Recently people I know closely have passed on. I am reminded again that what Plato, the Greek philosopher said was true. he said, “There is nothing more certain than the certainty of death and there is nothing more uncertain than the moment and timing of death.”

You see, death for everyone of us is certain, only the moment and timing is unknown to anyone. Sad to say, the moment we were born, we were heading towards the moment of death. For some people, it can even be immediately after birth due to a birth complication. For others it may be due to illness at childhood, an accident at any age and for some after living to a ripe old age of more than 90 years!

If death is so certain, then we must be prepared to face it. One day, we will just “black out” and go to another place called heaven or hell. This is for you and me to find out when we reach that moment.

The common concern that all independent financial advisors, insurance advisors or financial consultants share is this… Do you have anyone financially dependent on you at the moment when you leave this place called earth? If you have, please read on. If not, please read on too because you can help others with this knowledge.

If you have dependents relying on your ability to bring in the income, whether they are you children, your parents or your siblings or even someone you have adopted or a charity that you have pledged to support or a child that you have adopted in Africa or east Timor etc…. you will have to consider the following points.

1) Have you written your will? Your valid will is a very important document which tells your surviving next of kin how to distribute your estate. Without it, everyone will be left clueless and may quarrel over the management of your estate. Do you want your loved ones to squabble over your “dead body”? Speak to your trusted independent financial adviser on how to create a well written will to cover all aspects of your estate. Be sure to think it over seriously, surf the net for more examples on how others manage their estate after their death.

2) Do you have adequate life insurance coverage? Most Singaporeans have less than $100,000 of life insurance coverage. How about you? Just ask yourself, after the funeral and cremation, how much money will your family have to survive on? Will your spouse need to go back to work when your money runs dry? Will anyone employ her? With sufficient money to raise your children, she will not need to re-marry or go back to work. Remember to provide for her retirement years too, in case, your children are not able to fend for her. Speak to your independent financial adviser on how much insurance to buy and the period to cover.

3) Ask yourself this question, what if you DON’T die? If you are physically disabled, whether it is a stroke, a disabling cancer, disabled after a motor accident or disabled after suffering a brain tumour…. Do you have the funds to support your family during this dire moments? Will you rely on family and friends to help you? How long can they help you and your family? Please be realistic and get the right amount of disability insurance. Talk to your trusted insurance advisor now before it is too late. In my opinion, buying an accident insurance plan is absolutely essential for anyone who rides a motorbike, even as a pinion rider.

If you need to talk to me, I will be happy to meet you to discuss your financial goals and plan to achieve them.

In times of financial strain, you may want to consider taking a personal loan from your insurance policies. Do note that not all insurance policies allow you to take a loan, only those with cash value are allowable. Mostly they are Whole Life Participating policies and endowment policies. Term policies do not have cash values so you can’t borrow from nothing. You can withdraw from your accumulation units in your Investment Linked Policies (ILPs) by selling them off, there is no need to borrow. I will not discuss the implications of withdrawing from your ILPs now. If you need more info, please discuss with your independent financial advisor representative.

Back to borrowing from your existing Whole Life policies or Endowment Policies. You will have cash value in your policies after 3 years most of the time. But it may vary with different insurance companies. Most of the time, you can only borrow up to 90% of your Cash Value. Cash Value is the amount you will receive if you terminate or surrender your insurance policy.,

Insurance companies charge different interest rates so I advise you to compare first before you borrow if you have insurance policies from different companies. Interest rates starts from 5.25% p.a.  Always remember to repay the loan as soon as you are able or you may consider paying back the loan on a monthly basis. If you don’t, the interest will compound until it is not worth it to redeem the loan and you will just give up the insurance policies. You will lose the financial protection that you initially bought for your family.

Be responsible to pay back the loan and not delay too long. Taking a loan is just a temporary thing and should be repaid as soon as possible. Create a repayment schedule so that you don’t feel the pinch of a large payment.

Call your insurance company to check how much you can borrow and the interest rates that they charge. They will be more than happy to lend you the money.

I would like to invite all entrepeuners to attend the first ever BNI Far East Region Open House Event where you will meet more than 150 business owners and professionals. This is the place where serious business deals are created and done. Come, now is the time to make things happen…

Venue: Peninsular Excelsior Hotel on 27 October 2011, 6.30 pm to 9.30pm. ( $48 /$60 per pax )

Nowadays market sentiment plays a large part when it comes to investments.

Markets react daily to good and bad news like the waves in the sea. Liquidity, Interest rates, Valuation, Economy and Risks are also very important factors to evaluate when it comes to making investment decisions.

Investors are wondering which strategy to take, given so many fund managers views are available on the internet. Should you keep to stocks? Buy gold bullion or buy funds which invests in gold related equities? Try ETFs, buy real estate, get your hands on art pieces or antiques…

Stop wondering and start doing your homework first.

