Wedding is for a Day, but Marriage is for a Lifetime

Its has been a year since Sharon and I were married. I would like to share some lessons I learnt in my first year of marriage.

Some say there are 3 rings to a marriage. 1st is the engagement ring, then it is the wedding ring. After that it will be suffering! We got married last year in October, one day after her birthday. I thought it was a great idea, because I will only need to buy one gift combined for the birthday and wedding anniversary, can save money! I am not as stingy as you think, it was because the date was 10 Oct, so its 10/10, a nice number. This year it is even nicer, 10/10/10, and it is our first year anniversary.

I believe our wedding is for a day, but our marriage is for a lifetime. So that’s why I spent very little on our wedding reception! Although we did not spend much on wedding reception, we spent and a lot for my house, especially our bed, because we are both very good in bed; we can sleep for days. When sleeping, she will take up the whole bed, rolling here and there while I only occupy a small space. She will come into my sleeping area. She will wake up the next morning and wonder “Hey where is my hubby?” I will be either on the floor or under her.

But more importantly, my wife and I got to work on our relationship and understand each other so we will not fight in the 4th ring, which is the “Boxing Ring”.

Our marriage really changed me. When I was single and staying with my parents, I just need to call out the magic word, “Wati!”, and things will be served to me, whatever you name it. Now, if I call “Darling!” nothing will be served to me and I still got to serve her. I learned how to mop the floor, clean the toilets, clear the trash, etc. Of course we do the housework together, just that she will be the in charge and I will just follow instructions. I can be very competent at work and take charge, but once it comes to housework, I can be at a total loss. Without instructions, I can create even more work for my wife to clear up.

During our first Valentine’s Day together as husband and wife, I wanted to whip out a good meal for our romantic candlelight dinner. So the first thing I thought off was “Spaghetti!”, as it was simple and easy to make. Just cook the noodles and pour the sauce over it. Boy, I was wrong. I realized that cooking, like work, also needed planning! I didn’t plan and went ahead to cook the noodles first, then the sauce, and then the ingredients. The kitchen looked like a battlefield halfway through the cooking and I got to cry out for my wife to help. She come in like a wonder woman, and cleared up everything in no time. However, we still ended up eating hard spaghetti as it was left in open too long. The heartwarming part was my wife did not condemn me, but even encouraged me to cook more. I thought I better stick to Maggie Mee.

I believe compliments are very important in marriage. I always make a point to compliment my wife every day. In our marriage I really got to know my wife better. If you dress my wife up, bring her out and snap photos of her, she will be happy like a bird! We were at our honeymoon in Hokkaido, and everything she saw she wanted to pose and take picture with it. And she will have many poses, victory sign; look into the sky, finger point to cheek, and more. And I had to multi task, being the backdrop, being the cameraman, etc. I felt like I was on a working business trip rather than a honeymoon! But those feelings all disappeared when I saw her beautiful and satisfied expressions on the photos. We really captured the happy moments on our honeymoon.

We discovered each other’s gifts too! She is an excellent administrator and I am a visionary, or rather a dreamer. I love to socialize, talk to people, dream of ideas, etc. But when you come to my study area, it will be a total mess. And I can live with it while my wife will go crazy living in a sty. She and will ensure things are placed in order and keep things organized and systematic. Our gifts really complement each other.

Our marriage has a principle, which is to spend quality time often and communicate with each other. Some of our friends, who are still single or married with no children yet, encourage us to have children as soon as possible. The real parents will say “Welcome to the club” with a funny tone. I understand how they feel, as when the child comes out, all the attention of the parents will be on the child. But I also feel it is important for the husband and wife to have quality time alone together as it will strengthen the marriage and marriage is for the long haul, like running a marathon.

So far, these are the few lessons I have learnt on marriage. I learnt how to change myself for the better, and I know my wife deeper every day, exploring her gifts, and communicate with each other. I firmly believe that marriage is for life and what we do now will affect our marriage and family in the future. So I want to encourage you to be married only when you are prepared for it, treasure your spouse and enjoy every moment with your family.

LOVE 4 EVER

Who has been in love before? Who has not been in love before? Who does not believe in love?

Love is sweet. And I love to be loved. When I’m in love, I will wake up without procrastinating and each day is filled with joy. Everything I see seems so lovely, even my boss seems so funny and cute. Being a macho man, I used to hate romantic dramas and comedies. Now watching them make me go Awww… like a little kitten.
Now about my ex girlfriend, who is now my wife. Sharon is the most beautiful person I have ever met. We met during my medical treatment at the hospital and she was the nurse attending to me. When she poked the needle into my arm, it was so PAINFUL. But it’s ok, as long I can get to see her. One day, our mutual friend who was her colleague asked me out for karaoke session. I knew she was going and I immediately jumped at the opportunity to impress her! I used up all the gel for my hair, put on my best clothes, and sprayed my perfume which I didn’t used for months. Hopefully, my voice did not scare her away…

I’m going to share 4 lessons I have learnt on my journey of courtship to marriage. This only applies to the single men here. The 4 lessons is in the word, “GIRL”.

G - Guts

In 2008, we got closer together. I was taking a very difficult exam and I pulled my hair every day. I needed support and she was there. I was studying at cafes and she will just quietly read her storybooks, giving me her silent support. I was touched and my torch for her grew brighter and brighter. But I had fear, the fear of being rejected. I had no guts to tell her my feelings. Soon, she was going to China for holidays. So one night, at Macdonalds, I mustered all the courage I had in my guts and I wrote on a serviette, “I’m going to miss you when you go to China,” My heart was thumping furiously as I waited for her response.

She looked at me, smiled and nodded her head. “What was that supposed to mean? Does it mean she accepts me?” I asked myself. Being an overly positive person, I assumed that her silence meant yes! So on our next date, I bought her flowers. But to my horror, she rejected me and said she only treats me like a good friend. I was devastated. But I did not give up. I applied the second principle called Interest.

I - Interest

This interest is not the bank interest. This interest is the deep interest I had in Sharon. She went to China for holidays and I called her everyday, taking an deep interest in her life. I must have been like a pest, but I did not care. I was fighting for my life happiness. I believed she felt my sincerity, or irritation at that time.

She came back on the day of my exam, just in time to give me the encouragement I need. At that time, my health had some problems and was in and out of hospital. In the darkest period of my life, she came to the hospital to visit me, gave me encouragement and was by my side. After an operation one day, I finally took courage to hold her hand and she did not draw back! I was elated and knew I had won her heart.

Subsequently, I had to undergo a major operation and it was successful. I eventually recovered and wasted no time to propose to her. I sang her favorite song and knelt before her, presenting her ring. She cried and accepted my proposal!

R - Relax and have fun!

In a blink of an eye, we were doing the wedding preparations. Even though it was stressful at times, we made a point to relax and have fun. The procedure of finding a flat, looking for bargains, finding a restaurant, tasting the food, sitting at the studio of the whole day while the my bride tries on her gown, preparing the guest lists, memorizing the speech, being teased by the ‘sisters’ on the wedding day, etc. Looking back, it was indeed a fun time and I will not exchange those times for anything else.

L - Love unconditionally

Now that we are married, I realized that the wedding is only for a day, but the marriage is for a lifetime. Being 2 different persons, we really had to understand each other, resolve conflicts, forgive each other and love unconditionally. It brings to mind a story:

A man fell into a deep sleep and an angel brought him for an excursion to heaven and hell. First they went to hell, and saw that the people there were all very thin and weak. They were trying to feed themselves with a very long spoon, and could get the food into their mouths. Next they went up to heaven, and he saw that the people in heaven were very well fed. So he thought that they must have had normal spoons. But to his astonishment, they too had very long spoons. The difference is that the people in heaven were feeding each other rather than themselves.

This story encourages me to always fill up the love bank in my wife, and put her interests before my own. I find that this way, she will have always enough love to share with me, and I will be fulfilled also. To me, the final ‘L’ in the acronym is the most important ingredient to keep our relationship and marriage alive. As long as I love Sharon unconditionally, I will have the guts to take action, take a deep interest her life and our relationship will be relaxing and fun!

I wish all of you will find your Love 4 Ever!

