Higher Medisave to pay for Long-Term Treatment (29-Jan 2010)

"As the longevity of Singaporeans increases, the likelihood of us falling ill for a longer period in our lives increases as well"

With the ever increase in medical cost over time, the Medisave in your CPF account may not be sufficient through your lifetime. Depending on your working lifespan as at now, it could range anything from $5k to perhaps $30k? One big operation or surgery can easily wipe out your Medisave savings in one shot, if you know the market rate for hospital bill.

This is why it is so critical to upgrade your existing MediShield plan to a privatised "as-charged" plan so that you are able to minimize your H&S bills. Many of my clients have taken that extra step to ensure this, have you done so? Do not under-estimate how medical bills can eat into your financial plans. You may be in the pink of health right now, but can you guarantee that you will be healthy forever even if you eat well or exercise regularly? I can't.

If you are keen to protect yourself and your family from facing any medical financial crisis, pls ring me to find out more. I cannot prevent you from getting sick, but I can help cushion you financially if you use the right instruments to help yourself.

Most of the economic articles I read tend to give a positive outlook on the year 2010. Why? I guess it's simply because many companies have learnt their lesson during this crisis and have improved their strategies in how they do business. Alot of companines should be out in the woods, and should be back into profitable territory.

My sentiments followed these articles, but my personal feel is that the climb would not as sharp as the V-shape recovery in 2009 as the steam has to rest somewhere. As an IFA, we still firmly believe on a dollar-cost averaging concept, meaning to stay invested and do it on a regularly basis so that you would end up on a reasonable position when market shift in either direction. In the long run, you will stand to profit from economic run, verified by historical data.

If you are still standing outside the fence playing a waiting game, what's the trigger point? Wait for the market to run up and sigh, or wait for the market to decline and say 'heng ah...'. So wat's next?

Were your investment hit badly by the 2007~2008 crisis? What was your reaction? Pull out of the market and monitor from the side, stay invested, or put in more investment? Probably there are so many articles and books saying that the smart ones became millionaires, or even billionaires, during crisis.

As Warren Buffet said: "We simply attempt to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful." But unfortunately, not many of us think like Buffett, or to put it bluntly, many of us cannot afford to behave like Buffet.

As an independent financial adviser, we aimed to bring our clients to a bigger picture. We cannot make you rich overnight, but we can plan out a systematic plan (a combination of short/medium/long term) to ensure you can ride out the waves and reach your targets in a certain time frame. Isn't that wonderful? If you do not have a plan in place.. and simply live day by day, save month by month, are you confident of reaching your goal?

In this article, the author shared with us how the different age groups can react in order to meet your retirement nest egg. If you wish to put your thoughts into action, pls do not hesitate to call me at 9876-0237 to have a coffee discussion over it~

Don't Fall for the Lure (29-Dec-09)

Most of us would at some point of time being approached by our financial advisers to invest your hard-earned CPF money into Unit Trust investment. Absolutely nothing wrong with that, but it can be disastrous if you end up with an unscrupulous one.

Yr CPF-OA account is earning you 2.5%p.a. (at the moment) while your CPF-SA is earning 4.0%p.a. (at the moment). Looking at the long term, as an IFA, I would also advise you to park some of your CPF-OA account into some good funds to enable your money to work harder for you. But before you invest, make sure yourself as a consumer knows what you are buying into.

Understand what kind of risks and returns you are exposed to. If someone offers you risk-free product with high returns, definitely something is very fishy. Remember, there is no free lunch in this world.

Key to Unit Trust investment is constantly reviewing with your reliable financial adviser and going forward with a strategy. If in doubt, pls contact me at 9876-0237 straight away.

Memories are Forever (03-Dec-09)

Happened to come across a meaningful article in 'Mind Your Body' section in today's paper and liked to share with you. A few important lines:

"Who does not know that cancer is a terrible illness & that many succumb and die from it? One in four Singaporeans will die from cancer""

"She had never smoked and had advanced stage lung cancer with brain metastases"

"However, most patients do not die from the cancer per se. Infection, especially chest inefection, is a very common cause of death"

"Death is always and certainly inevitable"

No, I am not a medical doctor here telling you how to take care of your health and avoid cancer and other illness. The moral of the story is that, IF something really unfortunate happen to you, or to the people around you, would you be ready to tackle it? Psychologically wise, perhaps never will be. BUT financially wise, this is something you can prepare while you are still healthy & in the right state of mind.

Have you got yourself a good hospital & surgical plans to limit your medical bills?

You have some insurance policies, but is it sufficient to cover all your potential liabilities?

Do you plan to leave a legacy behind if one day death occurs, be it naturally or not.

If you have many question marks & not knowing the answers, why not seek professional help and use the right instruments to solve your problems?

Probably some of you will brush this topic aside and think that everyday is a peaceful day. But I leave the decision to you. This morning, it perturbs me to read abt the 5-year old little child being killed instantly when crossing the road. Because yesterday I also had a near accident when a reckless van driver cut into my lane from a side road. CMI.

Don't Expect Interest Rates to Rise: Experts (23-Nov-09)

If you think your money is safe inside the bank, wrong. Without you knowing it, your savings mught just get eaten up by inflation silently. Savings account earned an average of 0.22%/annum in January 2009, before holding at just 0.16% from July to last month.

If your intention is to preserve the value of money, there are many options available outside the bank. Do approach me @ 9876-0237 to help you understand what other instruments are available to make your money work harder for u.

Insurance in a Time of Uncertainty (08-Nov 09)

How many of you have heard of Robert Kiyosaki's theory on "Why the Rich Gets Richer"? One method is to stay ahead, think bigger, and come out with a better plan. Key word is planning. What we all have on our hand is the same comodity called 'time'. No matter what you are doing now, time is ticking away. So do you want to make use of time to better use?

http://sg.promo.yahoo.com/managingyourmoney/expert?blogid=expert&postid=1&viewPost=1

In this article by Mr. Ben Fok, the CEO of Grandtag Financial Consultancy, and my former lecturer for my CFP course, he again highlighted on the usage of insurance as one of the tools for proper wealth management.

"The virtues of life insurance are obvious. By paying a premium to the insurer, I get to enjoy the coverage as it will step in to meet its obligations should anything untoward happen to me. Most importantly I know that all of my family's financial needs are well taken care of."

I am quite sure most of you will have some insurance policies stored in your cupboards (collecting dust), thinking: "Enough liao lar... don't waste money on further policies... spend spend spend only..."

From my professional point of view, it simply boils down to whether you are having sufficient coverage, and whether you are using the proper instruments to achieve your objectives in the first place.

Of course, you can choose to procastinate the process and pray hard that nothing will happen to you. But just look at the news and people around you, are you financially strong enough to absorb that kind of unforeseen risk? Can you imagine yourself losing that kind of regular income overnight due to accident.. or critical illness...or... ?

Nobody fails to plan, only plans to fail.

Do contact me @ 9876-0237 if you seriously wish to take a strong step to establish your financial goals and objectives.