Blog – Page 10 – Greg Fok Advisory

Steward of wealth

April 28, 2020April 28, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Whatever we have is not ours to begin with.

When something is loaned to us, we tend to be much more careful with it.

For example, I remember when I was allowed to drive my brother in law’s Sports SLK Mercedes car, I was thrilled and excited! But compared to driving my own car, I was really very careful with it. As I negotiated turnings, I would slow down way before I reached the turning.

When it comes to wealth, it should be looked at from the same angle to achieve financial freedom and peace of mind. Whatever income or assets we have, it does not really belong to us. We are only in charge of it as stewards during that period of time. One day, we will leave this earth and we cannot bring all this wealth with us and will pass it on to someone else. Are we good stewards?

While we may be doing well and thriving in the good days, it is only wise to plan for unexpected scenarios that might come up along the way. And unexpected could come in various forms. It could be an economic crisis, a critical illness crisis or a business crisis.

Joseph in the bible shares that there will be 7 years of abundance and followed by 7 years of famine in interpreting Pharoah’s dreams. He also adviced this. In the years of abundance, we take out a fifth of it and store it away for when the famine comes, we would still have sufficient.

As one of my mentors, Benny Ong shares with me frequently, “If we don’t do good with our money, one day our money will not do us any good.”

I have been a steward of wealth over the past 15 years, helping families and businesses plan holistically in their overall financial planning.

Are we good stewards to see it from a stewardship perspective? Are we being responsible in the way we manage what is bestowed upon us at that time?

A person eventually wants to achieve financial freedom and peace of mind when it comes to wealth.

Go and spread the good news.

Business

How much are your tomorrows worth

April 10, 2020April 10, 2020
by Gregory Fok

How much are your tomorrows worth? Most people would not have thought about this question. If a person was killed in a car accident, how much would the family sue for, if someone else had been responsible for the death?

If you owned a printing press which could print out legal, $300,000 a year for you and your family, over the next 20years, that would have been $6mil dollars. How much would you insure your printing press for?

We are all like the money machines. How much are your tomorrows worth?

I have a friend who was very fit, stayed healthy and ate with a strict diet. As he was playing basketball with his daughter one day, he suddenly had a heart attack.

The questions on the family’s mind is…

1) When will he promptly recover and get back to good health?

2) Will he be able to continue to work?

3) Who will continue to pay him the income when is not working?

4) What will happen to the total family income if the spouse takes some time off work to take care of the emotional and physical needs?

5) Will the banks come in to refinance the property and request for a top up because one spouse had stopped working and who will fund that?

The family will struggle physically and even financially.

Let someone else take care of the financial part for you. We can design your financial situation so that the above questions will be addressed and allow the family members peace of mind to know that the finances are in order. The family just needs to focus on recovering as quickly as possible with strong emotional and physical support.

Speak with an experienced financial advisor in our firm who can ask the difficult questions that most people do not wish to talk about.

Business

Creating a bigger future in the midst of chaos

March 26, 2020March 26, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Creating a bigger future for yourself in the midst of chaos.

There’s so much more negative than positive news out there with Covid 19. Be careful what you focus on because it might just become your reality.

Yes, I agree that things are bad out there.. We struggle, we cry and then, we use our God-given abilities to come out with alternatives to opportunities for a better outcome.

A coin always has 2 sides to it. The heads and the tails but it is the same coin.
Covid 19 has 2 sides to it. The dangers and opportunities but it is the same virus.

Here are some questions we can ask to bring out the opportunities in our lives.

What are the things we can control at this time and focus on creating opportunities for that. Let go of the things we cannot control because it will be beyond us anyway.

With the things we can control, how can we pivot in our lives and business model and turn things around?

What are the 3 things we can do now (within our control) that can propel us to a bigger future when the virus becomes a history?

Here is my personal sharing.

As an example, my business revolves around meetings with clients.

With the limitation of meetings and more notices to stay home, I have moved on to online meetings like using zoom or facetime to meet with clients “online”. This has created huge productivity for clients and myself as I can connect with more people in a day as both of us save on travelling time.