A Time with the Next Generation

I will be 30 years old this year. And a session with the Victoria School students during one of my workshops with them reminded me of my teenage years in school. The students, like me 15 years ago, were buzzing with energy when we played the stock market game with them.

They were so inquisitive, and kept on bugging the facilitators to tell them the “news” that was to come the next round of the game. To me, it was such a joy to see them having fun with their friends and learning at the same time.









I too was overjoyed when given the opportunity to share my life story with them. To inspire the next generation is indeed my calling and I feel so much satisfaction when I taught them basic life skills such as budgeting and planning for the future. I also drove home in their hearts the importance of savings, which to me is the fundamental ingredient for financial success when they grow up. Too many young adults today are caught in the trap of credit cards and sucked into the bottomless pit of debt.

Finally, I shared with them investment concepts and some ideas which they could apply immediately in the game.







It was also hilarious when we saw the faces of the participants as they see their stock prices rise and fall. We truly had a great time.









That day with the next generation was very memorable. 400 students were seated and listened to me share my arduous journey with illness and overcoming all odds to become who I am today.








They were greatly inspired and I knew I had deposited something special into their hearts as I read their feedback forms. One of them said, “This is the best post exam activity I ever had!” And other wrote, “Greatly inspiring and fun.”









To me, the next generation means hope for the future. It means lives that will make a positive difference in the world we live in. And it means we have the responsibility to impart timeless values to them that will nurture them to be leaders for tomorrow.

The Theatre of Education

“If give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”

Over the last few years, there is a buzzword called lifelong learning. In my school days, I wished that after graduating from university, I could stop reading my textbooks, doing my assessments, stop taking examinations and work in a single profession all my life. But I was wrong, I realized when I started working, I got to keep learning new things, unlearn former things and relearn to stay relevant in the marketplace. This is a reality in the ‘Knowledge Economy’. We not only have to learn the technical skills of our trade, but also IT skills, Public Relation skills and presentation skills.

However, I also believe that education is not just for the advancement of our careers. Education is also about life skills which help us to manage our daily affairs with our family, our personal emotions and the way we think about ourselves and others.

There are 3 reasons why investing in lifelong learning is the best investment in life:

Education is not only in school. Life itself is the theatre of education.

I grew up in the Singapore school system. I was trained like an academic soldier, and my only goal was to score As for all my examinations. When examinations drew near, I would reduce my social activities, lock myself in my room and do my 10 year series. My friends found this repulsive, but I told myself I had no choice, I had to score my As in order to succeed in life.

However, I had a serious medical condition when I was 21 years old and I had to quit school to recuperate. My condition was so serious that the psychologist told me not to stress myself and take an easier path in life. This well meaning advice rang like a death sentence. Having propped myself solely on my academic achievements, I felt like I had lost my only clutch in life. I fell into depression and had thoughts of killing myself. But I realized these thoughts were fatalistic. I urgently changed the way I thought about life and saved myself with the help of my family and friends.

I took half a year of rest and reflection. I had the privilege of talking and learning life skills from the elderly when I went for my morning walks at the park. I learnt the importance of overcoming trials, building quality relationships, having faith and many more life skills. I learnt valuable lessons from the theatre of life itself.

Our society focuses a lot on paper qualifications and our next generation faces much pressure from studies. I fully agree that we have to be taught how to do maths, science, and score well for our examinations. But I firmly believe that life skills, such as overcoming failures, looking beyond academic performance are even more vital skills that we need to teach our next generation.

Our success depends on our belief system

One of my favorite books is ‘Think Rich, Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. Napoleon did extensive research on how the traits that successful people have and he found common denominators that successful people share. One of which was having right belief system to acquire wealth.

If we believe that we cannot fail, we will not dare to take needed risks to grow our wealth or advance our career and lives. Even when I mustered enough courage to propose to my girlfriend, I had to contend with the risk that she might reject me and hurt me emotionally. However, I believed that even if I failed in proposing, it was a necessary risk to take. And now, I am blessed with a lovely wife and a fulfilling marriage.

The successful people believed in action, so they will not procrastinate and will continuously take action to fulfill their dreams. They also believed in team work, so they leverage on other’s talents and skills to achieve something greater than themselves. So we need to start examining our beliefs and evaluate whether are they propelling us or hampering us to greater success.

Don’t fear failure; fear we do not learn from failure.

Who in this room hasn’t failed before? All of us face failures. But if we fail and do not learn from our mistakes and dare to try again, that would be more tragic than failing altogether.

When we do not succeed in doing something, do not think of it as a failure. Rather, think of it as ‘delayed success’. Walt Disney went bankrupt several times before he finally succeeded with Disneyland.

Thomas Edison before he invented the light bulb, failed 1000 times before he finally succeeded. He said, ‘"I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps."

I would like to encourage you to embrace your lives in the theatre of education and learn from its every facet. Let us reflect on our daily lives, and replace negative thoughts with empowering ones. Finally, when we face failures, let us learn from our mistakes, draw strength from each other, overcome every obstacle and emerge as the successful person aspire to be.

Aaron Graham Tay

Ushering the Year 2010!

It’s the beginning of a new year again. More importantly, it is the beginning of a new decade. The last 10 years have been eventful for the world and for me personally. In 2001, we have the earth shattering news of the 9/11, which sparked off a series of wars, terrorism, etc. In 2003, we have the SARS, and we witness the strength of the human spirit in battle against the virus. Tsunami came in 2004 Boxing Day, and a quarter million lives were claimed. 2007 was the beginning of the sub prime crisis, which culminated in Oct 2008, after the fall of Lehman Brothers. In view of all these which happened, 2009 seemed like a pretty peaceful year.

There were inspiring trends too. Technology advanced so much from desktops to notebooks to netbooks and to surfing net on our mobiles. Social media and networking took an exponential rise with the emergence of Friendster, Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. With these advancements, it makes one wonder how will the face of digital media change over the next decade. I am excited, are you?

Personally, my life was also like a roller coaster. In 2000, I tasted the first failure of my relationship. It was bitter. Following which, I went into depression and lost the focus of my life when I learned that I could not fulfill my ambition as a doctor, in which I held dearly for 6 years. I went into the pharmaceutical course in university instead. Still I was lost and depressed, which translated to a collapse of my health with my underlying childhood illness. In 2001, I was admitted to the hospital for 1 month and had to quit my school. Life at that time took a standstill.

I was in recuperation for half year when I really reflected on my life and my faith in God. My pursuits in life changed from academic achievements and money to family and friendships. My faith in God was renewed and I was given a new name, Graham, which means ‘homestead’. Family was what really matters at the end of life. I had also the new vision to set up a foundation to help families who are lost, sick, poor and needy. Thus in 2002, I went into Business Studies, majoring in Finance, in order to learn the ropes of managing and growing money.

In the course of my studies, there were so many thanksgiving miracles that I will not elaborate here. God gave me the mercy, grace, strength and the wisdom to study despite my frequent fainting spells, doctor visits and feeling physically weak most of the time. In 2004, last semester of my studies, I had to undergo dialysis for the next 4 years. I was definitely depressed, but God sustained me, and even gave me motivation to study harder, resulting in the best semester of my studies and graduating with an Honors degree.

In 2005, I went into the Financial Advisory Business full time with the knowledge on finance and the desire to help families. It was challenging, but fruitful period of my life. Thorough my work as a financial advisor, I am able to share in the lives of my clients and help them even beyond personal finance. I grew as a professional through CFP studies and also as a person through my life interactions with clients.

In 2008, I received the news that my heart is failing due to the frequent dialysis of 3 times a week. I needed a kidney transplant urgently as I will not be able to go for the operation if my heart continues to fail. Without a transplant, I had only 5 years to live. I was only 28 at that time. I felt helpless. My brother, who was then 22 years old, agreed to donate his kidney to me and save my life. I am forever grateful to his act of kindness. Family is whom you can count on in times of crisis. Sadly, many people in this time and age do not have close ties with their families, as seen in my interactions with people. I consider myself to be very fortunate.

Also, through my ordeal, I got closer to a personal friend, Sharon, and we became an item. This wonderful lady did not mind my medical issues and stood by me through the darkest moment in my life. I was very touched and intend to marry her if I could survive the operation.

