Gregory Fok – Greg Fok Advisory

Financial Planning

Blessed Jan 2025 and welcome to the new year!

January 5, 2025January 5, 2025
by Gregory Fok

If you are having a goal to set your finances in order for 2025, go to this list!

1) Review your overall financial plan.

2) Refinance your mortgage, especially if you are able to find ways to reduce interest rates.

3) Plan for your taxes and find ways to reallocate them appropriately.

4) Review your insurance policies.

5) Find ways to plan around your kids education.

6) Stop predicting what is going to happen in the investment markets.

7) Seek a 2nd opinion on your investments, and find ways to reduce risks, reduce costs, increase returns systemically (without timing market or picking stocks) and simplify your rebalancing.

8) How close or far are you to your retirement number?

9) Set aside money for emergency funds.

10) Review your business exit plans.

11) Review your estate distribution plan.

12) Buy time back for yourself!

13) Have a giving goal!

14) Create a fun and splurge budget!

If there is someone who would like to plan early in advance and would like sound advice, we will be happy to connect with your 3 best friends/colleagues/family!

Business

How do you create more time?

December 5, 2024
by Gregory Fok

Time will just fly past and we will no longer be able to get it back.

At the beginning of 2024, we decided to go for a long trip holiday and my intention was to be able to spend good time and create memories for the family. So with intentionality, we booked the trip way in advance, almost at the beginning of the year.

🎯 As an entrepreneur and high income earner, work time is precious to you and sometimes, it may be hard to take time off and we leave it to the last minute to decide. Even during the trip, it is hard not to open emails and check on work. And when you get back, there are thousands of emails awaiting for you to clear!

🥂 Again, during the trip, I intentionally decided to not check emails and told my staff not to disturb me unless there is a big or urgent issue on hand. Having learnt from Dan Sullivan, time to break and enjoy is designed to focus on that with 100%! When I am back to Singapore to work, I do that with 100% focus too! So I did that and my wife said why am I not even posting on LinkedIn.

I said I wanted to soak in the holiday environment and be present for my family. (I am only doing this in the early morning before the family is awake, as I just feel inspired!) What have you done intentionally to create more time for yourself and your loved ones?

🎯 I have been “financial coaching” for the past 19yrs and those who have set their dream goals, stuck to their plan, remained disciplined, despite the market volatility, and had me as the one journeying with them, have a much higher chance of success in the best and worst case scenarios of their lives If you like to find out more how we do it to help families and businesses get to financial freedom, follow my posts and reach out and we can have an initial meeting at our cost, with no obligations.

Investments

What I wished I had re-learnt about investing earlier,…

October 29, 2024October 29, 2024
by Gregory Fok

Why do most investors, including myself (in the past) get below average returns?

Markets go in cycles constantly, going up and down and most of the time in a very unpredictable fashion.

🎢 In the past, when I was investing, I will say this. “Let me see the returns of the investments. If it is doing well, I will put more in. And if the investment is not doing well, I will sell it out. And after selling out, I will buy into something else that has done well previously. Some investors basically repeat this cycle until they go broke or give up on investing.” I was one of them.

💡 If you think about the above process, what a person is doing is buying more when the markets are high. And selling out when the markets are low. Does it make sense to keep buying high and selling low? ❌❌❌ Of course not! That is the picture of the average investor on the left.

I have shifted my mindset over time to the picture on the right..

🎯 Instead, what we are here to do is to focus on our plan, not to time the market because NO company or person can do so. So we would rather ride along the trend line of broad markets going upwards and keep investing and keep topping up until we have reached our goals. When markets are up, we keep adding to buy more so that we get closer to our goals. When markets are down, we buy more because discounts are available! And when we reach our goals, we can start to draw-down on our investments and provide an income stream for ourselves!

This takes a whole RE-wirement of our understanding towards investing and what the world tells us about chasing returns.

💡 Stop chasing returns. Go back to the fundamentals and keep our eye on your goals.

Financial Planning

Who owns my wealth?

September 29, 2024
by Gregory Fok

I am going to be attending and facilitating a programme called, God, Money and Me.

It looks into the intricate relationship we have with our lives, our wealth and ourselves. I love to read into the connection between each other as it tells us a history of ourselves and how we can live our life moving forward.

