Friday, January 29, 2016

Your Retirement, My Concern

Just completed our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday to start planning for this year. In the meeting, our management invited The New Charis Mission (TNCM) to give a brief introduction into what they do and how we can help.

In the briefing we were shown pictures of apalling conditions some of our old folks are staying in. TNCM collects donations and have volunteers to help refurbish these living quarters so that these beneficiaries will have a better quality of life in the last few years of their lives.

Their mission to help the elderly is to better improve the living environment of the elderly, while benefitting their health and emotional state-of-mind. They have refurbished 1 home per month in 2011 and have increased it to 2 homes per month in 2012. Since then they have refurbished 120 homes!

If you will like to volunteer or donate please go to the link above. Words cannot describe the conditions some of our elderly are staying in. Check out some of the pictures on the website.

Their briefing and introduction also made me think of the job that I do. As a financial planner, my job though insignificant to many, plays a very important role in the lives of individuals and families, be it now or in the future.

Though we may be called financial planners, financial advisers but I will rather be looked as Personal Risk Managers. I deal with risk everyday:

the risk of hospitalisation
the risk of loss of income due to premature death
the risk of loss of income due to critical illness
the risk of loss of income due to disability
the risk of loss of income due to accidents
the risk of loss of value of our monies due to inflation
the risk of not being able to retire
the risk of not being able to send our children to school they want
the risk of investing with the wrong approach
the risk of having to compromise our lifestyle due to any of the above happening
the risk of losing your job with no emergency funds
the risk of having insurance thinking its enough

So if you are to check off all the risk mentioned above, how many of us can comfortably check off everything knowing the risk have been taken care of? What strategies have you employed to mitigate these risk? Who have you spoken to about those risk?

2016 should be the year you must start thinking more about your risk management. 2016 should be the year you asked yourself what your retirement is going to look like. 2016 should be the year you put in place strategies to get you there.

Planning for your retirement is like sailing a boat. Before the captain sets sail to his destination, he first needs to know where his destination is, to set the fastest course to his destination. He plots on the map so that he can follow the bearings on his compass to his destination, but with the advent of the GPS, the compass is almost obsolete.. BUT that does not mean you will not need the compass as the satellites guiding the GPS may breakdown or be shut down and therefore the GPS should still be treated as a supplement and complement to the compass and not take over completely. On the way to his destination, the captain must still check his GPS or compass to ensure the boat is on the right path, as a 1 degree off its course early in the journey could mean missing the destination completely later.

The same in planning for your retirement, you must first know how much you need at retirement and plan accordingly how to achieve it starting from today. As you move through life towards your retirement, you have to ensure you are still on the right course and make adjustments to be on track to ensure reaching your retirement in future.

I am sure many have done some planning towards your retirement therefore let me be your GPS, let me be the complement and supplement to what you already have done. Lets work together to achieve your retirement goals.

I am also on a mission to do lunch time talks in offices. If you ate interested to have a talk conducted in your office. Please direct the person to this blog or drop me a mail tngjinyau@gmail.com

I know it could be daunting speaking to me one on one, so get your colleagues together! I will visit the office, bring lunch and we can discuss how we can all achieve our retirement!