Few days before I was wheeled into the operating theatre, the cardiologist advised me against going for the operation as my heart is very weak. I cried. I felt that my only hope was gone. However, my renal doctor said we had to take this chance, if not there is no hope. Thus, we made the decision to carry on with the major operation. At that moment, I knew how it felt to surrender my whole life to God. Whether I come out alive in the operation will be His call, not mine. With that peace, I closed my eyes.

I was reborn on 29 Sep 2008, 3 days before my actual birthday. I regained the use of my kidney and all body functions were back in place. My heart was 100% normal again. I had a new lease of life, a 2nd chance in life. And I am not going to waste a single moment in my life. Therefore, in 10 Jan 2009, I proposed to Sharon and she said yes! I couldn't’t believe my ears.

2009 was a year of total transformation. From a dialysis patient with no hopes of ever getting married, I was a healthy man preparing for marriage with the woman of my dreams. We had good mentors who guided us in our premarital training and eventually walked into the marriage covenant on 10 Oct 2009.

I am now a husband, and I truly understood the meaning of my name Graham. I am to build a family based on godly principles. I experienced true love and family ties. This is my call in life and I will continue to fulfill it day after day, by loving my wife. As a financial advisor and trainer to families, it is my divine duty to ensure that their family foundations are in place. This is my vision for 2010.

What is your vision for 2010?

Total Wealth – Living the abundant life

There is the principle anyone must grasp and internalize in their hearts in order to achieve abundant wealth and life. The principle is stewardship. The opposite of stewardship is ownership. So what is the difference between these 2 principles? Let us find out more.

Ownership to most people may be the key to financial and life success. “Take ownership of your finances and you will take responsibility in managing it”, is often a goodwill advice given to someone who is managing their finances poorly. However, in my opinion, the poor guy even after taking ownership over his finances, he will still face difficulties growing and managing his finances, simply because he is the ‘owner’! This ‘owner’, even after he takes responsibility over his money, will not do well as he still does not have the habits and attitude to manage his finances well.

Imagine I have a sum of money in my hands, and it is MY money. What will I do with it? I will most probably spend on the things I like and give me immediate gratification. Yes, I may save some for a rainy day, but the money is usually subjected to the wimps and fancies of my human nature, the desire to live well and have a good life. And believe me, the human nature, if not controlled, will usually end up in self indulgence, simply because it is MY money, I own it, and I decide what to do with it.

Let us take a look at the principle of stewardship. Stewardship can be illustrated in a story:

There was once a Master, and he had 3 servants. The Master was going on a long trip and he said to his servants, “I will give each of you talents, and I want you to take care of it when I am gone and be fruitful.” He then gave the first servant 5 talents, the second 3 talents, and the third 1 talent. He then went on his journey.

The first servant immediately took the 5 talents and traded in the marketplace and gained another 5 talents after some time. The second servant did likewise and gained another 3 talents. The third servant, after the master was gone, took the talent and buried it into the ground and went on with his daily affairs.

The Master then came back and demanded back his money. The first servant reported, “I have went to invest and managed YOUR talents, and I have gained 5 more.” The Master was pleased and said, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in little things. Now I shall give you 5 cities to govern over in my kingdom.” Likewise he was pleased with the second servant and rewarded him with 3 cities to govern.

However, the last servant came and said, “Master, I was afraid that I will lose your money and therefore I buried it and went on MY daily affairs. Here, this is your one talent.” The Master was furious and banished the servant out of his kingdom, because he had not kept the Master’s command of being fruitful.

Stewardship thinking will radically transform our approach to our finances. For me, knowing that my financial resources are from God by grace, given by my ability to work, and it is for my family and loved ones, gives me tremendous drive to manage it well to be fruitful. I am accountable to my family, my loved ones, and God, who gives me the ability to acquire wealth, to bless the people I care about.

And this principle of stewardship does not only relate to our financial area, but all other areas of life as well. We have to be superb stewards, or managers of our life, our resources, our relationships, our health, everything! Also, having the awareness that our time on earth is limited and we have to pass on someday, gives us a healthy perspective of how we manage our life and resources, as we are not going to take it with us when we die, rather, they are passed on the our next generation, as a legacy.

In addition, coupled with being a good steward is a need for wisdom. The book of Proverbs in the Bible read, “Does not wisdom cry out, and understanding lift up her voice? She takes her stand on the top of the high hill, beside the way, where the paths meet. She cries out by the gates, at the entry of the city, at the entrance of the doors.” Wisdom is calling out to mankind, because it is an essential life skill for survival and growth in life. Wisdom is the key to effective stewardship, and effective stewardship is the key to having an abundant and fruitful life.

Are smart, intelligent people actually wise? Well, not necessary so. I may be very intelligent in my studies, in math, in making a lot of money in investments, but I may not be wise in handling my life, my emotions, my morals, etc. I may lose the whole lot of money overnight, just because I fail to handle other areas of my life well, for example, my indulgences, my lust, my pride, and many other things. Wisdom is gained from life experiences, from applying our knowledge into practical life situations, and always having the attitude of humility with learning.

For me, the source of wisdom is from the Bible. The Bible presents life stories, in which truth and knowledge is applied in the lives of the characters. I learn so much though the life experiences from the people in the Bible. Also, I acquire wisdom by speaking to mentors, elders, and people whom I respect. I can even gain wisdom by watching a little child learning to walk, and he picks himself up whenever he falls down, never giving up. Wisdom is everywhere! Wisdom is calling out from the streets! Seek for wisdom and wisdom will find you.

I am always seeking for wisdom to be a good steward of my money, my life. I am on a financial life journey, learning through books, through the media, through people and through life experiences. And I know that I am growing day by day, being the person I envision to become. I will be that wise man, the sage, the elder, with a loving wife who adores me, children and grandchildren who respects me, friends who favor me, people who share my wealth and wisdom, and God, who is smiling at me and saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful in little things in your life. Now come and be rewarded in your Master’s presence.”

With wise stewardship of God’s resources to me, I will thus complete my financial life journey with excellence. How will you complete your financial life journey?

Aaron Graham Tay, CFP

Wealth Distribution – Leaving a Legacy

Wealth has a purpose. Money is not the end in itself; rather, it is the means to an end. What is the ‘end in mind’ for you? In Financial Planning, we always start with the end in mind, and then we draw out the roadmap to achieve the success that we desire. Imagine that you have already created the wealth that you always dream of and living the life that you desire. Will that be all that it is to life?

Many successful investors and entrepreneurs I know and whom I read about, always have the desire to give back to society. They are grateful that the people around them and the community at large have given them the opportunity to succeed in life. Of course, these are billionaire investors who have built up massive wealth for themselves and their family, and are able to set up foundations for the noble cause. We may not achieve the level of wealth which they have attained, but I believe that whatever capacity we are in, we are also able to bless others with what we have.

In total financial planning, estate planning and leaving a legacy is often communicated to the client. Many clients want their wives, children, grandchildren, to be well taken care of as the first priority. They will set up trusts for the family, for example, an education trust which will ensure that their grandchildren will have enough funds to complete university.

After they have sufficient funds to provide for their family, some of the clients will want to extend their compassion and financial help to support a particular cause, for example, medical advancement, education for the poor, etc.

Some of the philanthropists whom I admire are Bill Gates & Warren Buffet. Bill Gates build his computer empire over his lifetime and later on set up the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, giving grants to numerous organizations dealing with global issues such as health, agricultural development, financial services to the poor, etc. Mr. Warren Buffet, similarly build his wealth via his investing brilliance and became the richest investor in the world. After which he donated half of his billions of wealth to the Gates Foundation, blessing many beneficiaries of the foundation. He subsequently became the richest man on earth and still is today. Other notable successful philanthropists include Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and George Soros, each to his own personal calling and cause.

I personally desire to impact the world to the extent like these great men listed above. And I can do it today. Leaving a legacy need not happen only when we are passed on from this world to the next, but rather, it takes a life long commitment to build a legacy that is remembered by future generations.

