Insights
Notes on building lasting financial security.
Writing on planning, investing and the decisions that matter more as life gets more complicated.
For doctors
4 min read
Nobody Trains a Doctor to Think About Money
Why doctors in Singapore defer financial planning from training onwards, why money is hard to raise with colleagues, and why the gap grows with seniority.
2 min read
Straight As, and Still No Place
A client's daughter had near-perfect grades and did not get into NUS Medicine. What decided what happened next was whether the money for another route was already there.
More for doctors: the money decisions a medical career brings, and how I help →
Investing
2 min read
$500,000 in the Bank, and None of It Intentional
A doctor in his 40s had 55 months of expenses sitting in the bank, with retirement and education goals still unfunded. How we worked out what to keep.
6 min read
What an Index Fund Cannot Do
Many investors now put everything into one index fund. Where index funds do the job well, where they fall short, and why I use both.
4 min read
Where Your Dividend Comes From
Singapore investors love a fund that pays out. Why the payout rate can mislead, when dividends make sense, and when to let your money compound.
3 min read
He Would Have Earned More If He Had Stayed
A client's portfolio grew about 40% in three and a half years. Had he never switched, it would have grown about 42%. Why I would make the same switch again, and what a return on its own cannot tell you.
6 min read
The Risks Hiding Inside a Diversified Portfolio
A sample portfolio that gains 1.4% more than its benchmark in a good year and loses 9% more in a bad one. Nobody chose that trade. Why a list of holdings cannot show it, and what a portfolio review should ask.
6 min read
Everyone Counts the Return. Almost No One Counts the Anxiety
A surgeon, his wife's fixed deposits, and three years of second-guessing. Why volatility and risk are not the same thing, and why a smaller headline return can beat a larger one.
Own Your Financial Future
33 pages · PDFA free guide. Written with women in mind, and just as useful for anyone taking greater ownership of their finances, or supporting a partner with theirs.
Retirement and wealth
2 min read
It Takes Me About Five Hours to “Retire” a Client
By the time a client sees my retirement proposal, it can look surprisingly simple. Here is the unglamorous work that happens before that, and why a plan should still hold up when life does not go to script.
4 min read
Why I Changed My Mind About FIRE
Fifteen years ago I would have agreed with every word of the FIRE movement. Today I think it asks too much of the present. What freedom today, future secure means to me, and why the question underneath FIRE is usually about work.
5 min read
Why Keeping Wealth Is Harder Than Building It
Accumulating wealth and holding onto it reward opposite instincts. Why the people who built something successfully often find the second half hardest, and why the number you are chasing keeps moving.
6 min read
Why a High Income Does Not Become Wealth on Its Own
Two people earning the same money can end up in completely different financial positions, usually because of three things nobody points out while the income is still growing.
5 min read
The Millionaire With Four Years of Retirement Money
A five million dollar home, no debt, a lifetime of careful saving, and roughly four years of money to live on. Why net worth and retirement readiness are different questions, and why the gap between them is so easy to miss.
Career and income
4 min read
Can You Afford to Step Back for Six Months?
An exam year, a parent who falls ill, a child who needs more of you. Why senior professionals cannot ease off when it matters, and why that is a planning problem.
8 min read
Career Resilience: Why Your Career Is Part of Your Financial Plan
Your career is the engine behind almost everything else in your financial plan. Why career security is not the same as job security, and how to build options before you need them.
4 min read
Bigger Than a Retrenchment Fund
Retrenchments hit a five-year high, and degree holders were slowest of all to find work again. Why senior professionals need a Career Resilience Fund.
Family and property
9 min read
So Why Do People Still Buy Property?
A client asked me why people still buy investment property when the numbers so often favour other assets. The honest answer says a lot about how we make decisions, and part of it is worth copying.
4 min read
If Your Children Inherited Everything Tomorrow, Would They Know What to Do With It?
Two thirds of high net worth families in Singapore doubt their wealth will outlast their children's generation, and the main reason they give is that nobody prepared the people who inherit.
6 min read
Your Child's Education Should Not Cost You Your Retirement
What a local and an overseas medical degree actually cost, why starting five years earlier matters more than finding a better return, and how to fund one without defunding the other.
Protection
5 min read
The Claim That Was Never Made
The danger is rarely a lack of cover. Valid claims go unmade all the time. Three reasons why, and what to do about each one before you need to.
4 min read
The Wrong Question to Ask at Your Next Renewal
Integrated Shield premiums rose, then most insurers reported a turnaround. Both are true, and the usual conclusion drawn from them is the wrong one.
How I work
3 min read
The Client Who Didn't Remember Me
After a serious accident, a client lost years of her memory. Her claims came through. What almost stopped them was a premium due in the same week, and a payment that was not on GIRO.
3 min read
What I Used to Think About People Who Win Sales Awards
Before I joined this industry, I assumed anyone with a sales award was good at sweet-talking. A colleague in my first year changed my mind. What an MDRT award measures, what it leaves out, and how to judge the advice behind it.