I have leveraged on technology to go online by sharing my thoughts and perspectives especially given the current market drops and clients need to know that they will be ok and their life savings will not disappear overnight. Most clients have the same concerns and questions as the ones I have personally.

On top of that, there can be additional strategies that can take advantage of this opportunity of a lifetime.

I also make continuous calls to my clients to just find out how they are doing and find ways to see how we can be of value or even just be there as a listening ear because business owners are highly stressed up now with no one else who can understand their predicament.

This is also a great time for learning so that I can be more creative to rub off positive energy to others in this time of doom and gloom.

This period also allows me more reflection time to understand myself better and where my sources of inspiration, gifts and gratitude comes from.

With a downturn this period, there can be only one way moving ahead, which is upwards in the future. Are you ready for the recovery ahead?

I hope to bring to you positive vibes in the midst of the chaos. Go and pay it forward to someone else.

Insurance

Measuring the distance

March 21, 2020March 21, 2020
by Gregory Fok

With the volatility in the market, it can be very scary and unnerving at the same time.
This also leads to potentially making emotionally charged decisions – which leads to decisions based on fear or greed. That normally leads to regrets further down the road on hindsight.

The important thing to do now is to focus on your goals.
For example, if I asked you to measure the distance between Changi Airport to Jurong Point, would you take a measuring tape and stop to measure every 3 steps before you reach Jurong point? Or would you use a vehicle, chart the starting point and end point and move towards your goal. Maybe you might stop to check every 5km to see if there is a faster route available, but definitely, you do not need to check every 3 steps.

It’s the same when it comes to retirement planning. Most of the time, we invest because we have a long-term goal like retirement which is a far distance away. So it does not make sense to keep checking our investments every other day. Whenever we check it, it might just lead to stress and emotions of greed and fear take over.

At the same time, there will be opportunities for a faster way to get to your retirement. This will be one of them and you might just miss out the “Sale” that comes a few times in your lifetime. This kind of sale of this magnitude will not come very often but it will be the road less travelled.

So here are a few tips.

1) Focus on your long-term goals and not get distracted.

2) If you have extra cash over and above your 6-12 months emergency funds, you can find strategies to deploy this money during this opportunity.

3) Find risk and non-risk instruments to give you peace of mind.

4) Invest into Global CORE portfolios that are rebalanced by professionals so that you do not need to stress about doing that on your own and after you invest during this period.

5) Do NOT peek at your statements if you are already invested or going to be investing this period.

6) Finally, pls do not read the news too much. It can be mostly depressing because bad news sells. Instead, spend more time with your family and do things you love and go out into the sun more often.

If you have a doctor, business owner or senior management whom is trying to get an opinion from their wealth advisor and is not able to do so, I will be happy to connect with an initial chat.

Business

How does lowering the Fed rates benefit you?

March 11, 2020March 11, 2020
by Gregory Fok

With the lowering of Fed interests rates by 50 basis points last week, it can be an opportunity for investors and the markets.

The Fed rate is at the lowest point in history and may continue to stay low, if the physical economy might take some time to recover with all the fear of COVID 19.

At the same time, the stock markets have gone crazy with wild swings with movements up and down like the see saw.

The question at the back of people’s mind is, “How does it affect me and what do I do with this piece of information right now?”

This period of time works perfectly well for WEALTHY families who want to grow, protect and preserve their assets through multigenerational legacy planning. Through proper allocation of assets, it can bring increased certainty with reduced risk at this time.

Speak with us who can help you navigate through your life goals, dreams and even use the current situation to your advantage.

Business

How do I gain more time for myself?

March 5, 2020March 5, 2020
by Gregory Fok

How do I gain more time for myself?

I used to work 24/7 days and had hardly any time for myself nor my family. Whilst I could do that when I was single, it became tougher when I got married and had my first child that came about in 2008. As I struggled to find a work life balance, it became evident that something had to change. And it had to start with myself.

Today, I work 5 days a week and mainly focused on weekdays in the daytime, although once in a while, I get still work on sat morning after my morning run with my wife.

What changed and what strategies did I deploy?

What are my priorities and goals?

