it creates an impact to you. =)

Recently i have my clients and friends asking me whether should they buy insurance products from banks or from me (tied agent)?

Well personally i felt that the answer is the same as you asking yourself ‘Should you go directly to manufacturer to buy products or you should buy from a distributor’ Same things but different pricing. The price that you pay if you go direct to manufacturer is so much cheaper compared to distributor where they will mark up the price by abit to earn the margin.

In our context, buying insurance from us(manufacturer) is more beneficial compared to from the bank(Distributor) 

 First of all, ask yourself this question: ‘Is the agent from the bank going to be your long term consultant or do you think the one from tied agency would possibiliy be the one staying long term?’ Which one has the incentive to do their work better? I believed the answer is quite obvious. The moment you signed on the documents inside the bank, the liability lies directly between the insurance company and yourself. The bank consultant cannot be seen inside your future financial planning process. On the other hand, the tied agency agent will continuously be there to service you making sure that you are covered for every single thing from head to toe.

Of course, i would like to make a disclaimer first by saying not all tied agency agents are Mr or Mrs nice guy/lady or they will choose to stay long term. Nevertheless tied agency agents have more incentives to do their work well. Just take a look at lehman brothers and you would know why i say so.

Second of all, ask yourself this question: ‘ How is the consultant being compensated inside the bank?’ Is it through commission by clearning sales target of different kind of products? Over in bank, most of them are rewarded based on their overall sales target for different kind of products. Meaning to say that if they failed to hit one type of products then they will not be entitled to full commission. However for tied agents, we are rewarded for any products that we recommend to our clients. We does not have a particular sales target to clear and therefore we will always recommend based on client’s need.  Again my disclaimer for this would be that tied agent MUST disclose their commission to clients to show if they have any bias towards any policies sold.

Last question that you can ask is whether bank consultants do a fact-find or rather understand you first before they sell you any products? How long do you know a bank agent before you decide to buy from them? Comparing to a tied agent where he/she will spend quality time knowing and understanding you, who do you think will recommend products based on your needs. Time spent does matter because without a proper understanding of client’s needs, it is hard to be able to properly recommend a product that suits their needs.

Involving financial planning is a time consuming decision process and many of us are not really keen on going through. Many felt that any plans will do the magic but they are all wrong. One wrong commitment may turn out disastrous in long term. It is always good to find the right agent who possesses the passion and interest in their career. Only with the right qualities, they will put your interest in the first priority because they live by the theory that if they take care of their client, their client will take care of them! =)

Note: Above are my two cents worth of thoughts. It does not constitute to any financial advice. Please do your own research before deciding on doing anything on your futre.

That’s why today I decided to come to airport to chill =) Having a cup of latte whilst doing strategic thinking. I love such moments as I can slow down my pace and reflect on all the things that has happened in my life and learn from the experiences that I’ve had.

Let me do a recap of the experiences that I have gained in the past two months:

1)      During conversations with guys younger than me, I realized that the decisions made during the younger years have the ability to completely alter one’s fate. I made the decision to join the financial industry despite many objections while doing my part time degree and after 4 years, I have never looked back. If I had not made this move, I wouldn’t be where I am now and this website wouldn’t be in existence. I also wouldn’t have learnt so many valuable life lessons in life and met amazing people.

2)      After one of the major exercise that I had during my course, I was reminded that one’s attitude in life decides whether or not you’re poised for success. Eg: If you are always positive about things, you tend to make the best out of it and try to learn new experiences from it. Successful people that I know, especially my boss Merry Riana, has an excellent attitude towards life. She has been going around sharing with many others that the most important things in life can be achieved by having the right attitude. Losers, on the other hand, focus a lot on what they can’t achieve and blame anything and everything except themselves.

3)      We can plan but if the plan that you have is not what God has intended for you, it will not materialize. As a result, you need to see from this point of view and tell yourself that God breaks your plan so that HE can allow the bigger plan to materialize. Every failure in our life serves a purpose. It doesn’t happen without a reason. So seize the chance to learn from the mistakes and grow!

4)      Saving is a virtue! Being able to save and possessing the willingness to save isn’t easy. This is especially so in Singapore where things are so expensive coupled with low wages, it can be quite taxing on normal folks. It takes great determination to weather out temptation and remain as normal =) Although it may seem very extreme but that was what I learnt. We can save money if we really take a step back to reflect on our wants and needs. You have to ask yourselves whether you deserve to buy these items and whether the purchase value adds to your life.