As I started reading some of the materials, it reminds me strongly that all that I have is not owned by me, but by the one who made me. I am only a steward temporarily for this period.

When we are a steward, wealth does not belong to us, but we become responsible for what we are tasked with at that time.

For example, if we drive a car that belongs to a mentor, we tend to be much more responsible to ensure we return the car clean, and we drive it very carefully etc.

So when it comes to wealth management, when we are stewards to take care of it for others, we learn to be more careful and yet wise around it, to ensure that it will live beyond the current means and allow it to last longer as well.

It takes a different shift in mindset about ownership and responsibility and stewardship.

Does it make help shift some perspectives?

Financial Planning

You can have something more than Elon Musk!

August 22, 2024
by Gregory Fok

How is it possible to have more than Elon Musk?

Everyone would have thought that Elon Musk has “everything”.

I was speaking to my mentor some years ago, and he shared these wise words with me.

💡 “If you can’t be happy with $1mil, you will not be happy even if you have $5mil. And if are happy with $1mil, giving you another $5mil will not make much difference in your life.

Gratitude and faith is something that I am trying to constantly grapple with especially in the context of the work I do.

🎯 I talk about money and business to people all day long and I have also noticed that the very successful people in life, are those who are “hugely contented”! And they usually are those who do not have the most.

As the readings for today says, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

🧨 Such a powerful paragraph. Not too long ago, I was thinking about “upgrading” our home to a more “valuable” home (because my home is 99yrs), according to the excuse I gave myself. I still have lots more to grow in this aspect and I am still struggling to understand this. But this is a great reminder for me to stay grounded, to remain humble, to be contented at where I am. But to grow in my mindset, my purpose, my spirituality, to grow in my faith.

☀️ So the next time if you are thinking if you “want more”, ask what is the purpose.

Business

Do you wish you could Rest x 2…!

July 20, 2024
by Gregory Fok

We work in a hectic lifestyle in Singapore. I used to work non stop 24/7 when I first started out 19yrs ago. I remembered vividly going for multiple meetings in a day, sometimes packing 2-3 in one evening!

⛈️ One night, when I was taking the LAST train ride back, I asked myself, how long am I going to last at this pace? If I continue like this, there might be a burnout. I could even feel my heart pounding with all the adrenalin, just thinking about it.

My mentor was sharing with me, you need to take a different strategy if you want to be able to sustain long in this business. You need rest and you need to be selective in who is going to be your client.

💯 “Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Today’s gospel passage reminds me of this.. REST. Within this short message, it reminds us to REST TWICE and leave our burdens to God in prayer. When I leave my problems at the foot of the cross and my concerns, I always have this feeling of assurance that God will provide and he has provided for the last 19yrs and counting, in HIS time. I do the right work, with the right people and with the right attitude of value adding and effective hard work, and I just trust the process.

🙏 Ever since then, I had repositioned my practice. We always have a “Pre-screening” meeting before prospects engage us. It was about us getting to listen to them, to understand their pain points and if they and we would be able to see ourselves on a long term partnership together. If for whatever reason there is no fit, we part ways respectfully. And if there is a good conversation with trust, then, we will be in for the long haul.

So today, we are not looking for quantity but quality and that will result in wonderful relationships we have with our clients, their partners and families, and we build a better and happier practice.

♥️This take a PROCESS to plan, to TRANSFORM with a rewirement programme. And I can tell you it takes time. It takes effort to Unlearn to Relearn.

Pic : I got this as a gift which is so apt for me!

Investments

Are you able to reduce risks and yet capture…

June 6, 2024
by Gregory Fok

In most people’s minds, reducing your risks means reducing your expected returns, which is a logical concept.

However, we are able to reduce risks and capture higher returns, according to your long term goals, based on our experience over the past 19yrs of working with doctors, entrepreneurs and wealthy families

But before we do that, we need a few things needs to shift to do the above…

1) Focus on your goals, not on returns.

2) Understanding how investments work and risks or journey with someone who can be able to help you do that.

3) Rewiring your mind – lots of unlearning and relearning.

4) Using an science-based approach towards investing instead of timing the market and picking stocks.

5) The best “investment strategy” is not one with the highest returns, but one where the investor can apply through, with more peace of mind and more confidence of the future!

