Business – Page 3 – Greg Fok Advisory

Which do you prefer? Time or money?

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020
by Gregory Fok

As Warren Buffett says, “Having money makes you rich, Having time makes
you wealthy.”

If you were given an option, which will you prefer?

In the early years of many individuals whilst working, it is all about
being rich. However, as the years progress and you have found your passion in life and would prefer to spend more time with your loved ones and your passions. You will start to think about finding ways to pay people to do the work you are not best at, so that you have more time for yourself.

Once success is achieved, the next level of growth is about doing things
you genuinely have interests and passions for, together with your loved
ones. It is also about working smarter, rather than harder.

After 15 years of experience, when it comes to wealth management, I
realized a lot of the work I do is not only about managing wealth, but
more about managing emotions for the family. What people want more than making the next million is about living with dignity, fulfilling dreams
and making a difference with significance in the world we live in with the resources meaningfully allocated.

How would you like to live life with both money and time? I believe the
work we do allows us to creatively ensure that you get the best of both
worlds for you and your family.

We are looking for people who possess the following… This person loves
someone, have reasonably good health and some meaningful wealth to think about how to creatively preserve and grow it for the overall family’s
benefit in a meaningful way.

Business Owners need to draw a line.

July 30, 2020July 30, 2020
by Gregory Fok

Business owners need to draw a line.

As a business owner, you have 2 types of assets. The business and your personal assets. Most mix it together because both fund each other over the years. The business funds the lifestyle and personal assets over time and when business is tough, you draw back some personal assets back to the company.

The most important thing you should do is to draw a line in between so that as you are expanding your business and growing, your personal assets can be protected and even untouched by potential creditors.

If the worst of circumstances, you can even have money to pay off creditors to hold back your family assets..

If you are a business owner and know someone who would like to know how to protect their personal assets, type in 2 business owners names and we can arrange a short 15min session to understand your situation and draw the line for you.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.