Birthdays

I want to thank all my well-wishers on my birthday today 22nd May 2013. I just got older. So have you wondered why birthdays are celebrated? Well it seems that there is no real documentation of why Birthdays are celebrated. Though I will like to believe that in olden days, it is a joy to live another year if you have not already been taken by disease. I mean have you seen the average human life span in the early 1900s? People live till about only 40 plus years old. Today life expectancy is easily at 80. That is 40 more extra years!

So why the longer life span? Well with advent of new methodology to detect illness, these illnesses can be arrested earlier and treated, ensuring one live longer! In olden times, people say bless you when one sneeze because it may be the sign of one falling sick. And if you fall sick then, there may be a chance you will not survive. People were dying from the common flu! Today out common flu is treated at our local HDB block GP with that yellow tablet that makes you super drowsy and some can get high on..

So what is the future like in terms of life span? What are new medications that may be invented to treat our diseases? Will we live beyond a hundred? Will somebody invent something that will allow us to live like Benjamin Button after we hit 80? If you have not watch Benjamin Button, it is about a boy who lived his live backwards, from old to young.

We will never know what the future hold in terms of life span. But more importantly at this very moment if we know that our life span is about 80, what have you done to ensure that you will live life to the fullest? What have you done instead of burying your face in front of the office computer from 9 am to 9 pm at night? Have you set down and wrote your bucket list? The things you will want to achieve before death? Have you PLANNED to do those things?

Many of you may wonder why I sound like a pessimist, but I like to tell you 'I am not a pessimist but a planner' I control what I can control and spent less time worrying about what I cannot. I find predictabilities in unpredictables and control the predictabilities.

So when do you plan to retire? Do you intend to spend your whole life working? Those of you who is now thinking Tang retirement very far away leh... think again if you are 20, you only have 60 more years to live. If you are 40, you already lived half your life. If you are 60, I am sorry if you are still working without having the CHOICE not to work, but if you have a choice and you are working just to pass time, kudos to you!

So have you planned that upon your retirement, you can exercise the option of not working? If what I have mentioned is alien to you, please I urge you to make an appointment with your financial adviser, tell them to do a retirement plan for you. If your financial adviser just sells you products then call me, we can sit down and do a plan for your life and if you want to buy products from your adviser after doing your life plan with me, go ahead. I can rest peacefully knowing I have touched another life.

Mine! All Mine! My daughter at 1. Will she live to a hundred?

What you don't want to know, but need to know..

Well I realised I have been posting alot about investments and as a financial adviser I should be well rounded and post other financial portfolios too. This post I devote to insurance.

Now I grew up never being a believer of insurance because, my father told me they cheat people's money. My friends told me insurance agent very pushy. Other people tell me insurance don't pay till you are dead.

Well in some ways those saying ain't wrong. The truth is there is nothing wrong with the product but something wrong with the salespeople. After being in the industry for 13 years, I know exactly what some salespeople will do to make the sale. I know in times of desperation people can do stupid things.

I have met many clients who have told me their regular premium investment linked policies don't make money.... sigh.. its not suppose to. The mortality charges paying for your death and disability coverage is being drawn from your units, so as you grow older more is drawn to cover those charges.

Many a times the failure is not in the product but the failure to manage expectations. Just like what makes a good horror movie. Well my expectations of a good horror movie is one that leaves you thinking about it after the show ends. One without a soppy happy ending. Just think about horror classics, they never ended resolving the issue.. closing scene is still flickering lights and evil laughter. But nowadays horror movies has happy endings with issues resolved and they live happily ever after... yawn.

Ok ok that may not be the best analogy of managing expectations.. so lets look at some other expectations. Now imagine this scenarios:

1.  You are in a plane, the pilot comes over the radio telling all passengers to put on your life jacket and prepare for crash landing

2.  You bought a new car but damn suay, on the way home you got tire puncture

3.  It started to rain, you go into the shop to buy an umbrella. You walked out of the shop, opened the umbrella, its full of holes

What is the expectations for each scenario?

1.  Life jacket is under the seat

2.  Spare tire is in the trunk

3.  Go back to the shop ask for refund

But what if there was no life jacket under the seat, no spare tire in the trunk and no refund at the shop. You will feel cheated! Because its expected. But if you took the flight and the airline company have told you before you bought the ticket that their policy was that passengers have to pay if they wanted the life jacket. You have the choice to take the flight without the life jacket, take the flight with life jacket but top up some money or not take the flight even though it could be the cheapest.

Lets say you took the flight cheap without the life jacket and if scenario 1 happened, your expectations have been managed. You will not be upset (probably upset for not paying more for a jacket) because you chose. The airline company disclosed and you fully understood the risk. They probably made you signed some indemnity to indemnify them from the risk of you not wanting the life jacket.