5)      What kind of lifestyle do you desire? Have you asked yourselves why you are  working so hard? Do you desire a relaxed lifestyle when you retire? If the answer is yes, then I suggest that you should migrate overseas =) After I came back from Australia, I learnt that it doesn’t take much effort to lead a relaxed lifestyle there. The culture is such that anyone can lead such a lifestyle. The per hour wage is about A$15-20 and working hours are from 9-6pm. After work time is meant for family bonding whereas weekends are meant for gathering with friends or colleagues. Even if you are unemployed, the government will also provide you with social benefits. So basically it is a choice of abandoning everything in our home country or to migrate to another place to start all over again. We need to find a purpose for working hard. We can’t just work without a reason because one of these days, you will just wear out and find life meaningless.

Well that’s all for my two cents worth of sharing. Hope you can gain some insight through my experience. It’s always good to leverage on others than to go through itself.

Just spoken to a friend of mine and she asked me this particular question which i thought that it was quite easy to answer but after hearing her version of answer, i was impressed. I told her that each of us will need to find a partner because we need someone to love and to share the joys and downs in life. and to start a family of our own. Then she told me her answer from her point of view.

She said that both should only get together when you realised that he/she can help you to grow and develop into a better person spiritually and how much both of you can serve God in a better manner. I was really surprised to hear this kind of answer because it really makes alot of sense to me. She makes me realised a couple of things about myself. It was one of those quality conversation that i had so far and i will always remember.

It got me thinking that alot of people these days did not really plan for their future in term of relationship. Many at times got married because of the wrong reasons such as buying a house, being together for very long, peer pressure or age issues etc. Personally i have also seen many failed marriages or relationships and most of them was for the same reasons such as character faults or money. So it makes me wonder how come they still want to get married in the first place?

Anyway this friend of mine is very logical at her first stage with the guy that is wooing her. She knew that nothing will come out between them hence she did not give herself any chance to be emotionally attached to him. She still treats the guy as normal friend but just rejected those romantic dates. This way, she is able to be emotionally detached from any feeling in the future because she is worried that if she lets herself continue with the guy, she may fall deeply and by the time she wants to get out, it will be quite painful. Such actions is what i called planning. Putting serious thought in every relationship with the person you want and wanting the best out of it.

If all of us are able to do so, i believe that the divorce rate in singapore will reduce by quite alot. Not forgetting that if both party shared the same religion or belief, it will surely helps alot. Because of the fact that both parties have God in mind, they will rely on this relationship with God to nurture the relationship.

I’m really glad that i have always been surrounded by nice people that have guided me the right way of life and through their sharing, i really benefited and grew as a person. Previously i have always looked for a relationship where i hope i can meet someone that is able to meet my expectations and normally when that doesn’t happen, my world seem to be crashing down. My friend made me realised that i am also looking for someone to give me credit for my own self-worth. Meaning if i failed in a relationship, i be blaming myself for what had happened and become unhappy. The correct way should not be this way because there is no person in this world that is able to give you credit for self worth especial God and yourself. We should be proud of who we are and be glad that our presence here will bring some happiness to people around us. We must never allow other people to determine our self worth because the moment you do that, your worth suddenly becomes worthless.

With this new belief in my life, i am going to live my life differently! I’m going to do some planning on my future relationship. I’m also going to share what i have learned with all my clients and friends that i’m meeting. Hope that i can be one adviser that not only versatile in financial matters but also in handling their relationship matters

First of all, she shared with us about the importance of having a plan. It is not a normal plan of what you are doing daily or weekly but it is a plan that involved 10 years of your career! Not many people this days are able to do it because they are not serious about their career as they are taking the approach of what we called ‘see see look look’ attitude. She told us the moment when she started out this career as a financial planner, she has planned out what she is going to achieve step by step in years to come. And guess what? She achieved everything in just a short 5 years!!!

Listening to such success stories have again reinforced the idea of law of attraction and importance of planning. Law of attraction works in a way that we will dream and visualise what we want the things in life to be and slowly our behaviour and actions will be more in tuned to this area. At the end of the day you will achieve the things that you been desiring. Planning of what you want in life is the first step of getting what you want. We should really sit down and think of what we want to achieve in life.

Merry Riana (my pretty boss) had shared with us her own personal dream book that she had it years ago when she was still a student. Inside her dream book consists of all her dreams including being a young millionaire, singer, no.1 trainer and of course a wonderful family of her own. So did she managed to achieve everything? OF COURSE not all tho =) But she can proudly said that she managed to get almost 90% of the things she desired since last time.

