Blog – Page 10 – Greg Fok Advisory

What is your job?

June 18, 2020June 18, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Are you laying a stone…… or building a cathedral?

Two workers, when questioned at a construction site as to their job, responded in dramatically different ways.

One responded that he was laying stone. The other replied that he was helping to build a cathedral for people to worship God. Their job was the same. Their perspective was not.

What is your perspective towards your job?

To me, my job is using my life and work experiences to be used an instrument for building God’s kingdom!

Business

Should I be my own doctor?

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020
by Gregory Fok

If you had an option, you could go to a part time junior doctor under going training and ask him to do a surgery on you.

Or you could go to a trusted experienced surgeon who has seen 1000s of patients and have been doing this for the past 15yrs and could immediately understand your problem, get a diagnosis and help you to draft a treatment plan.

Which will you prefer?

When it comes to family wealth planning and investing, you might unknowingly be doing the same.

We have seen consumers trying to DIY. They take an approach where they try to read the markets, trends, study companies and grow their wealth, protect their income, family and do all this part time whilst they are busy working in their main job.

At best, after all your effort you put in as a consumer, you become a part time surgeon with minimal experience to speak of.

Would you be confident to allow yourself to be operated by this part time surgeon, who does not have enough experience seeing enough patients to operate on you?

If you do not, please instead spend time to interview and look for a trusted advisor whom you can journey with on the long term and provide holistic financial advice.

It saves you lots of time, money and emotional pain. All that time and energy can be then converted to spend time with your loved ones and fill it up with your passions in life that are important to you.

Go and spend your time to live a life of possibilities!

Insurance

Common overlooked fact by doctors

June 10, 2020June 10, 2020
by Gregory Fok

As doctors, you spend most of your time focusing on your craft as a medical specialist..

Your work demands long hours and you even sometimes have to skip meals. We specialize in working with doctors so we understand what you go through. All your time is spent either working or studying with hardly any time left. If you get married and have kids young, it accelerates the sleep deprivation cycle.

Time passes so quickly and by the time you get a little more control on your life, you are probably about almost 40 years old. That is the main reason why most doctors might eventually decide to move to private clinics or set up their own medical practice before the control happens.

Whilst the busyness of life takes over, health deteriorates and some doctors might get hit with the same medical conditions that they were treating the patients for.

When that happens, the income flow suddenly stops.. Life is affected, work is affected, income is affected, but expenses of the house mortgage, the car, the family continue. If you have your own clinic, you still got to pay rental, pay for equipment, pay for staff salary and the list goes on…

What if you took a few minutes every year just to review your overall financial situation and ensure that your income can be intact and even have a sinking fund that can tide you and your family over the next 10-20yrs without a need to worry when bad things happens?

Wouldn’t that few minutes of that precious conversation allow you to have more financial freedom and protection?

We specialize in working with doctors and know what you go through. Let us have an initial chat.

Planning for doctors

Why do doctors have more challenge talking about money?

June 8, 2020June 8, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Through my 15 years of experience working together with doctors, surprisingly, I have realized that they find it hard to talk about and understand money, especially if you are working in the government hospitals. Of course, there are exceptions, but they are few.

Those who have come out to private hospitals and set up their own medical clinic will have a slightly better grasp at this because they have to calculate their costs and expenses in rental, hiring and paying for medical equipment as they are no longer protected by the big institution. But they still struggle over time, with other issues.

Here are 3 main reasons why doctors avoid conversations around money.

As a doctor, you should be dispensing medical advice and a treatment plan to the patient. Being trained in the government medical fraternity, you always put patient care as your priority. Any discussion of the financial implications usually is dealt with by another department within the hospital. There are also other issues such as subsidies and government support that may not be in your purview.

Most doctors fall into the vulnerable group, as they fall prey to many people who are looking into their deeper pockets due to their income ability. Doctors are the target of scams and deals that can go bad as well. They usually turn to their peers who are doctors for financial advice, who may not necessarily be better versed or trained than themselves. And they are deemed to be “smart” enough to know the difference between a scam and a real investment but no one is there to understand their real struggle.

Doctors have a lack of formal education around money. There is no formal course in business or financial management in medical school or residency. They spend decades learning about the science and the anatomy of the body and how it works but have no time left to learning about money management, so whey they first received their first paycheck, the first initial instinct is to finally splurge it or keep it under the carpet for they do not know better.

If you are a doctor and would like to receive some form of on-going education and pick the brains of an ethical trusted source, with experience and wisdom, you can always sign up and attend our webinars on education on financial planning for doctors. It is purely educational, specifically for doctors only.