Begin with the end in mind, what is the objective of your investments, know your risk appetite, know how long you need to stay invested, know when you need to liquidate your investments. Finally do not over leverage by taking additional loans to invest. Check your liabilities to assets ratio or liabilities to cash flow ratios. Talk to your independent financial advisor for his views. Match all these to the type of investment that you are considering.

Always keep an emergency kitty of 6 to 12 months of your expenses as a buffer in case your income is stopped due to unforeseen circumstances before you invest your money.

Do not put all your eggs in one basket, diversify your investments and know the investment in detail. Spread out your investments and know them well.

Know the expenses and charges and how they are being expensed out. Are they transparent enough or are you guessing only?

Keep your greed in check. Do not be sucked into “high returns, low risks” investment schemes which are so complex till you are not clear how it works. Gambling is not investment, get this right.

Find out how dollar cost averaging strategy works. Find out how value cost averaging works. You may want to invest on a regular basis over a long period of time  regardless of market conditions or whenever there are huge dips in the performance of the investment that you are eyeing.

Whatever strategy you embark on, share it with a mentor who has been there before. Discuss with your trusted financial advisor who has the experience in that arena of investment. Happy investing and may you find a strategy that achieves your financial goals.

My mum’s right knee was operated on and she was warded at Tan Tock Seng Hospital last Thursday 29 September 2011. She was warded in a B1 class ward. She was expected to recuperate there for 5 days. Today is day 5, but she is still warded there as she bled profusely after the surgery on Sunday morning ( 4 days after her surgery ). Thank God she woke up in the middle of the night and found out that she was bleeding till her bed was soaking wet with her blood!!! Or else she might have bled to death in her sleep…

The cost of her 5 days stay at TTSH was expected to be $15,300 but now I believe it will be more. I am relieved that she has her NTUC Incomeshield Plan B policy to fall back on. Since she was warded before during this policy year, we had to pay only 10% of the total bill. We do not have to pay the $3000 annual deductible which we have paid in her earlier hospitalisations in June 2011.

I hope that by sharing my experience about my mum’s stay at TTSH and the fact that many elderly people will have their knees replaced one day ( that includes you and me when we are much older ), you will see the importance of having a medical expenses insurance plan.

Please consult an independent financial adviser regarding this matter as soon as possible if your parents, uncles and aunties have not bought medical expenses insurance. Do so before they turn 75…

If you need more details on how to get one, let’s meet up and discuss this soon. I look forward to meet you soon.

As an independent financial adviser, I would like to suggest you take stock of what you have first. How much insurance protection do you have now? When was the last time you sat down with your financial adviser to review your current situation? If you have not done so, please set a date as soon as possible given your tight work schedule.

Next, you should find out from your wife, how much money they are spending now at the present lifestyle. Knowing how much they need is important as this will determine how much insurance you need to buy. Your independent financial adviser wll help you calculate the exact amount. Just imagine you are going to work overseas till your last child is gainfully employed and you need to give your wife a sum of money as their expenses…

Did you buy home insurance, mortgage insurance for your home purchase? You need home insurance to pay for expenses incurred should a fire burn through your home or your neighbour’s home, for example. Talk to a general insurance specialist if your financial adviser is unable or not keen to do business in this area. Having a mortgage insurance will ensure your property will be fully paid upon your unfortunate demise. Your family will have a shelter fully paid without any worries to pay the monthly housing loan installments.

As you are flying 10 times a year, you should buy travel insurance on an annual basis. It is cheaper to buy it this way. Besides your company’s travel insurance you should have your own as the your family will be paid directly by the insurance company. You will not only avoid the hassle of buying it just before you fly, you will also be minimising the chance of forgetting to buy it too. Once in the air, it will be too late to buy travel insurance.

Please consult your independent financial advisor and do a full fact find so that he or she will be able to do a proper financial plan that covers your needs well. If you don’t have one, I will be happy to meet you to discuss your plans.

In financial planning, I separate the best from the rest.

A key issue for anyone who intends to buy a business insurance plan is to make sure that you have compensation from the insurance company in the event that you are forbidden to return to your work premises by the authorities. You may be prevented from returning to your work premises if a fire occured in the building but not necessarily from your unit. The fire may be from your neighbour’s unit but the fire authorities decided that no one can enter the building for safety reasons.

This happened quite recently when a lawyer’s office on the sixth floor of theAfro Asia Building along Robinson Road was set on fire. Even though the fire was on the sixth floor, everyone was not allowed to return to the building for a week! If your office was in that building, you would not be able to access your work and may suffer financial loss.

If you had a business insurance that pays you for each day that you cannot return into the building, you would have been paid by the insurance company. An insurance company I know pays $250 per day of denial of access to the building, through no fault of yours.

Do contact your independent financial adviser for more information on “Denial Of Access”

I am also able to address this concern if you want to speak to me.