So with another success stories with regarding about a long term career/life plan, what are we waiting for? Right now, please go and sit down to think seriously about what do you want in your life for the next 10 years and how are you going to achieve it? Pen it down inside a book so that you can see it next time. You can make it nicer by placing many pictures (what you want to have) to create a more ‘real’ effect.

Secondly this lady also shared with us about passion. As usual for most people to be successful in any other career, he/she has to love the job. To love the job, the person needs to be passionate about it. To be passionate about it, you got to do it with interest. Though it may sounds easy and i believe many of us have heard it many times before but yet seldom of us managed to do it. Why???

In my opinion, i feel that it is because people did not put enough reasons to put behind the reason for doing something. Although it is just reasons but do u guys know that by just having strong reasons can just simply makes or breaks a person. Success is just sometimes depending on the reasons behind the action. Eg: If you want to be lose weight so you got to ask what are the reasons behind? Is it because it feels good to have it or because it is a must for you to have it if not your loved one will leave or look down on you?  If your reason is the latter, i am very sure you will lose weight real fast! I also believe that interest can be cultivated. So long you put enough time and effort in trying to learn something and most importanly associated feeling into the thing, interest will get stronger day by day.

Well i believe right now after reading it, you may feel motivated. If you are, take actions now! Go do your planning and talk to people that has been there done there. Get their advice and MODEL after them! But if you are still not motivated or convinced about the importance of having a plan in your career/life, go look for some reasons why you think it is not importance and ask whether is it really true that we should live life just as things come or we need to really plan ahead?

What i mean is that most of us prefer to have only one consultant handling all the insurance portfolios and in my opinion i think it is perfectly fine. However the problem comes in when the consultants did not really explain clearly on the type of policies they sold and reasons they recommended. So as a result, there are many clients who ended up buying many duplicated policies or rather useless policies that they are not well-covered for. Personally i have encountered a few of my clients who have many policies and paid few thousands per annum for it but only to find out that they ended up with little coverage and have many ‘loop’ holes in their financial planning. Therefore i believed that a second opinion on the type of insurance portfolio you are having is necessary and always remember it is not a MUST to buy a plan from the new consultant that do a review for you. Please only buy when there is a need and not because to repay the services of the consultant.

Therefore all along during my 4 years in this industry, although i am not the most knowledgeable consultant but i am very confident to say that i care alot for my client’s interest. Many times i had done a couple of reviews for them and  recommended them plans that i don’t earn that much and it is better for their interest. There are those who appreciated my planning while they are people who don’t. However i felt that most importantly is that i can sleep well at night without worrying that my client will scold me for being irresponsible in my job.

I need to say that passion and interest in meeting people and helping them must be one of the priorities of a financial consultant. It will determine how long the person will be staying in this industry and whether his clients will refer other people to him. So far, i am quite blessed. I have many good clients who have been keeping a lookout for me and been referring people to me. With these good people in mind, it really keeps me going in my career and making sure that i will continue to do a good job  for them and making sure their needs are well-taken care!

At any time, we should stay focus on the importance of protecting our health and income. Firstly, we should ensure that we are covered by hospitalisation plan, e.g. private shield plans offer by many insurers such as NTUC Income, Prudential, Great Eastern. You can use CPF Medisave to pay for the main plan, and you are encouraged strongly to get the rider to cover the deductible and co-insurance with cash payment. Most of my client ignored the importance of getting the rider because they believe that chances of happening is low but i always tell them that accident happens when you least expected it. Are you willing to take the chance to leave your family with financial burden?

Secondly, get yourselves covered with at least one whole-life insurance or limited paying term life insurance and supplement the shortage with term insurance that cover the 30 critical illness (eg. Cancer, heart attack). The coverage required should be about 5-10 times your annual salary. Changing environment and living standards have made us more susceptible to these critical illnesses. Ironically, with the advancement of medical treatment, most of the illnesses can be treated if detected early, though with high medical cost. Hence, we need lump-sum payout from life insurance to help to cover some initial medical assistance required and also to cover the loss of income for 1-3 years when undergoing treatment.

Thirdly, set aside an emergency fund of at least 6-12months of your family expenses. This method of saving will really ensure that in times like this, you are not scared of anything and even open up to more investment opportunities. This is another area that i strongly avocate my client to practise. Money is just like bullet in war. You got to have it when you need to fire.

Only when you have put aside money for the above health and income protection plans should you start to consider accumulating your wealth and enhancing it with higher returns. Since planning for family is not an easy thing, it would be better if there is common financial vision between husband and wife. At least for sure, you won’t end up in a position where one save money and one spend money.