That will be too much risk and paper work for them... but if only the financial industry have something like this. Imagine I go speak to a family man, I know his family. I try to talk to him about coverage but he tells me: insurance bluff people, cheat money, I cannot see until I die. Then I whip out an indemnity form ask him sign. The form will state the exact time, place, setting and whatever the guy said on it. He will sign on it. If something untoward happens and people start coming to ask why no insurance, why Tang you never ask him get himself covered since he got family, I can whip out this indemnity form and say I did, but he want to invest property, buy car, entertain frequently, invest stock market, find business opportunity, go shopping, everything else but buy insurance......

Everyday I live in fear of knowing that life is unpredictable. Not fear for myself but the fear of the people around me who some chooses to just ignore the need for financial planning. The fear that I may not have the opportunity to speak to the closest people before something happens. Then again, I ain't Snata Clause. I do not have a sleigh pulled by Rudolph and friends that can traverse the whole world on the 24th of December. 

Some clients I have spoken too very quickly will tell me, Tang I have insurance already. Ok.. but when it starts raining, umbrella has holes. You cannot believe that there are individuals with $10,000 coverage: I have already...

Ever considered liabilities and who is going to pay for them if something happens? Some people's credit card debts already more than $10,000. Well that is why sometimes families have to lose their dignity to ask for money from relatives, friends and even social support just to get through life after something bad happens to a key family member...

I have this very funny client when I showed him a term plan he commented: Wa this one like 4D. Term plans are plan that has very high coverage no cash value, just like car insurance. But if objective of client is coverage for death then I will recommend term. To put into perspective, it can be like $200 per month for coverage of a $1,000,000.

Told my client yes its like 4D except that for 4D you hope you tio, then get pay out, if not tio jia (get eaten). But for term plan, don't tio good thing, but if you tio got pay out. Win win situation,4D win lose situation.

For investment savvy clients, I will ask them if they know what an option is? Options are investments, you buy for a strike price and pay a minimum option fee for it. At the strike price you have the option to exercise it. Just like insurance, you pay option fee (premiums) for a future promise of exercising it at certain events.

Insurance are like options. Its a small fee for a big payout later. If you took the above example of a term plan paying $200 per month for $1,000,000 you need to pay 400 years of premiums before you cover that amount.

So if you now think you actually have an umbrella(insurance) already. When was the last time you opened it to check for holes? You don't want to check it for holes when it is raining. Do it now while its sunny. They say make hay while the sun shines. Think about it.

The Day The World Changed

Imagine, before leaving for work,you said goodbye to your father in the morning at 6 am and by 11 am you are at the hospital the doctor is telling you your father is gone. And if you think this is some scene from some Korean or Hong Kong drama then you are wrong. This happened last Thursday to a friend of mine and I start to realise I cannot seem to be helping people fast enough to get them insured.

Why? There are many times when I ask friends who they are concerned about, who they love and care and tell them they have to consider the repercussions if something unfortunate was to happen. Ask them for their loved ones contact so that I can talk to them to prevent unnecessary financial cost if sometime happens.

Not only will there be financial cost but also the cost of living for those they leave behind. Even if death do not occur, financial liabilities will come from medical and living expenses of both the sick and the living.

In short many times I ask for referrals from people and the usual answer: don't have anyone in mind. I call them and ask them first. They are not free. They need they will call you.

The truth is when do people need insurance? When their loved ones pass away, when they are critically ill, when they are hospitalised, when they are disabled. But by the time those things occur, you need also cannot buy. Just like the life jacket on the aircraft.

If I ask anybody who has traveled on a plane before where the life jacket was, everybody will say under the seat. But the truth is do we actually know if it is physically there? We do not even pay attention to the air stewardess when she is explaining how to put on the life jacket, which tube to blow into to inflate, when to pull the tab to inflate the life jacket. We take it for granted that the plane will not fail.

And isn't that what we do in life? We take it for granted that all will be fine. We think we will never die, never fall sick, never get hospitalised never need that life jacket under the seat.

And that's the difference in life and on the plane. You know that if the plane was to fail and you hear the captain telling you to put on the life jacket, you can be rest assured the life jacket is there. If its not and if you survive the plane failure you can sue the airline company later.

What about life? When one is in an unfortunate incident, are we able to pull that life jacket out from under the seat? At the point when you actually need that life jacket can you tell the insurance company you want to buy one now? Who do you sue if you manage to come out of it. Will you still be able to live life at your current standard of living or has most of your assets been used for the medical and other cost?

That's where financial planning comes in. And yes I know this term has been used too loosely and its been abused by many. Many advisers tell people financial planning but eventually push a product and yes I understand its because of these people that many refuse to refer.

