by Helmi Hakim | Oct 31, 2008 | Investment
I did a lot of roadshows.
You may find me a very FAMILIAR face in Toa Payoh MRT, in East Point, in front of Civic Centre…. everywhere….all over Singapore. 🙂
…and in meeting Singaporeans…Yes! real people like you and me….I discover something disturbing…
Many people failed to plan for their retirement….and here are their excuses comments.
1) “My money in my CPF is already a lot, enough to fund for my retirement needs”.
My reply: Most of your money in CPF has been used to pay for your house. You need to start saving now.
2) “My retirement days still FAR AWAY. I need to use my money now to buy CAR, HOUSE….. I will do it when I am older”
My reply:The opportunity cost of procrastination is huge. You can start something small, and gradually increase it. You need to start saving now
3) ” How do I plan for my retirement? No one has helped me before in this.”
My reply:Call Helmi Hakim at +65 96520134. He will help you plan for your retirement.You need to start saving now.
4) “I got too much financial commitments. Need to take care of my parents, children, pay off mortgage loans etc”
My reply:Create your own personal cashflow statement and try to reduce your variable outflow. You need to start saving now.
5) “When I retire, I will downgrade my house to a less expensive one and the profit, I will use it for my retirement”.
My reply: This method may inject uncertainty into the process because the property market can be volatile and if you were to retire at a time when the value of your real property crashes, your main source of retirement nest egg would be SEVERELY AFFECTED.
Furthermore, a decision to downgrade may not be an easy one to make on an emotional and psychological level as you may be so used to a certain standard of living that you will find it difficult to downgrade when the time comes for you to do so.
Therefore you need to start saving now.
…………………………
AHA…Now, we have been talking about retirement planning. Have you start planning for your retirement? 🙂
by Helmi Hakim | Oct 30, 2008 | Insurance, Investment
If you read my prior posts,you have learnt how to create your own personal cashflow statement and your personal balance sheet.
Today, I am going to touch on 8 FINANCIAL RATIOS that you can use to interpret your current financial standing.
I have created a mindmap, to help me recall the financial ratios.
1) Basic Liquidity Ratio
Cash/Near Cash
Monthly expenses
You must have a basic liquidity ratio of 3-6 times. It signifies your ability to pay for your expenses if anything were to happen to you.
2) Liquid Assets To Networth Ratio
Cash/Near Cash
Networth
Measures the proportion of networth an individual have in terms of cash or near cash. You need to have at least 15%.
3) Debt To Assets Ratio
Total Liabilities
Total Assets
You need to have less than 50%. If you have more than 50%, you do not have enough assets to pay off your total debts.
4) Solvency Ratio
Networth
Total Assets
It measures the long term solvency problem. The higher, the ratio, the better.
5) Debt Service Ratio
Total Debt Yearly Repayment
Annualised Take Home Pay
This ratio measures the proportion of take home income, used to make regular payment of debts. If it is lower than 35%, means HEALTHY.
6) Non Mortgage Debt Service Ratio
Total Non Mortgage Debt Yearly Repayment
Annualised Take Home Pay
This ratio measures the proportion of “take home income” used for regular payments of non mortgage debts.If it is lower than 15%, means HEALTHY.
7) Investment Assets To Net Worth Ratio
Invested Assets
Networth
This ratio compares teh value of invested assets with networth. If it is more than 50%, means HEALTHY.
8) Savings Ratio
Savings
Gross Income
This ratio calculate the proportion of your income, you set up for savings. You need to save at least 10% of your gross income.
I suggest you create your cashflow statement and your personal balance sheet and try the ratio out!
Its fun! Try it! 🙂
by Helmi Hakim | Oct 29, 2008 | Insurance, Investment, Miscellaneous
Time do fly very fast.
…and I realised, I have contributed over 200 posts in this blog.
Phew…I feel that is really a feat.
It is very easy to create a blog, but to maintain it, you need patience, you need energy and you need a DIEING INTEREST to share your knowledge with the public.
Today’s post, I will like to share with you on what is a contract and what constitutes a contract.
I remembered learning about contractual law while studying one of my favourite modules, Business Law back in Ngee Ann Polytechnic and I revisit this this theory again, while studying for my (BICP) Basic Insurance Concepts and Principles examination.
