Blog – Page 7 – Greg Fok Advisory

Reduce your wealth and health Risks

May 18, 2021May 18, 2021
by Gregory Fok

I met with a friend who was referred to me about few years ago.

Her Mum was about 60 years old and had some existing medical conditions. Given her Mum’s health condition of blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol etc, she knew it would be difficult to get her Mum insured, but she told me this. “I would rather pay a few hundred dollars every month than to be hit with a sudden big amount at the most unexpected time which I may not be able to afford..”

Using my expertise, we searched for an insurance company who was willing to insure despite having some basic existing medical conditions. Of course, the amount was limited but something was still better than nothing at all. We proceeded with the application and some simple medical questions. Her Mum was insured promptly.

About a year later, I received a call. Her Mum went in and out of hospitals as she was unwell, and was later found to be diagnosed with cancer. Being unable to work, her Mum loss her income during that period of time and that also affected the family members who had to take turns to take care of her. There was emotional stress, physical stress and huge financial stress at the same time.

We started the claims process, and after a very detailed check, the insurance company paid out a cheque to the family which was substantial compared to the cost of premiums funded. Definitely, there was still the emotional and physical stress, but when the financial stress was lifted from the whole family, there was room for comfortable adjustments so that things are not as difficult as what it would have seemed initially.

When we are touched lives for the families we work with to the point of making a BIG impact, we feel appreciated for the work we have done.

That is why people come to us to be smart about how they should manage their finances so that they do not need to worry about the unexpected scenarios of life, whether they live too long, die too soon or get into accidents or critically ill in between.

Inspiration

Urgent vs Important

May 12, 2021May 12, 2021
by Gregory Fok

Can you please complete this by tomorrow? I need it urgently!

There are many urgent tasks on our plate.. and we are waylaid most of the time due to other people’s priorities and schedules especially our bosses or colleagues.

There are only a few things in our lives that are important. But these are seldom urgent.

We live in a life of rat race because we do the many urgent thigs. But we do not have time left to do the important things.

Let us try to live our lives the other way. We prioritize and work on the few important things in life that makes our life more meaningful and more impactful.

Having a conversation with us in building your dreams allows you to focus on the BIG important goals of your lives which you hardly have time to think about.

Financial Planning

Goals – What do I really want?

April 13, 2021April 13, 2021
by Gregory Fok

What do you really want to achieve in taking this particular action or buying a certain product? It is usually not about the cheapest products or lowest fees. That will create a different set of problems in financial planning down the road. Unknowing to most consumers, we make decisions emotionally without understanding why we do it. Most of it is highly motivated by fear and greed in the short term. That is where the problem lies – where there is impatience and no discipline to keep us aligned to our objectives.

So what is our end goal objective? For most people, it will be to help you achieve the extremely big goals in life like retirement, education for kids and ensure that you have peace of mind of cashflow when health or unexpected turn of events in life fails on you. On top of that, you would also want to be generous to the people around you when you have surplus due to a well thought out, methodical plan with a financial artist. You would like to reduce risks and taxes legally. You would also like to improve your higher expected returns predictably over the long term with increased peace of mind knowing there is a scientific evidenced-based approach to growing wealth systemically.

The more intangible objectives will be to be able to spend more time with yourself, your family and personal goals whatever that might be and to take away the strong emotions of greed and fear away from you.

With the above in place, you can spend your time fruitfully with the people you love, and on the passions that are close to your heart, led with a meaningful life.

Have you spent some time to have a chat to share your personal goals and what kind of experience you would like to achieve for yourself. We can start by having an initial complimentary conversation to see if there is a good fit between an experienced financial artist and yourself to understand you better.

Inspiration

Is there a reliable way to invest?

March 29, 2021March 29, 2021
by Gregory Fok

Investments and reliability hardly go hand in hand, I used to think. And investments are filled with ups and downs in the markets.

When I first started investing in 2005, I got excited. When I made that 10-20% return, I thought I should sell out before the markets go down. Sometimes I am right, sometimes I am not. And some of the time, that one wrong move will erase all gains made over the past few years.

Well, I had one objective – I needed to plan well for retirement for the long term which will be a few decades down the road. Is there a reliable way to get there especially since it is many years down the road?

My worries

What if I had invested and when I needed the money for retirement, the company I had invested into went out of business or is no longer a relevant business or unable to make the same profits? A few such companies may have been the recent SIA, Hyflux, Blackberry, Kodak etc.