Charity begins at home. Leaving a legacy begins at home. As we are accumulating wealth in order to provide and bless our families, we can right now show love to them by giving them quality time, caring for them, listening to them, encouraging them, etc. Many people take priority in making money, thinking that providing for their family financially and buying gifts for them is sufficient to show them that they love their family. Sad to say, they are sadly wrong. To love a person we need to communicate, and if we spend all our time at work and making money, where are we going to have the time to love them and communicate with them. In contrary, many people realize only after they have accumulated sufficient wealth for themselves, which their family is already breaking apart, for a myriad of reasons. It is sometimes too late to salvage the family which they have always wanted to build and provide for.

Also, many people have made such claims, “When I am wealthy enough, I will start a foundation or charity that will help many people.” I will have these questions in my mind, “What do you mean by wealthy enough? When do you think you will be wealthy? How many people do you want to help?” These claims are vague and abstract. Most of the time, wealth is never enough. People will usually be trapped in the whirlpool of greed, never being satisfied with what they have. After buying a condo, they will want a bungalow. After buying their BMW, they will want a Porsche. When will it end? When can we start to really help people?

For me, my stand is clear; I will accumulate wealth and at the same time, start building my legacy right here, right now. There is no time to waste. At the end of our lives, on our death bed, we will not be asking the question. “How much time have I spent in the office today? Or how much money have I accumulated.” I want my life to be with no regrets. I want to be able to say, “Yes, I have made a difference to the lives of many people, my family and my friends.” That is why today, I will tell my loved ones that I love them, whether in words or in deeds. Life is uncertain, and I can fully comprehend it given my experience with illness since 8 years old. And I have experience a new birth in life, by my brother giving me his kidney in his kindness. Also, with a woman who is willing to be united with me in Holy Matrimony, I have experienced God’s goodness and grace, and yes, true love.

Therefore, it spurs me even more to accomplish what I have started out to do, to set up a foundation to fund and heal the lost, sick, poor and needy kidney patients, giving them a new life, just like how I have received my new life in humility. And it will not start 10 year later or 20 years later. It will start now and as my wealth increases, so will the blessings to these needy people increase. I will minister to these needy patients in their spirit, soul and body by loving them and providing for them, right here, right now.

This is truly wealth with a purpose.

Aaron Graham Tay, CFP

Wealth Management – Preserving Capital and Enhancing Returns

Risk and Return. This is a universal law which cannot be disputed. Like the law of gravity, it always works. Just like when we throw a ball into the air, it will always return to the ground. Likewise, if we want more returns on our investment, we will have to undertake more risk. Like the old adage, “There is no free lunch in this world”, the risk is directly proportional to the return we will achieve.

In amassing wealth, we will also need to manage the wealth with wisdom. There are people who can amass wealth overnight with their brilliance in investing or by a stroke of good fortune, but unfortunately, they do not have the wisdom and character to keep the wealth and very soon, they are back to where they started off. We need to understand this fundamental principle of risk and return in order for us to preserve our capital which we have accumulated and enhance its return, growing our portfolio to the next level of wealth.

We have discussed risk management for life previously and I shall now focus on investment risk management. The most effective key in reducing investment risks is diversification. Diversification is when we created a portfolio of various asset classes, for example, stocks (equity), bonds (fixed income), property (real estate), futures and options (derivatives), and other classes. Within the asset class, we can further diversify into different sectors and countries. This is called the level of diversification.

When we invest in the stock of a particular company, for example, Microsoft, we are taking the risk of the company, its sector, the country which it operates, and the global economy. The risk of the company will include the quality of its managers, the health of its financial statements and its business model. The sector risk will be the industry performance as a whole, in this case, is the information technology industry. The country risk will be USA, as the business primarily operates there. And finally, the global risk will also affect Microsoft since USA is part of the global economy.

However, when we include Apple Computers into our portfolio also, we will eliminate company risk to a large extent. Reason is that if Microsoft share price declines, Apple shares may be increasing due to a superior product. However, if a bad news hits the IT industry, both of them may face share price decline. Thus we can also include other industries into our portfolio, for example, Kraft Foods in the food industry which is not correlated to the IT industry.

We can protect the downside of our investment portfolio also, if we invest into other countries besides USA. If USA is facing a national recession, we may have investments in other countries for example China to sustain the portfolio.

The risks that we are eliminating in the previous methods are non-systematic risks. If we ensure that our investment portfolio has a healthy allocation of funds into the different asset classes and sectors, which are fairly correlated negatively to each other, our portfolio should not sustain much market shocks. There are, however, systematic risks which affects the whole global economy that cannot be diversified away. We can do our best to diversify into other asset classes which have different behaviors to economic indicators, but we will still be exposed to systematic risks to a certain extent.

Now that we understand how to preserve capital by diversification, we need also to understand asset allocation to enhance returns while preserving capital. The first step to this process is to understand our risk profile. A high risk taker will allocate his portfolio into very sector specific or even single companies, while low risk taker will have very diversified portfolios, with much into bonds and other low risk instruments. A moderate risk taker will usually have a hybrid of both.

Asset allocation is a very dynamic process and there are numerous books written on this subject. In essence, asset allocation uses the different characteristics of investment instruments to create a portfolio that is diversified. The different instruments will be negatively correlated to reduce the risk. However, the returns will also be moderated due to the lower risk. The art is to have an optimal allocation such that with the risk the investor is able to undertake, he is also able achieve the highest return. Asset allocation is also dynamic with reference to the markets. In different investment climates, allocations will be different. For example, in the climate where interest rates are high, an investor will most probably move more allocations into equities instead of bonds, as bond prices generally decline when interest rates are high, and vice versa.

Therefore, in order to preserve the wealth that we have accumulated and enhance the returns for capital appreciation, we need to understand these important principles. Risk and return, diversification and asset allocation, will serve as very useful principles when we manage our wealth with wisdom. The learning of these principles is not exhaustive, and I will encourage you to keep on upgrading your knowledge of these concepts, and the rewards will be invaluable.

Aaron Graham Tay, CFP

Accumulate Wealth with Investment Wisdom

Let us do some simple mathematics here. Assuming we start work at 25 years old and retire at 55 years old. We have an average income of $5000 a month and we can save $2500 a month. Without investing and parking our money in a bank, we will achieve approximately $968,400 at 0.5% rate of investment (ROI). If we invest our savings over long term at a modest 7% ROI, we will achieve $2,833,823 as our retirement funds. Is there a big difference between $968,400 and $2,833,823? I bet there is! Now that is the magic of the law of compounding in investments.

Rule of 72

The Rule of 72 simply states the number of year it takes to double our invested money at a given rate of interest. For example, if we invest our $10,000 at 2% ROI, it will take 72/2, that is 36 years, to become $20,000. If we invest it at 4% ROI, it will take 72/4, only 18 years to become $20,000. So on as so forth. This is another illustration of the magic of compounding.

Establishing your Investment Philosophy

Investment Philosophy (IP) is a set of beliefs that you adhere to as you make your investment decisions. It is a style of investing that is very personal to the investor and is different from investor to investor. If we do not have an IP, whenever a investment situations arises, we will not know what to do and may make unwise investment decisions. An IP will suit the investor’s risk profile, personality, goals, personal beliefs, etc. For example, if people around you say that oil prices will increase because of an impending war, will you take advantage of the situation and buy oil futures? One investor may feel that it is a tremendous opportunity because he is an aggressive investor to be able to tolerate the risk inherent in derivatives instrument (with leverage) and he is a short term opportunist. On other hand, you may feel that futures is too risky for you and you prefer stocks that are more stable and has a longer time horizon. Also, you may feel that profiting from a war, which usually results in the loss of innocent lives, is not ethical. With a clear IP, you will not chase after profits and be lead by them, which will leave you frustrated and even cost you money. But you will be a stable investor, knowing exactly what to do in the ever changing capital markets.

A good financial advisor is supposed to help you discover your personality type and establish your personal IP. He can share with you his IP, and you may want to adopt his IP if it suits you, but it is important to understand the IP that you undertake which underlines your investment decisions.

My Personal Investment Philosophy

1. Have at least 6 months of income saved in my bank account. This acts as an emergency fund in the event of retrenchment, emergency medical bills, etc.

2. Differentiate my ‘needs’ from my ‘wants’. I do need a flat for me to get married and start a family. I do need money to fund my children through a formal education and I do need money for a comfortable retirement of about $3,000 expenses per month in today’s dollars. However, I want to own a Ferrari sport car. I want to live in a bungalow. I want to own a private jet. I want to set up a charitable foundation. We need to prioritize our needs from our wants and provide for our needs first.

