Last week, a colleague in his late thirties came by at my desk and asked whether investing in properties can be taken as a mean of diversification of financial planning. My response is "it depends" as decisions on allocation of our money depends on our objective as well as our risk profile.
In recent days in Singapore, the big "talk about" is on the returns on CPF (Central Provident Fund); which is a sort of forced savings for employees to manage their retirement. One does not need to know the details; other than whether the returns is good enough as one reaches the draw down age of 62, which will soon be 67. We do not need to dwell in the mechanics other than it is a financial planning tool for a source of income at a certain age.
There are many financial planning portals and more than enough articles to keep you educated. What I want to write here is different because I will not concentrate on the mechanics, but rather on the attitude towards living a fruitful and wonderful life, which in my opinion is a lot more fun than trying to meddle with your calculator or spreadsheet.
Life is not a spreadsheet, to cover oneself from a great life. It is a PowerPoint to "point" one's life to the road to enjoyment and use one's "power" to make it happen. In my opinion, it is a big mistake to be so engrossed with the "numbers" to retire and forget that you have miss the "time" to live!
The banks and the financial institutions make money out of our money. Don't you ever forget their business objective is to make a profit out of us. It is not a charitable organization to help you when you have problem. In fact, the much used joke of the bank lending you the umbrella when it is sunny, but will take it away when it rains, does have some truths to it. Having said this, banks are nevertheless indispensable in most instances in the global society. Hence our objective should be to use the bank to meet our objective, not the other way round.
Take charge of your own life and facilitate fun for those around us. Enjoy the present moment, for who knows whether the next is even available. We don't need to be cynical about the future, but we don't need to live in the future, which has not arrived. While history is a learning experience; we should not live in the past glories. They are memories only valuable to those who went through them. The photo album which showed the past adventures mean nothing to the next generation, because they cannot place their emotion in them. Likewise we cannot understand our parents' stories of hardship in their early days, because we did not live in them.
The financial planning "think about" is to write down your life's objectives. These objectives are not about money; as it is only the "mean" to reach the former. I remember reading Stephen Covey's book on the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" in which he started it by asking what people will say about us when we are no longer around. Will they detail the wealth we have accumulated? Unlikely. Or how about the biblical verse, "what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?" Decide on the more wonderful things in life, and don't let the advertisement to indeed divert your attention away from the fundamentals. A life worth living is a life of laughter and health. No wonder the laughing buddha is depicted as a bubbly personality with a simple robe, rather than a branded suit!
Talking about the buddha, there are indeed many wonderful teachings about life, which appear simple but so hard for us to practise. These teachings will be the next few pieces of writing as financial planning does indeed start with the greater vision of life, than with the task of accumulating wealth.
Come back for the next episode.
cheers
In recent days in Singapore, the big "talk about" is on the returns on CPF (Central Provident Fund); which is a sort of forced savings for employees to manage their retirement. One does not need to know the details; other than whether the returns is good enough as one reaches the draw down age of 62, which will soon be 67. We do not need to dwell in the mechanics other than it is a financial planning tool for a source of income at a certain age.
There are many financial planning portals and more than enough articles to keep you educated. What I want to write here is different because I will not concentrate on the mechanics, but rather on the attitude towards living a fruitful and wonderful life, which in my opinion is a lot more fun than trying to meddle with your calculator or spreadsheet.
Life is not a spreadsheet, to cover oneself from a great life. It is a PowerPoint to "point" one's life to the road to enjoyment and use one's "power" to make it happen. In my opinion, it is a big mistake to be so engrossed with the "numbers" to retire and forget that you have miss the "time" to live!
The banks and the financial institutions make money out of our money. Don't you ever forget their business objective is to make a profit out of us. It is not a charitable organization to help you when you have problem. In fact, the much used joke of the bank lending you the umbrella when it is sunny, but will take it away when it rains, does have some truths to it. Having said this, banks are nevertheless indispensable in most instances in the global society. Hence our objective should be to use the bank to meet our objective, not the other way round.
Take charge of your own life and facilitate fun for those around us. Enjoy the present moment, for who knows whether the next is even available. We don't need to be cynical about the future, but we don't need to live in the future, which has not arrived. While history is a learning experience; we should not live in the past glories. They are memories only valuable to those who went through them. The photo album which showed the past adventures mean nothing to the next generation, because they cannot place their emotion in them. Likewise we cannot understand our parents' stories of hardship in their early days, because we did not live in them.
The financial planning "think about" is to write down your life's objectives. These objectives are not about money; as it is only the "mean" to reach the former. I remember reading Stephen Covey's book on the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" in which he started it by asking what people will say about us when we are no longer around. Will they detail the wealth we have accumulated? Unlikely. Or how about the biblical verse, "what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world, but loses his own soul?" Decide on the more wonderful things in life, and don't let the advertisement to indeed divert your attention away from the fundamentals. A life worth living is a life of laughter and health. No wonder the laughing buddha is depicted as a bubbly personality with a simple robe, rather than a branded suit!
Talking about the buddha, there are indeed many wonderful teachings about life, which appear simple but so hard for us to practise. These teachings will be the next few pieces of writing as financial planning does indeed start with the greater vision of life, than with the task of accumulating wealth.
Come back for the next episode.
cheers
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