Being able to predict accurately might have been due to skill or even luck at times. But to be able to do it right 100% of the time is almost impossible. Even Warren Buffet does not get it right all the time.

Investing on my own creates anxieties. Whenever I read the papers or look at my portfolio, I am tempted to make a trade. It is either to sell or buy and that creates additional stress for me that very day as I always hope to sell the highest or buy the lowest.

About 5 years ago, I have finally found a more reliable way to achieve my long goals with less emotions, less risk and yet higher expected returns, while building a large CORRE^TM portfolio. If you would like to find out more, you can send me a question.

Business

When was the last time you gave yourself permission…

March 10, 2021March 10, 2021
by Gregory Fok

As we grew up along the years, we were told by our parents to study hard, get a good job, work hard, progress and retire. And when we started working, we worked so hard that we have so little time left for anything else.

I love to have DREAM conversations with my clients, so sometimes I pause them in their track to ask, “What is your dream and what exactly are you trying to achieve in your lifetime?” We hardly stop at our own rat race, just to give ourselves some time to dream.

Maybe it is to spend more time with your loved ones. Maybe it is to be able to help someone in need. Maybe it is to be more giving in time and energy to something you are passionate about. Maybe it is to make a difference in one particular person’s life. Maybe it is to create an experience for your whole family. Maybe it is to live your life meaningfully as a legacy for others. Whatever it will be, it all starts with a Dream Conversation.

Just doing that once every year can change the trajectory of your lives for a more meaningful path. Share with us your dreams and we value add to plan with you financially to make your dreams come true so that you have freedom in time, wealth and live life fully!

Inspiration

Do you know the cost of delay?

March 1, 2021March 1, 2021
by Gregory Fok

Have you thought of letting your money work harder for you? Many people wished they had let their money work harder earlier but never got round to doing it due to the many distractions in life and the distractions will keep coming at you constantly if you do not keep a disciplined approach to start.

So how much does it really impact you as an individual?

Let us imagine 2 persons who are of the same age wanted to have the money available 25 years down the road, with an assumption of annualized returns of 7%pa.

Person A starts investing $1,000 a month for 25years, he would have achieved a projected $758,000.

Person B delays that by 2 years.

So person B starts investing $1,000 a month for 23years, he would have achieved a projected $641,000.

That difference of 2 years of delay would have cost him $117,000 which can be the equivalent to a downpayment of a HDB house! Can you imagine the significant difference over 30-40 years?

Should you not plan early so that you can ensure continued success without the need to worry in the future? Every paycheck counts!

Investments

Why should doctors invest differently?

February 22, 2021February 22, 2021
by Gregory Fok

As a doctor, you definitely have a great future ahead of you and will continue to be able to excel if you plan well and efficiently. Why should you invest differently from other people in general? Here are some pointers you need to take note of as it is often neglected by doctors.

Tax implications

You will probably end up hitting the highest tax bracket earlier than most professions. It also means that you will end up paying the highest tax bracket. Due to that, you need to try to ensure you pay fair income tax.

For an asset class like property, adding extra income to yourself through rental means that you will pay additional income tax at the highest tax bracket, over and above all the other maintenance costs incurred!

For an asset class of stocks and equities in other countries, you will subject yourself to additional tax which can be as high as 50% in some countries. If a person continues to hold on to that asset class, your family members will need to pay for inheritance tax when there is that wealth transfer eventually.

You make more money focusing on your practice than trying to time the stock market

Since you are able to earn a decent income, you will automatically be curious to find out how you can let your money work harder. As a retail investor, you tend to try to find a way to buy the right company, at the right time and sell it off at a profit and constantly find new opportunities. However, after a period of trying, you realize that it can be very tiring to keep chasing the next deal as not all opportunities work out well. You would be better off spending time focused on your patients and improving your skill to be able to earn more.

Emotional roller coaster

When you try to invest on your own, you tend to have to make decisions of whether to buy, hold or sell. As the markets can get volatile from time to time, you might get emotionally charged up just before a surgery or seeing a patient. You get distracted from your core work as a doctor and usually is not helpful in making decisions in your work. On top of that, when you are making decisions for your investments, being emotionally charged through greed and fear causes you to make multiple mistakes.