3. Open different ‘accounts’ for different goals. Each goal has a different time frame and different amounts. With that in mind, we can then undertake the most effective investment strategy for each goal. For example, if your goal is to hold a wedding one year later, the wedding funds should be held in a conservative portfolio, consisting of bank deposits or money market instruments. However, if the goal is to be financially independent in 20 years time, we can undertake an aggressive portfolio to achieve our target amount for retirement.

4. With our budget set up, we are able to allocate our savings per month towards our goals. For a start, I will recommend savers to construct a portfolio that can withstand market shocks. This can be achieved by diversifying our money amongst different companies, industries, and countries. Unit trusts (mutual funds), exchange traded funds (ETFs), real estate investment trusts (REITs) are effective instruments to accumulate wealth over the medium to long term. These instruments also allow us to contribute periodically. A regular savings program (RSP) is a powerful way to accumulate wealth by a strategy called dollar cost averaging, which means lowering our investment cost over time when we invest regularly with discipline. This strategy should enable us to comfortably achieve our ‘needs’ goals in life.

5. When we have accumulated a certain sum of money, eg $50,000; we can then proceed to explore shares of companies which are of long term value. In this exercise, we will be putting on our thinking caps and perspective of a business owner. A good business sense and acumen will be of great help to identify companies with profitable long term prospects. We may even start a new venture and invest in the growth of the company. Being a shareholder of a profitable company that is sustainable over long term will exponentially increase our wealth. We can then start to dream of achieving all our ‘wants’ in life, given time.

6. Properties will be the next investment vehicle I will be keen to invest. A property will either require a huge capital investment, or a loan from the bank to finance the mortgage. In both cases, having a large pool of funds to invest or sustain the loan financing will be a prudent way to start investing in properties. Of course, there are other creative measures to use leverage in property investments, and it depends on our risk profile and personality type when it comes to investing. And believe me, a tremendous amount of wealth can be amassed if we understand and invest in properties wisely. By this time, I presume we are all living in our dream lifestyle, with profitable investments, passive income, dream house, dream car, country club memberships, etc. The list goes on and on. However, I would like to quote a passage from the Bible. “What good does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and yet loses his own soul?” To me, having good health in the spirit, soul and body, with a warm family, is still the greatest treasure of all.

7. Finally, if we have the courage and the appetite for risk, we can venture into the ever complex capital markets for trading and speculation. The financial markets are usually responsible for the rise and fall of many millionaires, even billionaires. Like one of my trader friend said, “The financial market is the greatest mystery of all time.” No one can ever predict with 100% accuracy the next move of Mr. Market. Trading and speculation in the financial markets require a great amount of study and emotional tenacity. Thus it is the final area of investing sphere that I will recommend to investors due to its complexity and sophistication. I believe when we have done the above 6 steps correctly, we will have amassed great wealth and have all the time in the world to explore the mysterious world of capital markets. The capital market instruments include stocks, bonds, currency, futures, options, warrants, etc. There are also numerous strategies that we can adopt and every trader/speculator has their own strategy of profiting in the markets. But beware, even though trading in the markets may sound exciting, or even sexy… it has still caused many to laugh, cry or even die, as a result of great rise and decline of their wealth. Are you prepared for the challenge?

In conclusion, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. After knowing how powerful investing can be in amassing our wealth and achieving our life goals, and knowing our own investment philosophy, it is time to start putting our first dollar to work. Don’t procrastinate. Start saving. Start investing NOW.

Aaron Graham Tay, CFP

Risk Management for Life Uncertainties

Life Insurance: A word that is usually shunned by most people. Why is that so? One reason might be that life insurance agents are pushy in their recommendations for life insurance product, making clients feel uncomfortable, even though they know that it is important in their financial lives. Another reason is that people do not believe that mishaps will happen to them. They do not see that protecting themselves, their family, and their wealth from unfortunate life events such as death, disability, illnesses, heavy medical bills, is of any priority. They would rather use their savings on material needs and wants, or investing for the future to accumulate more wealth. This thinking is very common amongst the young people. They feel good, keep a healthy lifestyle and everything is well for them. What could go wrong?

Let me share with you a true story. My own story…

I was born in 1980 into a humble middle working class family. My father was a teacher and my mother was a nurse. As the eldest child, my parents had high hopes on me and doted on me. When I was 6 my younger brother was born. I knew I was a big brother and had to take care of my younger brother. In the end, it was my younger brother who took care of me and saved my life.

Things turned a different route in 1988. I had mumps for a period of time. My parents took good care of me and expected me to turn well soon however, things got more complicated. My legs started to swell and my mum suspected something was wrong so she took me to see a doctor. I was diagnosed with kidney problem. Being young, I did not know the seriousness of the illness until I saw the pale and worried faces on my parents. I was not only diagnosed with kidney problem, the real cause of the problem was lupus. Lupus is an auto immune disease that starts a civil war in my own body, with the antibodies attacking its own cells. My parents were at a state of loss, not knowing what they should do.

A lot of questions went through my parents’ mind, “What will my future be?” “How much will be the medical expenses” To make matters worse, my father did not believe in buying life insurance for me when I was young, so we had to pay for the medical bills ourselves. This added on addition burden to my parent’s expenses. I felt that I was a burden to my parents too and there is nothing I could do to make things better. The only thing I could do is to study hard and support myself in the future.

With God’s grace, I managed to complete my secondary school education and went on to junior college. However, I had to go for regular routine check up for my condition. Every month my parents have to spend about three thousand dollars for the medical bills. Due to the care I received from my doctor, I was inspired to become a doctor and save the lives of people. However, it was a far fetched goal for me and I only managed to enter into the Pharmacy course in university.

In university was the turning point of my life. As the saying goes, when a problem comes, it does not come alone. Soon I suffered a serious relapse of my illness and I was bedridden for one whole month. And I was in depression. Without a choice I had to quit school and stay in hospital with other patients.

In hospital, I saw the suffering of many patients whose family has deserted them because the medical bills were too huge for the family to bear. Some of them have no family and have to depend of social services. Others have no money to treat their illness and their health deteriorates day by day. A patient with diabetes even had to have both his legs amputated due to improper care. After witnessing the different heart wrenching scenarios, I realized one hard and real fact, “Life is unpredictable. You will never know what you are going to get.” I understood the value of being ready for the crisis in life. If life crisis such as major illnesses hits us without warning, what we have planned and expected life to be will be destroyed and gone forever. In some cases, our spouses may even run away due to the financial burden to take care of us. We may then have to depend on charity foundations and that also is not guaranteed. If all things fail, we may even die. The only solution is to insure our life and health when we can still be insured, to ensure that financial resources will be there when we desperately need them.

That was the reason I joined the insurance and financial advisory business in 2003 when I quit the Pharmacy course. It was after much thought and reflection. It was not because I gave up on my dream on helping patients medically. It was because I realized that not matter how much we prevent people from being struck by serious illness, there will always be victims of life unfortunate events. Illness, accidents, disabilities, deaths, will always exist on this earth. What we really need to do is not only to prevent sicknesses, but to be ready if we ever get struck by one. And the most important thing is financial resources. My dream was to become a doctor to help people get well. Now, I am ensuring that people have sufficient resources to seek the best medical treatment. If there were adequate doctors but inadequate resources, the patients will still die. It is a very realistic world.

Therefore, in my opinion, life is fragile and mishaps can happen to anyone of us. Of course, when we dream and plan for our lives, we should plan for the best that no bad thing will happen to us. But as reality shows, we do need to prepare ourselves for unexpected events. Insurance is but merely a tool for us to cushion ourselves against financial disasters if anything untoward happens to us or our family. A good financial advisor will surely recommend insurance instruments to protect your wealth from uncertainties. These instruments include term insurance, whole life plans, investment linked plans, medical schemes, etc. Much information can be gleaned in this area on the internet or from your nearest friendly neighborhood financial advisor. However, I personally feel that you should not spend more than 15% of your income on your insurance portfolio, as it is for wealth protection and does not help to accumulate wealth at an optimal rate of return.