…and now,I am taking my first module for my CFP course, Foundations In Financial Planning, I am visiting this concept again.
So…again, what exactly constitutes a VALID contract?
For a contract to be valid, there must be 4 things.
1) Offer
Example: I OFFER you to take up insurance.
2) Acceptance
Example: You ACCEPT by signing the contract.
3) Intention To Create Legal Relation
Example: You understand that I am your FINANCIAL ADVISOR and you are my CLIENT.
4) Consideration
Example: You pay the premium to me in EXCHANGE for your coverage.
So in order for a contract to be legally binding, these 4 elements must be imminent.
Any one of the elements missing, the contract is VOIDABLE.
Think of all the contracts that you have signed…. Is it binding? 🙂
by Helmi Hakim | Aug 9, 2008 | Insurance, Investment
I was invited to contribute my thoughts for Personal Finance Blog Carnival.
The question goes…
“What is the single most important lesson you learnt in personal finance?”
Here are my thoughts 🙂
Managing your personal finance is the responsibility of every individual.
Be it, if you are a student, an employee, a business person, a full time investor, EVERYONE, I meant all of us, has the inherent responsibility to manage our finance well.
The most important lesson, I learnt in personal finance, boils down to setting financial goals.
In my capacity as a financial associate in Singapore, I get to talk to lots of people, every single day.
I realise most of them have an insurance plan, have an endowment plan, have an investment linked policy, yet many do not set that OBJECTIVES for having those plans.
When asked, “Why do you get that endowment plan?”
Most will answer, “For savings purpose.”
When pressed for specific objectives, most will retort, “Don’t know. Just savings”.
You need to set your objectives right.
You need to set up your objectives clear.
A soccer player can’t score goals, if he does not know where his goal post is.
An athlete in the Olympics cannot win the game, if he is not clear on the perquisites to winning.
You get life insurance, for your coverage against death, permanent disability and 30 critical illnesses.
You save your money in the bank as a form of contingency funds for emergency use or for your everyday use.
You save your money in endowments, in investment linked products for child’s university education, for your retirement or simply to improve your living standards in the future.
The goal, the time frame and where you money is allocated to; everything is instrumental to your financial success.
Being clear of what exactly you want, and how much exactly you need, will help you in achieving your financial goals.
When setting financial goals, I always share with my clients this simple acronym, simple formula, which I termed as SMART.
Your goal must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
1) Specific.
What is your OBJECTIVE of getting that savings plan?
How much money exactly, do you want to accumulate?
2) Measurable
Your goal must be measurable.
If your child is 8 years old, and 10 years later, she wants to go to a local university; do you have at least $84,000 for her 3 years university education?
3) Attainable
When you identify the goals that are important to you, you must find ways to make them come true.
Align yourself with professionals to ATTAIN your goals.
Align with people who already achieved the outcome you want, and learn from them.
4) Realistic
If you have been saving only $100 per month, to save $1000 per month in an endowment plan now, may seems farfetched.
Unrealistic.
Set yourself, a realistic goal.
5) Timely
When exactly do you need, the money that you has saved?
10 years? 15 years? 20 years?
You decide!
So, just remember, setting financial goals are important, and when you set those goals, make sure it is SMART financial goals.
Thank you. We will catch up soon. 🙂
by Helmi Hakim | Aug 2, 2008 | Insurance, Investment, Miscellaneous
My friends and I usually have interactive discussions, brainstorming on how each of us, interpret proper financial plannning for our clients.
I extract the terminology of “financial planning”, in the coursebook CFP module 1.
Financial Planning is the process of meeting an individual’s life goals through the proper manageent of his finances, and involves
1) gathering relevant information
2) setting life goals, examining his current financial status
3) coming up with a strategy or plan for how he can meet his goals given his current situation and future plans.
All in all, there are 797 6 steps to the financial planning process.
Establishing and defining the relationship with the client
2) Build Rapport With Client Gathering client data
3) Analysing and Evaluating the client’s financial status
4) Developing and presenting the financial plan recommendations
5) Prepare a 30 page financial report Implemementing the financial planning recommendations
6) Monitoring
I subscribe to these principles when a client is entrust on me.
There are many modes, ways, a proper financial planning can be conducted, and this is the most accurate way.
This is the status quo.
I will share more with you SOON! 🙂