Taking an extreme caution towards your career choice and finances

Most doctors did not really choose their profession. They usually are smart and have good grades. The selection to be a doctor is usually a natural choice by default. Anyway, it is prestigious and not everyone could get into medical school. Due to that reason, most doctors are very careful and not too adventurous in nature, especially when it comes to their finances.. But if they were smart to tweak their asset allocation just by a little bit, on their overall portfolio, they would have gotten very different results over the next 20+ years, very often even double or triple the difference, if they are patient enough.

In short, we understand how doctors think and want to partner you to achieve your personalized dreams and goals in life. Through our 16 years of experience, we are able to value add to you so that you get back more time for yourself, minimize your taxes in investing, reduce your risks significantly while multiplying your net-worth. After all, isn’t that what you want, for a better lifestyle for yourself and family?

Insurance

Things to note before hospitalization and surgery

February 5, 2021February 6, 2021
by Gregory Fok

In the past, a number of insurers have allowed for cover for every dollar of the bill to be claimed. This unfortunately led to a trend of overconsumption of medical facilities and bills in Singapore.

Patients will walk into a clinic and if they can claim everything, there were hardly any questions to the doctor about whether the procedure is necessary. After all, the whole bill is paid for by the insurance company.

The claims experience for hospital bills was increasing over time. Premiums were skyrocketing over a number of years so the government has decided to step in about 3 years ago, before it gets worse.

For those who used to get full cover, the contracts have been amended over time due to the introduction of new laws, which means that it is no longer full cover as it used to be.

As such, here are some pointers to note before being hospitalized or getting a surgery.

Check if the doctors are in the panel of the insurance company.
Get a pre-approval from your insurance company before you proceed with any surgery.
Take note of the deductibles that will be levied before you get to make any claim due to non panel doctors and non pre-approval.
Due to the recent changes by the government, there will be co-insurance as well.
Be aware that your premiums may jump in future if you had made any claim before.

It will continue to change on a year to year basis so these are some notes to be aware of.

While hospitalization and surgery cover is important, another thing to cover for is critical illness! When a patient is discharged, he goes home for recovery and costs incurred at home will be born by the patient himself. The loss of income will impact his ability to service his household expenses and banks may come in to request for top ups of loan facilities given out before the illness.

Spend some time to relook at what you have and whether it is up to date based on your needs at the moment.

Inspiration

Gun and Shield

February 4, 2021February 4, 2021
by Gregory Fok

When a person goes to battle, he needs to be able to plan and fight strategically and efficiently.

If a person brings only a gun, all it takes it for the enemy to find a small spot of loose entry, the person will be killed.

If a person brings only a shield, he can protect himself well, but he will not be able to advance past the enemy line.

A smart soldier will need to have both – the gun and the shield. What similarities does it have with financial planning? In financial planning, we need both the gun and shield too. That is what all wealthy people do, by being smart.

The gun is there to help us advance in terms of getting to our long goals in a more efficient manner so that we do not need to work as hard on our part. Let time and patience be our best friend.

The shield is there to protect our income ability and existing assets. In case of an unexpected death, accident or critical illness, your income can be protected and any existing assets will still be intact without the urgent need to liquidate at a loss.

Have your fine-tuned your gun and beefed up your shield recently so that you put in the least effort to get to your dreams in life with the best achievable results?

Investments

When is the right time to invest?

January 21, 2021January 22, 2021
by Gregory Fok

This is a question that I get asked alot. I used to ask myself this question many times as well.

You said…

Market is too high, you will buy when it crashes.

Market crashes, you said the worst is not over.

Market recovers, and you said it is a dead cat bounce.

Market breaks new high, and you said it is expensive.

Sounds familiar?

Look, the market is never the problem.

You will never know the right time, just like you never know when the whale will jump out of the water to let you take that perfect shot. However, evidence investing shows that decades after decades of investing, the markets will only continue to go higher over time, punctuated with a few recessions from time to time. But markets always go up over the long term.

Instead, determine your personal goals and time horizon and allow us to construct a CORRE portfolio with an asset allocation according to that.

Indeed, it is hard to time, just buy the entire market across the globe with the ability to get higher expected returns. Then, sit back, enjoy your coffee and focus on your life dreams!

If you really still need an answer to the question… If you had started to invest into a CORRE portfolio at least 10 years ago, you would be kicking yourself for not doing anything despite the swings of the markets. This statement would have been true 98% of the time.

Let time and I be your best friend.