So to continue my story…

I also saw in my encounter with patients was that patients like myself who are seriously ill and yet have no insurance have no money to seek medical treatment. Where do we turn too? Fortunately, there were foundations such as NKF and KDF to help desperate kidney patients. Previously, I was undergoing dialysis at the NKF. Now, after a kidney transplant of which the donor was my younger brother, I have a new lease of life once again and a deep sense of conviction for my purpose in life, that is to help patients like myself to overcome their illnesses and limitations. However, without these foundations like NKF, I will probably die of my illness due to lack of money to seek quality medical treatment. Before 1970, people with kidney failure will die as dialysis was very expensive. It costs about $3000 per month. And in other countries with no charity foundations and no proper medical treatment, lives are lost as if it was of little value. Therefore, I am now determined to set up a foundation. This foundation will help thousands of poor and needy people, not only in kidney problems, but also in other illnesses such as cancer and others. If I was a doctor, I can only save a few lives that come along my path. However, if I owned a foundation, I will be able to save thousands or even millions of lives. The only way I could do that is to become wealthy. And I believe I am well on the way to fulfill my vision and my destiny.

Life Planning – Setting Value Goals

As a financial consultant, I have clients coming to me saying, “I want to invest my money and make it work for me.” First question I will ask is, “How much do you want to achieve and by when?” The client will answer, “As much as possible and with the least possible time.” At this moment I will have 2 options: One is to politely tell the client that we are not suited to be financial accountability partners. Second is to educate him about the right mindset about setting investment and life goals. And more often than not, clients will take the latter option, as they are interested as to what is the accurate blueprint of setting investment and life goals, and this will assure the clients of a higher success in reaching their fullest financial and life potential.

Investment Goals

Many people have vague goals. Usually as the New Year commences, we have new resolutions. Some will say, “I want to lose weight”, “I want to be richer”, “I want to be healthier”, etc. These are good intentions, but they are very vague, and vague goals do not get accomplished. We need to set concrete goals, goals that we can see, feel and touch it in our minds. We need to set SMART goals. The definition of SMART is:

S – Specific
M – Measurable
A – Attainable
R – Realistic
T – Time Frame

Specific - A specific goal has a much greater chance of being accomplished than a general goal. To set a specific goal you must answer the five "W" questions:
*Who: Who is involved?
*What: What do I want to accomplish?
*Where: Identify a location.
*When: Establish a time frame.
*Why: Specific reasons, purpose or benefits of accomplishing the goal.

For example, “I (who) want to get accumulate $100,000(what), in my business (where) in 10 months (when), for our wedding (why).

Measurable - Establish concrete criteria for measuring progress toward the attainment of each goal you set. When you measure your progress, you stay on track, reach your target dates, and experience the exhilaration of achievement that spurs you on to continued effort required to reach your goal.
To determine if your goal is measurable, ask questions such as......How much? How many? How will I know when it is accomplished?

Attainable - When you identify goals that are most important to you, you begin to figure out ways you can make them come true. You develop the attitudes, abilities, skills, and financial capacity to reach them. You begin seeing previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals.
You can attain most any goal you set when you plan your steps wisely and establish a time frame that allows you to carry out those steps. Goals that may have seemed far away and out of reach eventually move closer and become attainable, not because your goals shrink, but because you grow and expand to match them. When you list your goals you build your self-image. You see yourself as worthy of these goals, and develop the traits and personality that allow you to possess them.

Realistic - To be realistic, a goal must represent an objective toward which you are both willing and able to work. A goal can be both high and realistic; you are the only one who can decide just how high your goal should be. But be sure that every goal represents substantial progress. A high goal is frequently easier to reach than a low one because a low goal exerts low motivational force. Some of the hardest jobs you ever accomplished actually seem easy simply because they were a labor of love.

Time Frame - A goal should be grounded within a time frame. With no time frame tied to it there's no sense of urgency. If I want to accumulate hundred thousand dollars, when do I want to achieve it? "Someday" won't work. But if I anchor it within a timeframe, "by Oct 1", then I've set my unconscious mind into motion to begin working on the goal.

Once we have determined the amount and time frame, then we are able to accurately access the kind of risk the client needs to undertake for his investments. If the client has a large amount to accumulate and has a short time frame, the client will need to take very high risk to achieve his goal. Vice versa, if the client has a modest goal over a long period of time, he will only need to take minimal risk. Thus it is important to find out how much and when the client needs to accumulate, as it is important not to take unnecessary risk in investments.

Life Goals

Money is not an end by itself. It is a means to an end. When I think of myself of a millionaire, I do not just imagine the figure $1,000,000 in my bank account statement. Rather, I envision the things that the million dollars can bring me, either material or non-material. I dream of my happy family, living in a spacious and luxurious home, driving around in my dream sports car, having good food, enjoying good health, favor with friends and loved ones, etc. Nothing about money, but money is the tool to enable my dreams to come true. I believe it is the same for you too.

Thus when we plan for our investment goals, we also need to link it with our life goals. What do we want the money for? For our marriage? For our children’s education? To buy a Ferrari? To start a charitable organization? We need to prioritize our life goals, as we have limited resources. Which is more important? Having a Ferrari or sending our kids to a reputable school for his future? This boils down to what our innermost values and desires are. Values are deeply held beliefs that are deep in our heart. For example, my number one value is family, so I will make sure I spend quality time with my family and that my family has comfortable lifestyle. If I regard fame as important, I will achieve wealth and publicize my success, so as to get the recognition of others. What are your values in life?

Thus the formula for accurate and powerful goals will be:

Step 1: Discover our innermost values
Step 2: Establish and prioritize our life goals according to our values
Step 3: Determine how much financially we need to achieve those goals

Therefore, having a general and vague goal for this coming year is not enough. We need to discover our most heartfelt values and prioritize our goals. Then we need to establish SMART goals that is specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and with a time frame. When our goal is clear, it becomes real and ‘tangible’ in our mind’s eye. We can then feel the excitement and passion in achieving the goal which will then produce daily discipline to do the things that will lead us to the goal. Nothing will seem impossible for us then.

Financial Planning Process – Finding a Financial Advisor for Accountability

I have a great dream and vision for my life, that is build a profitable business and a charitable foundation to help the lost, sick, poor and needy patients in their healing process. But I can never accomplish this vision by myself. I need to partner with like-minded people to achieve the goal. I need not only partners, but also good mentors to lead and guide me to fulfill my purpose so that I am effective and strategic in the endeavors I undertake.

Similarly, all of us need life mentors and partners around us to achieve our goal in life. This also applies to our financial life and goals. Many times, we set out to achieve a targeted financial goal, for example, to accumulate enough for our dream wedding, dream house, dream car, dream lifestyle and dream retirement. But as the days go by, we find ourselves falling short in our financial resources and have to lower our expectations. Eventually, we look at our current resources and let it decide the kind of lifestyle we can have, rather than looking at our desired lifestyle and finding strategies to achieve it. I believe many of us do plan for our desired lifestyle, just that we have distractions along the way, and lack of self discipline to stick to the plan. I also believe that the key to the solution is this, Accountability.

In our country, Singapore, I think many people have the perception that ‘financial advisors’ are essentially insurance agents, doing up a financial plan for clients and eventually recommending an insurance policy. Financial advisors can be from insurance companies, banks and also independent financial advisory firms. In my opinion, most financial advisors are remunerated by commission, which is tied to how many products they sell for their company, resulting in the focus on selling their company’s products, as their livelihood depends on it. However, there are also some advisors who are fee-based, and may be based on per hour of consultation or by the amount of planning work that needs to be done. This kind of fee structure is currently more established in the Western countries, and I believe Singapore is also heading towards that direction and also other Asian countries in time to come.

So what exactly is the role and value of a financial advisor, other than recommending financial instruments? Besides understanding your financial goals, knowing your risk profile, establishing a written plan, recommending suitable instruments and periodically review your roadmap, I believe the key value of a financial advisor is to be an accountability partner. Let us better understand how a competent financial advisor can add value to your financial success.