The first thing I did was to focus on what was most important and my priorities in my life. My wife and children are my key priority after spiritual health. Next, getting fit was one of those goals that were important to me to keep me physically sharp. Work is important, but it had to be meaningful work with wonderful relationships I wanted to build over the long term together with my clients. Finally, it was about giving back to the industry and society and sharing my experiences to provide a life of significance. If I have all these things in life achieved, life will be passionately worth living for and it is all about finding purpose in life.

Family time

I only was able to work within the 5 days weekday daytime and the rest of family time will be arranged by my wife. I had to ask her for permission if I crossed that boundary because it was meant to be family time. That way, my priority time is set for my wife and children. Blocking out dates for family and couple trips on a yearly basis was another way I put family as a priority.

Work time

That meant that I only had 5 days a week to get everything done within that short time frame I had. 5 days a week, with 52 weeks means 260 days of work a year. With public holidays and taking time off with family for holidays would take away about another 33 days a year. So I am officially left with 227 days to work in a year. Now when time is that short, we have to make it work effectively.

Finding work I enjoy and am fascinated about to continuously grow

I found that what I loved about what I do is to help clients create ideas and find solutions for the problems that they and their family face, most things related to wealth and health. Through this, it is about the building of a long-term trusted partnership to journey with each other. When I am able to be of value to others, whether in a small or big way, a bond is forged.

Being selective of clients

In the pursuit of productivity, it also meant that I had to be selective of the clients that I wanted to work with and not everyone might fit into the selection criteria. I do not need to work with everyone, I just worked with the clients who reciprocated and appreciated the value I could bring to the table. It was not easy at the beginning, but over time, that selection process became a strength for my practice.

Investing in other trusted people’s expertise.

In my industry, there is a fair amount of documentation and paperwork. Fortunately, I was able to hire my staff who loves administration and documentation to ensure that the backend of the office is well taken care of. By giving out what I am not strong in, the partnership works out perfectly for all of us. So the office “belongs” to my staff and I only come in for meetings with an Ipad and to submit documents. All other paperwork is handled by my staff.

One other thing I did was to invest into a team of investment experts who looks at and works on the markets on a daily basis whilst I focus on my clients’ personal and long term financial goals so that I do not need to get emotional about the short term volatility of the market which will eventually be much higher in the future than it will be today.

Giving and sharing

With more time, reflection and flexibility, I am able to have space for creativity and learning opportunities almost on a daily basis. And there are wonderful insights that we are blessed with as we deepen our engagements with people around us. With more time, we can allow us to carve out the best of ourselves, our family and society. That also allowed me to step out of my comfort zone to share with many other people of how we can all maximize our full human potential.

With the above strategies I have slowly started shifting since 2009, I have not only gained more time for myself, my work output had grown more than 300% from where I was when I started in 2009. I wish you all the best in being able to gain more time for yourself.

If you think you would like to explore how to go about working as partners and see if there is a fit, I would be happy to have an initial chat.

Investments

Correction and bear markets – good or bad?

February 26, 2020February 26, 2020
by Gregory Fok

A correction normally refers to a drop of at least 10% in the price of a stock (or stock market) from a recent high.

A recent movement in the market has sparked some huge responses in the past 2 days and it would be interesting to note that speculators tend to flee the market while long term investors start to take this as an opportunity. Here’s an explanation of the difference between a correction and a bear market.

A correction is different from a bear market as the bear market is defined as a fall of 20% or more from a stock market’s most recent high.

Corrections and bear markets may sound terrifying, but we shouldn’t fear them as they are common features of a healthy stock market. They are usually short-lived too.

According to Fidelity, since 1920, the US’ S&P 500 index has experienced on average a pullback (defined as a brief 5% reversal in the price of an asset) 3 times a year, a correction once a year, and a bear market every 3 years.

For those investors with a long-term view of the stock market, corrections and bear markets provide great opportunities to buy stocks in wonderful companies at lowered valuations.

Investments

Is this a good time to invest?

February 17, 2020February 17, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Is this a good time to invest?

Wherever there is crisis in the economy, the question comes up more often than ever.

And during the past month, this has been a common question that came up so I thought to pen my thoughts down..

I had a doctor friend who was recommended to speak to me after he exited the market when Singapore turned DOSCORN Orange and realized his losses because there was so much fear on that day. Herd instincts took over Singapore by storm at the supermarkets just like how it had taken over in the stock markets. My friend figured that I could possibly help him better.