6) The big returns on large amounts are captured primarily through emotional well-being than the “best stocks”.

This take a PROCESS to plan, to TRANSFORM with a re-wirement programme. And I can tell you it takes time. It takes effort to Unlearn to Relearn.

My name is Greg and if there is someone who would like to transform, multiply their life, their business, their wealth, with PURPOSE, and have time for themselves, with less anxiety, pls feel free to share or reach out to me and repost too! I would sincerely appreciate it!

Business

Wouldn’t you like to simplify your financial life?

May 22, 2024May 22, 2024
by Gregory Fok

Which would you prefer? The journey on top or below?

You are getting one year closer to retirement than you think. You realize that as you grow older, you have more assets.

When you get more senior and wiser, the following happens…

🧨 You want to reduce your risks.
So one of your ways of diversifying is to split your investments into various stocks, funds, pools of types of assets. Maybe you even start to invest overseas.

🧨 Managing larger amounts of wealth.
The skill-set of investing small amounts of wealth vs the skill-set of managing larger amounts is very different.

🧨 Your life becomes more complex
Because of the above 2 reasons, your life becomes more complex due to the need to spread your investments around. There are some people we work with who have even lost track of what they have with age and time.

💡You will come to a stage when you want to SIMPLIFY your life. Especially if suddenly, health changes or if someone else is going to take over what you have. The likelihood of them being able to appreciate all your efforts and work of your lifetime is going to go down the drain.

We help you to consolidate and have a clearer picture of what you have. So that your family can have a clear picture of where you stand and know the strategies to execute in a SIMPLE way, but yet still reduce your risks and increase your expected returns, while giving you and your family peace of mind, with less anxiety.

Which would you prefer? The journey on top or below? The choice is yours.

If you like to find out more how we do it to help families and businesses get to financial freedom, follow my posts and reach out for a copy of our PROCESS or we can have an initial meeting at our cost, with no obligations.

♥️This take a PROCESS to plan, to TRANSFORM with a rewirement programme. And I can tell you it takes time. It takes effort to Unlearn to Relearn.

Financial Planning

Work hard, and then, work smart!

April 30, 2024
by Gregory Fok

Most of us are told to work hard. I was told by my Mum to rely on pure grit and strength to get ahead to success in life.

We should all work hard, especially early in our lives. Once we have built some stability and fundamentals, it will be time to work smart.

I was speaking to a couple who were trying to impart the values of hard work to their child. And I added, the next step is to work smart. Let your existing resources, assets and income work for you.

And then after a while, it becomes a cycle of it’s own, without you needing to interfere in between. The cycle of growth and re-growth continues as long as one plans well.

So with the recent case, just by reallocating their existing assets, they have managed to increase their value by an extra $2mil using OPM (Other people’s Money)!

If you know someone who would like to find out how to be more creative by increasing their experience and wealth, let me know and we can have an initial meeting at our cost, with no obligations.

Business

The unspoken considerations for wealth transfer

March 21, 2024
by Gregory Fok

When it comes to wealth transfer, all parents plan with the best of intentions. However, when we hear it from the beneficiaries, it may not be viewed in that manner.

💣 There was a couple who had 2 properties. One is a HDB and the other is a private property. And they have a business and some other parts in investments and cash. They still have outstanding loans for the property and have taken a loan for the business, with a personal guarantee. They have 3 children and 1 of them is in the family business.

🔥 The above scenario is quite typical for an affluent family. However, you can just imagine the time bomb that they are sitting on, waiting to be passed on to the children.

When I speak to the child, he says it just seems like a recipe waiting for disaster to blow up. Who will take over the HDB? Who will take over the private property? What is the implication to them to take over the property? Is it going to be split 3 ways? How about the business? What is going to happen to the value of the business? And who will be the specific beneficiary to be settling the outstanding loans?

☀️You have taken a whole life of a few decades to build your wealth. Wouldn’t it make sense to spend just half an hour to understand what the implications are and how you can potentially prevent problems down the road? Most people have no solutions but we can bring in our 19yrs of experience to help.

We walk through a process of ABCD to plan for them. ♥️ Be wise and plan ahead.

We all want to transfer wealth with minimum costs, minimum conflicts and confusion, wouldn’t you?