Understanding your financial goals

First of all, your financial advisor must be someone you trust. There must be a good relationship to begin with and trust is the foundation of all relationships. You must be comfortable with your advisor so that you can share without restrictions about your heartfelt dreams for your future. An advisor is also akin to a counselor, and should be a good listener, to understand heartfelt concerns which may require the advisor to ‘read beyond the lines’. A good advisor should inspire and encourage you to achieve your maximum potential, but also realistic in your situation. For example, if the client wants to achieve $5 million in 5 years so that he can be financially independent, the advisor must be able to manage the client’s expectations, so that the client has a reasonable expectation of what can be achieved and how.

Knowing your risk profile

You may find it surprising, but I feel that many of us, including myself, do not actually know ourselves very well, especially in the area of taking risks. We may feel that we are risk takers, mainly because we like fast cars, like action movies, and live for the thrill of the moment. However, when it comes to money matters and investments, once the markets drops 30%, we may start to have stomach cramps and unable to sleep at night. Therefore, it is important that the advisor ask good questions to discover your true risk appetite when it comes to money. Risk profiling is not just filling up a questionnaire and signing off. Rather, it is really asking personal questions with regards to real life situations and listening to the client’s response. For example, the client may like sky diving, and wants to double his money in 2 years, so that he can start a business. However, he has limited funds and needs to take care of his sick mother, as he is the only child. Can he invest all his money into a high risk instrument that can either double his money in 2 years, or lose 50% of his funds? A good advisor must keep things in perspective and advise the client for his welfare, rather than grabbing at every opportunity to invest the client’s money for commissions.

Establishing a written plan and recommending suitable instruments

The advisor, after understanding your goals and knowing your true risk profile with regards to money matters, will then proceed to formulate a plan and strategy to achieve your goals. Strategy formulation will be an important part of the financial planning process and you may wish to enquire about the experience and credentials of the financial planner you are working with. A good credential in the financial planning industry will be the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) designation. A good strategy will mean that needs will be prioritized, the risk that the client needs to undertake will be suitable for him, he has realistic expectations on the goal that he will be set to achieve, and financial resources will be effectively utilized.

After the plan is in place, the advisor will usually recommend some financial instruments that will help the client achieve his goals. These instruments will be either equities for wealth accumulation, bonds for wealth preservation, insurance plans for wealth protection or estate trusts for wealth distribution. The list is not exhaustive, and the advisor can use creative ways to help the client grow their wealth efficiently. In my opinion, a great asset and value that the advisor can provide is their network of contacts. Usually advisors are relational people and they have friends who are professionals and business people in other fields of work. The advisor is able to link up their clients with people who are seeking opportunities to people who have the opportunity. Like the famous Robert Kyosaki said, “The poor look for work, while the rich look for network.” Indeed, a person’s network may well determine his net worth.

Periodic review and Accountability

The financial plan and recommendations will usually take about 2 weeks to complete, but a good advisor usually partners the client for their whole financial life. This is because our financial life is so dynamic and events happen which can affect our financial situation and future, which we need a professional advisor who understands our situation will enough to advice on the right decisions. An advisor is like a doctor. If you have a chronic illness, would you like to go to a hospital that keeps changing doctors such that when you visit, you have to repeat your whole medical history to him? Or would you rather go to your family physician who knows your condition so well that you are confident with the decisions he makes are for your absolute welfare? I believe the answer is obvious.

Not only an advisor is like a doctor who is mandated to conduct periodic reviews, either half yearly or annual reviews, he is also an accountability partner to the client. In this aspect, commitment is required from both parties. I believe nobody wants to fail in achieving their intended goals in life, however, temptations are at every corner, distracting us from the course to success. And one of the reason people usually get into trouble, including financial ones, is that they don’t have to answer to anyone in their lives. They have blind spots which they think they can handle on their own. Accountability is the answer to these problems.

Financial accountability is to be regularly answerable in the financial area of our lives to qualified people. We need to give an accurate report, on how we are progressing towards our financial goals. If it is not progressing well, what is the issue at hand? These are tough questions, and the road to success is never easy and most times there is a price to pay, and that is discipline and some good pressure from our accountability partner regularly. It should not be sporadic or an ad-hoc basis. Therefore regular reviews are necessary to keep the accountability in check. I will recommend quarterly for a portfolio review and semi-annually for a full financial plan review. Qualified people will be people you trust and respect in the area of finance and wealth management. And who is more trusted in respected in the realm of your personal finance than your own financial advisor?

In conclusion, I believe the missing link as to why some people succeed beautifully in achieving their financial life dreams is because of accountability and discipline. We need to be disciplined daily to make the right decisions towards our financial success and have someone we respect, ideally our trusted financial advisor, to hold us accountable to the financial goals we have set for ourselves and our family.

Set out to find a trusted financial advisor and accountability partner today. Kick start your way to a roaring financial success. I believe we can all live the dream lifestyle we desire for ourselves and our family in the future, when we make the right decisions everyday.

Making Money – Being Entrepreneurial!

I believe everyone is born entrepreneurial. Do you believe it? Notice that I did not use the word entrepreneur, which means someone who organizes a business venture and assumes the risk for it, but rather ‘entrepreneurial’. You do not need to be an entrepreneur to exhibit entrepreneurship. Many people are employees working for an organization and yet exhibit tremendous entrepreneurship qualities in their daily work. These people are usually high flyers and you can identify them quite easily. They exhibit passion and enthusiasm in their work, usually expressing conviction and high levels of commitment in their areas of competence. In simple terms, they carry the Wealth Blueprint, and these are the qualities that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial people possess. Many people say that entrepreneurs are born rather than made, but is this statement really true? Some very successful entrepreneurs are indeed born with the charisma and leadership qualities, e.g., Richard Branson of Virgin Group. In his biography, one can see that he has an influence on people ever since he was a child. But there are also some entrepreneurs who are ‘forced’ into starting businesses because of poverty stricken childhoods and became very successful in the end. So what are the common qualities which made these people different from the rest and can these qualities be learnt and applied for anyone who desires that level of success? We have all learnt this in the Wealth Blueprint.

After installing the Wealth Blueprint in our minds and hearts, it is time to apply it in the area of financial wealth. First of all, to make money, we need to create value. In other words, we need to serve the needs of other people and society. And we need to do it well. Doing something well also means that we have to do something that we are good at, naturally gifted in, and develop it into a skill. For example, you make be very good with people and love communicating. You may wish to pursue a career in sales and marketing. Or you may be a genius at numbers, but may fall short in your languages and communication ability. You may want to excel as an analyst or careers which require numeric ability.

Recently, I came across this book called ‘Billionaire in Training’ by Bradley J. Sugars, and I find it to be a simple, yet powerful book. The following ideas are what I have gathered from his book and some of my personal thoughts…

Usually, our first pot of gold comes from working in a company as an employee and building our capital. Acquiring knowledge and developing our skills is also an important part in this phase. This period is Phase 1. Most people will be financially contented to pursue a corporate career and climb the corporate ladder. The limitation of this phase as an employed is the income ceiling. Although some remuneration packages of high flyer employees are very rewarding, still there is a ceiling to the amount of money that we can make. Also, there are other risk factors, such as retrenchment, less freedom in time management, and others. However, one can still be very successful and wealthy working for a corporate company, and if the individual possesses entrepreneurial qualities, it will be certain that the company will pay a premium for the valued individual.

Some employees, having earned their capital and acquired sufficient knowledge and expertise, may decide to start a venture on their own. This period is Phase 2. They have the desire to be in control of their own time and their own destiny. However, there are also a different set of risks at a self employed level. They face business risk and the risk of bankruptcy if the business fails. Also, they will need to learn new skills, such as sales and marketing, negotiation and team building. This the time when they will learn to set up a working system for their sole proprietorship. Once the volume of business reaches a certain level which they cannot handle on their own, they will proceed to Phase 3.

Phase 3 is the time when the self employed has a system established and starts hiring people to handle the volume of business. He is now a manager, and his main job is to motivate his staff and recruit good team players for his business. Human resource management will then be his main skill set. He will still be overseeing the operations of the business and its day to day affairs. He is now at a phase where he is training competent people to run the business so that he can take a back seat and have a more strategic vision for his business.