Inexperienced investors can be caught on the wrong side of the coin at that time.

Traders and analysts are trying to predict the trend in the markets of what will pen out over the next 6-12 months, but how many actually get it right? Let’s go back a bit in history. During the 2018 US-china trade war, everyone thought that 2019 will be a washout year, instead it turned out to be one of the better years of investing. And investors who stayed on the sidelines would have missed out on that massive gain of almost 20% in 2019 in a total PORTFOLIO.

The important thing to note is that markets are always forward looking and they would have priced in the forecasts of the markets ahead of time as well.

Anyone who tries to tell you where the markets are heading are mostly making guesses. The honest answer to the title would be that it is impossible to know where the markets will turn on the road ahead given that the markets are also driven by emotional sentiments and mostly not by logic.

With the current growing concerns of the COVID 19, supply chains would be severely disrupted. Those countries that rely heavily on international trade and tourism like Singapore, would be a huge cause of concern. However, just like SARS, H1N1 and the other flu like outbreaks we had in the past 2 decades, over time, life will eventually go back to normal and that is when markets will float back up again.

So since it is almost impossible to predict which countries or economies will go up and down, we believe a well-diversified portfolio across the entire world (US, Asia, Europe, emerging markets) with a good mix of asset allocations that fit your risk profile would be best suited to invest for the long term. Ensure that there is active rebalancing done as well, so that you do not hold on to losses nor get too excited with significant gains. Rebalancing helps to create a smoothening effect to your portfolio.

In fact, any pull backs in the markets present buying opportunities for LONG term investors.

Go back to the basics of planning of patience, prudence, discipline and pray before you make a decision and work with an experienced advisor who has gone through multiple crisis and you will eventually turn out better over the long term.

Business

Shielding your assets for the business owner

February 12, 2020February 16, 2020
by Gregory Fok

As a business owner, there will always be ups and expected downs in the business. Owners always want revenue and profits to keep going up, but an experienced businessman will tell you that it is never always rosy and every once in a while, there will be bumps along the way.

I was speaking with a business owner recently and he shared about his concern for protecting his assets in the event of an unexpected downturn.

As he is in a dilemma to grow his business and protect his assets at the same time, he got caught in between.

I shared, “Do you know that if you would like to expand your business very quickly and grow, you should at least ensure that your family is well protected and taken care of first. Then you can expand aggressively with a peace of mind.”

For example, put aside 20% of whatever assets you have and draw a line on it, ringfence it to ensure it is shielded. For the remaining 80%, you can continue to take on even more aggressive growth of the company to the next multiple level.

The 20% becomes wealth and assets that is shielded and can still continue to work hard in various forms. So even if the worst case of bankruptcy happens, the assets can potentially be protected.

However, do take note that you have to plan and plan early when times are great and there is surplus. Doing this when times are challenging might mean that it is too late.

Of course, when a person is riding high in business, it is very difficult to imagine or foresee any bumps ahead.

So speak with an experienced business and financial advisor early to explore more in depth how you can shield and ringfence your assets.

Business

Should a doctor invest in stocks or his/her own…

January 20, 2020January 20, 2020
by Gregory Fok

I have met some doctors recently with insightful conversations.

There was this doctor who was proud to mention he made 10% on his
investments on a long term basis. It worked out to be about $10,000 from his principal of $100,000 put aside for stocks.
And that would include the emotional swings in the
company stock prices and decisions to make, which he shared that it took time to track and monitor
which sometimes gave him a “heart attack” especially in 2018.

Based on his overall portfolio of cash around $500,000, if you do a total
portfolio calculation, it would actually work out to be less than 2%!

I gave him 2 suggestions..

1) Invest time into his practice. By focusing on career, he could easily have generated more than $10,000 over the years.

2) Pay someone to create a CORE portfolio with a worldwide objective,
constantly managed and rebalanced to keep your risks in check. This
eliminates risks of specific companies and markets and with a diversified
portfolio, with less volatility and reasonable returns which easily can be
more than $10,000. And this offers a peace of mind which moves the
portfolio within a range of comfort for the individual.