Investments – Greg Fok Advisory

The stock market suddenly drops 10%, 20%, 50%.

March 16, 2025April 21, 2025
by Gregory Fok

What do you do?
1: Stop adding new deposits to your investment accounts.
2: Sell your investments and wait in cash until the dust clears.
3: Start interviewing new financial advisors.

None of the above. The correct answer is 4: Stick to your long-term plan, and if you are invested smart, using science based investing, maybe consider investing more while the markets are giving you a discount!

One of the HARDEST parts of investing is managing your emotions when markets are bumpy and everyone is predicting doom and gloom.

Checking your portfolio every day is one of the worst things you can do.

Why?
Because the more often you look…
The more opportunities you give yourself to panic for NO clear reason.

Some facts about the stock market (S&P 500):
Day to day, the stock market is up about 50% of the time and down 50%—a coin toss.
On a yearly basis, it’s up roughly 70-75% of the time.
On a 10-year basis, it’s up about 94% of the time.
And on a 15-year basis?
It’s 100% up.

And you can improve the odds of the statistics further than the one above, by using evidence based investing, through asset allocation and not just invest into the US.

Daily ups and downs are just noise.
What matters is the trendline up over time.

How do you stay focused on the big picture?
a) Stop checking so often. Think in 5 year blocks, not daily intervals.
b) Review the data and evidence. Over the long term, the market trends up and if you position smart, you can capture higher gains than the index.
c) Have a plan. A good investment strategy is built for the ups and downs.
d) All investing success is goal-focused and planning-driven.
e) Investing is about building wealth for the future, not reacting to the present.

So next time the markets are low and you’re tempted to check your portfolio for the 3rd time for the week, ask yourself:
“Am I thinking like a successful long-term investor or a day trader?”
True financial freedom comes from patience, not panic.

If you and your friends would like to find out more about science based investing on large amounts of wealth, we will be happy to connect to see if there is a match, as we still have capacity to add value!

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Be a mustard seed!

February 7, 2024
by Gregory Fok

When I first started in my practice 19yrs ago, it was all about achieving success to show the world that I am better.

While that approach worked well for the initial years, while I was trying to gain credibility, it soon tapered off after a while. The sense of satisfaction of achieving the awards no longer seemed to mean as much to me as time progressed.

⏩Instead, what was something that had driven me was the ability to make a change in someone’s life. Of course, the financial impact mattered. One of the clients we worked with had a big challenge when it came to saving any money. But when we recently reviewed her portfolio, she has almost $600k we had built over time! And she was quite impressed with herself!

What was even more interesting was a recent case when I told him to stop worrying about the short term noise in the market. He used to be a stock picker who looked at the markets and news all the time. His eyes were fixed on the prices of the companies.

💥Nowadays, he says that he is so freed up of all the short term noise. He knows he would have held the most valuable companies, most profitable, on a global basis of 15,000 stocks. And it was rebalanced on a daily basis. If the company had run up in price too much, there would be a system to sell part of it, to find other more valuable companies. So there was nothing to track for him and that saved him at least 365 hours every year and re-gained back his mental energy which he had put into exercise and time with his family. And best of all, the wealth will take care of the higher increase.

♥️So if we can be that mustard seed, to help a person grow, TRANSFORM a person’s life, for the better in terms of his wealth, and his LIFE, his business, his fitness, his renewed energy, his outlook, we know we have made that little difference!

How would you like to transform your life in 2024?

A painful lesson of my life.

November 29, 2023November 29, 2023
by Gregory Fok

March 2009…

I was away for a holiday in March 2009, at the depth of the financial crisis. I had sat through one of the biggest downturns of the markets and my emotions and mood was swinging up and down with the market conditions.

I told myself that there seems to be enough blood with the red in investments in the streets. I will want to avoid the emotions so I will wait till I get back from my holidays before I decide to buy more stocks again.

When I got back a few weeks later, the stocks I had wanted to buy had gone up by at least 15%!

So I thought to wait for it to come down before I decide to buy again. The prices soared and never came back down to those previous levels. I had missed the boat. In the recent years, some of these same stocks have actually been delisted!

💥 Lesson learnt : It is so hard to time the markets or pick stocks, especially over a prolonged period of time.

🤓What is the solution?
And so now, I use a systematic process that helps me and my clients have more purposeful living, increased peace of mind, better relationships, reduced risks, have more time for yourself, simplify your life and still get higher returns!

When you have a solid process for decision making made at the beginning, you get to your goals more easily.

Do you agree?

My name is Greg and if there is someone who would appreciate and read my posts and insights, pls feel free to share with them and me and help to repost too!

hashtag#invest

hashtag#mindset

hashtag#BusinessGrowth

Better strategies than timing the market

October 21, 2023October 21, 2023
by Gregory Fok

We all know that timing the market can be so tough over the long term. So many books and courses sell this online but few of them match up to expectations.

Recently, I have met with an investor who said she lost almost $50k with the recent experience of the markets and specific stocks of big names that seemed valuable.

The fact is, market timing is tricky, because big gains and losses can come in relatively short periods. Not even the professionals have much of a track record in successfully negotiating these unpredictable twists and turns.

So what can we do to give us a better experience? These are exactly the same steps I take to reframe.

1) Focus on the long term

Markets in the short term provides extreme variable outcomes. In the long term, it provides strength in long term growth, if a person is willing to stick through it.

2) Construct a portfolio that can weather through all seasons.

Diversification is your best friend. The right mix of allocation depends on your age, goals and circumstances. Whatever your risk capacity, diversification is key. Spreading your risk across different asset classes and geographies will reduce the impact of a steep decline in one particular market or sector. Ultimately, it’s your asset allocation that’s going to be the most important driver of your investment returns.

3) Rebalance appropriately

Touching your portfolio too often creates emotional stress. But a strategic, structured and disciplined way of rebalancing that reflects your needs and circumstances will bring out the best outcome for you.

4) Have sufficient cash and take opportunities

Having 3-6 months of emergency buffer will be able to provide for unexpected scenarios. And those who feel nervous in a downturn can hold slightly more cash. In fact, if a person has the appetite and time horizon, downturns can create opportunities for buying during a “sale”.

These are steps that I have adopted for myself and the clients we work with.

How about you, how do you create better personal strategies than timing the market so you can still have a comfortable life over the longer term?

Can you imagine crossing this bridge without the railings?

September 28, 2023September 28, 2023
by Gregory Fok

It has been some time since I crossed an overhead bridge..

😅So as I was crossing over and was imagining walking over without the green guardrails. What would the feeling be like? It would seem quite scary. Although I would still walk in the middle and not move to the sides nor go anywhere near the guardrails, I would never have imagined myself crossing the bridge!

💡Well, getting ourselves protected and having risk management in place is a bit like putting the green guardrails in place. We probably will not touch the guardrails and we probably will not use the insurance policies nor do we need to have a diversified portfolio, but we know that in case we tripped and fell over, we will not fall over the bridge!

And the same applies to our finances as well. When we have our “guard rails” for our finances in place, we can walk across the bridge with confidence, with peace of mind and we can even speed up our walk because we know that our risks are managed well.

🦉So the next time you cross the over head bridge, think of me helping you ensure that your safety measures are put in place and you can sprint across the bridge with no fear, which means you can even get to retirement earlier than you expected.

Would you like to put your financial guardrails in place? And how are you reframing the way to build large wealth?