Phase 4 is when the manager becomes the director of the business, leading his team towards the vision mapped out for the company. He is now the owner of the business and is no longer involved in the day to day management of the business. Rather, his team of competent staff will take over and be managed by a ‘General Manager’, whilst he is the ‘Director’ of the company. Now, having amassed his wealth through his hard work, he can start to really invest in business opportunities to expand his business and may even diversify into other industries.

Phase 5 is a very exciting time when the business owner start to pioneer new initiatives in his company, and venture into new areas in the current industry or even other industries. For example, a Chinese restaurant owner may start a chain of restaurants selling Thai food, Japanese food, etc. Or the business owner may enter a totally different industry, such as the entertainment industry. Which strategy and direction the business owner undertakes depends on many factors, such as network, opportunities, capital funding, experience, confidence in new industries, etc. They may also buy existing companies and develop them, and later on sell them for a profit. Usually, the business owner already have strong business acumen acquired over the years from building his company from scratch and can easily develop an ailing business into a profitable business, which he can sell at a premium. He is now an investor in businesses and venture capitalist.

Phase 6 is usually the most advanced stage of wealth accumulation and entrepreneurship. The investor of companies will then take his companies public and list it on the stock exchange. He will then have an investment holding company to hold the shares of these companies. By publicly listing or floating his companies, the investor is selling the shares of his companies on a national scale or even a global scale. This allows the rich entrepreneur to multiply his wealth many times over. Although the entrepreneur has relinquished most of his control over the companies to the shareholders, he could still retain a certain level of control via his investment holding company, which owns the majority of the shares of the companies. The companies that the entrepreneur has build over the years has become his investment vehicles, and he is no longer running the businesses, and he is now profiting by monitoring the companies’ share prices in the stock market.

Therefore, in my opinion, every individual has the opportunity and potential within to acquire great wealth. It all starts with having the correct values, the Wealth Blueprint, and knowing your passion, talents, and developing them into a skill to add value to others. Whether the individual is at Phase 1 or proceeds to other phases really depends on the lifestyle that the individual desires for himself, and also his risk tolerance level. Moving into other phases requires the individual to take certain calculated risks, and the financial reward is also proportionate to the level of risk he is taking. That is the reason there are always different people in the different phases, as every individual has the power to choose his desired lifestyle and career path for himself.

Wealth Blueprint - Principles of Success

Is there a formula to becoming successful? What characteristics must a person possess to ensure that he will be financially prosperous and successful in all areas of life? Although there is no standard formula for success and attaining great wealth, there are indeed some fundamental attributes that will make a person having higher chances of attaining financial and personal success. I have listed 12 of them.

1. Desire with Passion
2. Faith and Prayer
3. Specialized knowledge and competence
4. Creative Imagination
5. Organized planning with strategy
6. Decisive and taking action
7. Discipline, Hard Work and Deternination
8. Positive thinking and enthusiasm
9. Security and Confidence
10. Social Skills
11. Integrity and Trustworthiness
12. Take responsibility and learn from mistakes

Desire with Passion

“Be careful what you really want, because you shall surely get it.” This was said by one successful man I have met. Success is rarely by randomness, but success come to those who desire it and take practical steps to achieve it. Desire will produce passion, the fuel that drives us to be excellent in our endeavors. Without passion, the work that we do will become mundane and lifeless. Desire produces vision, a preferable future that we want for ourselves. And the clearer our vision is, the stronger our desire will be. A clear vision has a magnetic pull in us, creating excitement and passion to begin the journey towards success.

Faith and Prayer

Another word for faith is belief. Believing in ourselves is paramount in achieving success. If we do not believe in ourselves, who will? And if we do not believe that we can achieve success, why should we even start on the journey? Our actions reflect what we believe about ourselves. Faith is being certain of things we do not see yet in the future, which is our vision for success. Prayer is an expression of a belief in a higher Supreme Being, who will help us achieve the vision we have set for ourselves, giving us added strength and grace to accomplish the task.

Specialized Knowledge and Competence

To be successful, we need to know what are our strengths and weaknesses, and then play on our strengths. We will then have focus and build on our gifts and talents, and develop them into skills. A skill is specialized knowledge of a particular field of work that will bring value and serve others’ needs. It is also not enough just to have a skill; we also need to be very good at it, which is competence. People usually pay for a needed skill and will even pay a premium for a person who is competent in performing that skill.

Creative Imagination

What differentiates you from another person with a similar skill, or even competence which is on par with you? We need to develop our own uniqueness. Why should someone do business with you or hire you? We will need to do things differently if we want to stand out from the mediocre crowd. This requires creativity and imagination. Learn to be creative and imagine! Sometimes the greatest ideas come to people who imagine and dare to dream of the impossibilities.

Organized planning with strategy

With the greatest idea and vision, it will still not become a reality without proper planning and having a strategy. To reach a particular destination, there are many routes which we can take, but which one is the most effective and efficient? This requires us to think and plan our route to achieve our vision, without wasting time and resources, and reaching our goal in the most effective manner.

Decisive and taking action

Now with an idea and vision in our minds with a well thought out strategy, we need to be decisive and take action! Without action is like turning on the engine of a Ferrari car, but never stepping on the accelerator to exhibit its full potential. Many people are guilty of procrastination, thinking that there is always tomorrow to do the things they need to do. Procrastination is the greatest killer of our potential. Kill procrastination, before it kills our vision.

Discipline, Hard Work and Determination

To kill procrastination, we need discipline. Success is never by chance, success is by choice. And choices are what we make everyday. Be disciplined to make the right choices everyday, and we will be nearer to success everyday. Success is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. To achieve success in our vision, we need to ‘get our hands dirty’, that is to put in the hard work. The journey to success is also never a bed of roses. There are bound to be obstacles. This is when we need to have the tenacity and determination to overcome challenges. Remember that we become stronger every time we overcome adversity.

Positive thinking and enthusiasm

It is because the road to success is never easy that we need to have a positive attitude and even a good sense of humor to help us stay on the course. Being positive does not mean we become unrealistic about the practical challenges we may be facing. It is accurately assessing our situation, but believing that we are able to overcome the challenges and move on to the next level. Thinking positively will create positive energy, which is also known as enthusiasm. If you are leading a team to accomplish the vision, having enthusiasm will also have a positive influence on your team members, creating the positive energy which is very important for achieving our goals.

Security and Confidence

The next 4 attributes involves how we relate to others whom we will need if we want to accomplish our vision. No man is an island and the bigger our vision is, the more we need people to help us achieve the vision. Successful people are usually leaders, who are secure in themselves, and having a healthy self esteem. They also exude confidence in their abilities. Leaders do not need to know how to do everything; rather they focus on what they do best and team up with people who are experts in other areas. Thus, leading and managing a team are essential skills in working with people to accomplish the vision.

Social Skills

Since working with people is essential in accomplishing the vision, having good social skills is therefore imperial. Being able to communicate well, understanding body language, having a sense of empathy, listening skills, these are all needed ingredients to relate with others well. The best thing is all these skills are life skills; they not only help us in our work, but also in our family relationships and all other areas of our lives!

Integrity and Trustworthiness

Integrity comes from the root word ‘integral’, meaning ‘completeness’. Having integrity is having our actions corresponding with our beliefs. To instill trust in others, we need to do what we say we will do. Integrity is the mark of a leader and all truly successful people. Trustworthiness is the basic component on all relationships. If I do not trust you in the first place, why should I even bother building a relationship with you? Today, we see many ‘successful’ people breaking trust with people and getting caught in scams and commercial frauds. Successful people with integrity are much needed in the world today.

Take responsibility and learn from mistakes

When we meet with failures on our road to success, remember never to blame others. Unsuccessful people have a common trait; they blame everything and everyone else for their failures but never themselves. Successful people take responsibility for their actions and their failures, but never dwell or become paralyzed by them. Instead, they reflect and learn from their mistakes, move on and achieve greater heights!

My opinion is that when we know, understand and practice faithfully these principles of success, we have already positioned ourselves to receive the success that is meant for every one of us, be it financially or in any personal endeavors. It is my heart’s desire to see every individual find out our purpose in life, and fulfill it powerfully. I have found mine and am taking steps to achieve my vision for my life. I encourage you to discover your purpose too, as only fulfilling our purpose can truly bring us joy and satisfaction that even money cannot buy.