Investments

Shall we pick the winners ever year

May 28, 2020May 28, 2020
by Gregory Fok

So often, we have tried to outperform the market by doing our homework and trying to decide where the next winner will be for every year.

Picking the winners

It reminds me of the time many years ago, when I tried to pick out the stocks as winners every year to get my hard earned savings to work harder. And after investing for about 10years or so, I realized that I could make 7 right decisions out of 10 companies, which probably is quite good, if you ask most seasoned investors out there. But all it took was one wrong move and that could wipe out all the other good decisions made through the past 10years.

Mental cap

One top of that, when investing into stocks, there was a mental cap of how much I will be willing to invest into that company. Everyone has that mental cap. You will know it yourself. When it became too much for comfort, I stopped investing and the amount just hovers around that region for many years and when market risks increased, the emotional roller coasters take over and wrong decisions are usually made. If I believe so much in the company, I should be adding on even more when companies are at a cheap. But the haunt of Kodak, AIG, Hyflux and SIA keep coming back and we know not all companies last at a previous price forever.

Buying low and selling high

It does not help with the need to make educated decisions of what to sell and who to sell when markets were soaring and which to buy in the rotation during different times of volatility. Again, this time is different is a mantra that most stock holders find difficult to understand at various periods. If you just look at the chart above, you will see that every year, different asset classes hold the pole position. It’s almost an impossible job to do to ensure that you get it right every year!

Change needed for better results and lower risks

I knew about 5 years ago that change was needed and I adopted a different approach which could relieve me of the emotional roller coaster, save me lots of time so that I can spend it on my career and family, allow me to confidently add on aggressively during a downturn without worrying about companies collapsing in front of me. With the change, I built up about 5x of investments what I used to have in my previous strategy, in half the time.

Coming back to the question, can we pick the right winners every year? If you are a seasoned investor, you know what the answer is.

If you want peace of mind with more time on hand to do things you love, why shouldn’t you have an initial chat with us to see if there is a right fit.

Business

Passing the baton

May 19, 2020May 19, 2020
by Gregory Fok

You have painstakingly spent many years working to build up your assets, investments, properties and businesses.

You have been a great steward. The very least you should do is to spend some time to think about your potential beneficiaries and how you would like them to inherit your legacy, in case something happens prematurely.

Every family situation is unique and special but here are some things you should think about.

Debts – who needs to pay off the loans that were incurred during the time you are thriving?

Assets – with your structure and type of assets, what kind of liquidity and ease of distribution does it provide? Most of wealthy families assets tend to revolve around businesses and properties which become the target of contention between various beneficiaries as it is chunky and illiquid.

Beneficiaries – understand the emotional states of beneficiaries when they might inherit assets all at once. For example, a child who has not handled anything more than $50k in his life may not be able to manage $1mil of asset when it is given to him all at once. He might also unknowingly attract more friends in the process for the wrong reasons.

Family bank – can you imagine creating your own private wealth bank for your own family, even for generations. And it hardly costs anything and does not require the family much. It all starts with an idea that you would like to create something of your own.

Can you remember your great grandparents name – what if your great grandparents continue to give you an ang pow every year during your birthday? Will your great grandchildren remember you for a long time?

There are many exciting and strategies that can help a person make his dreams come true..

With experience and wisdom, you will be able to pass on the baton with your values in a more meaningful way.

Investments

Our brain is wired to lose money!

May 14, 2020July 13, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Do you know that our mind and brain is designed to lose money?

Imagine this with me. You are walking happily along the streets and suddenly, in front of you, there is a huge explosion! What is your first response? Is it to stand up and run towards the explosion? Or to duck down and run away from the explosion?

The amygdala or “the alarm” part of our brain reacts to fear, danger and real or perceived threats. It was designed to protect us from threats and regulates our emotional state.

Likewise, in a market crisis and stocks are falling, your brain’s initial response is to avoid the markets. This is called behavioural finance and our natural response to market crisis.

There was a survey done on participants with damaged amygdala who were invested during a market crisis. In fact, they were able to make better decisions when it came to investing before, during and after the crisis.

In short, our human brain is not designed to help us be successful in investing.

There are seasoned investors who have invested for many years and when the amount gets very large and the market falls are significant in the later years, wrong decisions are being made at the worst of times.

However, when you have a gatekeeper to keep your emotions in check, whilst trying to achieve your own long term personal goals, this helps to minimize the likelihood of emotional decision making. We are here as licensed financial advisors, who are gatekeepers for your wealth to ensure that you make sound decisions that do not detract you from your personal goals. On top of that, we help you make great decisions in times of crisis to build you further propel you towards your goals.

Business

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.