In financial planning, I separate the best from the rest!!!

Dear friends,

Today is a different day. It had been raining since this morning and the sky was gloomy and dark even during midday. I had just returned home from a comfortable lunch with a close friend and ate some delicious durians and drank bubble tea after lunch. I had even bought 3 packets of durian for my family.  I had just spent more than S$20 in less than 4 hours. I felt good and wanted to rest at home when I read an email from a church friend who had started a fund raising campaign to help buy drilling trucks to get fresh clean drinking water for millions of people.

Immediately I donated USD21 to her cause as an encouragement to her. But somehow I felt a tug in me heart that I should also start a campaign  too. With faith in God’s providence, I decided to start “Focus On The Water” to raise USD5000 within 3 months.

Please help the poor people get their supply of clean fresh water. This project aims to raise enough money to buy drilling machines to dig deep into the ground to extract good clean drinking water for the Ethopians. I am just doing  my small part to help them.

Singaporeans take for granted the clean water that flows out of our taps. Many waste water without even blinking an eye when they hosed water on their cars when they washed their cars…

Don’t just complain, do something. Donate USD21 or more if you can afford it. Sell away the old stuff in your store room to Cash Converters and use the money to help these poor souls. You will feel a sense of achievement in your life which no medals or awards can bring to you. You are saving precious lives. The lives of people who drink dirty muddy water. Help them, please.

Please visit my website at http://mycharitywater.org/p/campaign/?campaign_id=19036 to donate and better still, start your own campaign. I don’t get a single cent from doing this. Just a sense of gratitude and thankfulness that I am able to help these poor souls.

Reach out to all your contacts in your Facebook to ask them to help. Don’t just play games, post photos or chat on FB. Do a good deed, ask for donations.

I thank God for you. Have a great day, my friends.

Let’s begin with the end in mind.

Let’s say you are in your mid 30s, you are married and you have 2 toddlers age 3 and 5, both are girls. You live in a private condominium and you have big dreams for you and your family. You intend to retire at age 55, another 20 years to work. Your wife, who is the same age, also intends to stop work at age 55 so that both of you can travel the world together without any financial worries. By then your two girls would have been out of school, working and independent. Your house would have been fully paid and no more debts to pay. Isn’t that great?

Now, an independent financial advisor rep will sit down with both of you to get to know both of you better and have a clearer idea of what you really want at age 55. Getting the hard facts is easy, putting numbers down on papaer is easy too. What really matters, I believe, is that are you telling the truth and do you really believe that this is what you really desire and you are going all out to make this dream become a reality?

Financial Independence (FI)  simply put, is having a house fully paid with financial assets that can pay for your living expenses for the rest of your life. FI means different things to different people. I suggest you take a short weekend getaway with your spouse to really think about your future. It may take two or three getaways before you get it all down on paper.

Once you have a clear picture of what BOTH of you really want, you can now discuss with your independent financial advisor or call me for a meeting. Now, we can start putting the numbers down and start creating the plan to realise your dreams.

So, what can an independent financial advsior rep do for you?

Nothing, really. Until you have made up your mind to be financially free. I look forward to see both of you one day.

Many people are aware that they must buy life insurance plans which pay on death, total & permanent disability (TPD) or upon diagnosis of a critical illness but many are not aware that there are insurance plans that pay upon a disbility that prevents them from going to work. It can be due to illness or accident but it is not severe enough to be classified under critical illness or TPD.

In such an unfortunate event, without a disability income insurance, one would be unable to go to work and yet have to continue paying all the bills including the insurance policies premiums! Isn’t that a “living hell” situation? Your savings will be depleted and sooner or later you will also terminate your other insurance policies to withdraw cash from them, if any.

If you had bought a disability income insurance plan, you would have been able to claim up to 75% of your monthly income should you be unable to work. This amount should be sufficient to meet all your monthly expenses even if you are unable to work till your retirement age. At the same time, you can continue saving for your retirement with this disability payout.

You may ask, “What kind of illness or accident will prevent me from working? “.  You can find that out when  you discuss this plan when you meet your independent financial adviser. I am just creating an awareness for the general public. Alternatively, I can discuss this with you.

Do not confuse this disability income insurance with the “Hospital Income” plans. Hospital Income plans pay a daily amount (e.g. $100) according to the number of days you stay in the hospital. For example if you are warded in the hospital for 7 days, you will receive $700 plus some plans will pay you a daily amount (e.g. $50/day) for each hospitalisation leave you take. For example, you are given 5 days MC, then you will receive  additional $350. And please remember that these are mostly accident hospital income plan, which pays you only if you are warded due to an accident. If you are warded due to an illness, you will not be paid a single cent. Sorry…

Disability Income Insurance is a necessary part of any wealth protection planning, so do not neglect to include it in your insurance portfolio. If not, you may live to regret it…

In financial planning, I separate the best from the rest.