If you have read my earlier post, financial planning is a process where one go through what an accountant will do for the company. We first see an individual or family cash flow and net worth. This allows one to see if the individual or family is overspending. We see if the assets are allocated properly to achieve a desired return. We use past expenses and current assets, project them into the future with inflation and rate of return. We will then choose risk management theories to mitigate our risk. Then we implement solutions suitable for one's situation. After the implementation of the solutions, we become auditors. We need to monitor and review if the solutions implemented are still relevant. Certain events will render one's solution irrelevant, events like: getting a promotion, changes in expenses or income, buying a property, getting married, having a kid, kid going to school, retirement, changes to the economy, inflation, changing government policies, strike 4D, TOTO, big sweep. This list is not exhaustive.

So if you are reflecting on what kind of solutions you have and it has not been audited for some time, better consider doing one. Because many of the events mentioned above WILL happen, and the time to do something about it is NOW! And that is called planning. Stop taking things for granted because we do not have a life jacket like we do on a plane. And just like the life jacket we never want to use it but we are at peace its there. We may not want to use all the solutions in our financial plan but be at peace it is there.

So pick up your phone and give your financial adviser a call, tell them you want your plans reviewed. If you do not have one drop me an email tngjinyau@gmail.com or call, text, whatsapp 9180 3448. And if you still think its not going to happen to me, think again..

I apologise to those who take offence to this post so close to Chinese New Year. But my heart felt condolences go out to my friend and his families who has lost someone close.

To all my Chinese friends Gong Xi Fa Cai.

2nd Leg Again

I have just resigned after my manager threatened me by asking me to leave. I start work at another bank in the mobile sales team and taking a pay cut to join this team but I know less salary means more commission.

The new bank was family oriented. They have not gotten their qualified full branch license and therefore had branches in obscure places.

I remembered on my first few days of joining I closed $80,000 worth of investments and it was cheered! While at the older bank it was jeered and probably spat on... stepped on and spat on again.

The team was new and many of the colleagues I had was fresh graduates just joining the workforce. The dynamics was fantastic and work did not feel like work anymore.

I looked forward to going to work again and hate it when it was time to go home. We stayed back in the office to do calls challenging each other with the most number of appointments made.

Roadshows were fun too! Sure or not? Roadshow? Yes! We practically was trying ways and means to get to talk to anyone before each other but it was fun!

You cannot believe how much people are enjoying work while getting paid $1,000 basic. 

I eventually got promoted as sales manager there. The team worked on a needs based approach. We started moving away from closed ended products that gave protection or guarantee on the capital. We started to focus on open ended investment products as it gave much better returns than closed ended ones. 

I started to study how the green and red arrows you see at the corner of any news channel affect my investments. I started to get a finer grasp of how world macro and microeconomics affected investments. I started appreciating economics while in school I use to question why we bothered what happened anywhere else but here. I knew how certain events affected equities and made phenomenal returns from Asian countries.

I became an advocate for investments and mind you I mean investments not speculation.

Second Leg

I have just left the insurance industry and starting out on my 2nd leg of my journey in the financial industry in the banks. And I am about to find out that there is so much more learning in store.

I started my 2 months (2 months!?) training in the bank in 2002 with fire in my belly. I wanted to serve. I wanted to sell! But by the time the 2 months training was done the fire is dead. I was eventually seconded to an obscure branch with no banking support. Just 2 sales person sitting in a branch calling existing clients and serving walk in customers and I was introduced to the whole new world of structured products. 

These products had capital protection or capital guarantee features (which the authorities has banned these names to be used in these products after the Lehman incident). This was served to us and customers on a placemat where we just put on our desk. Anybody who walks in to do anything we just introduce and see if they wanted. 

Everyday my manager branch manager will come and ask me: what appointments I have? How much have I closed? How much will I be closing? You see the other branch or not close 1 million you know?

I go to work every morning full of motivation but eventually get demotivated by my manager that ask me questions about my figures. It became so pressurising that having an interest in my clients is secondary. Sales first.

I forgot my advocacy in financial planning. I remembered one particular incident when a customer walked into the branch. She had fixed deposits and wanted to withdraw part of it. After passing the cheque of the amount she requested for, I asked her what she wanted to do with the rest of the money. She said: put back fixed deposit lor. Kaching! Sales opportunity! Attack! But you do realise the interest rate is very low right? We have this plan give you potentially 3% but you have to lock it in for 5 years. You using the money in the next 5 years? She said no. I explained the feature of the product to her and she said ok. Transaction done! Feeling happy that today got sale.

2 months passed and the same customer came into the branch and said she wanted to withdraw the money. WHAT?! Withdraw money? But mam you said you did not need the money for the next 5 years? Yes I did say but now need. But if you take money out now from the plan, you will lose money. Huh.. like that ah? Wait ah. Customer exit branch. Enter branch with husband. Oh no....

WHY YOU ASK MY WIFE PUT MONEY INTO SOMETHING LIKE THAT!!!!???? This is my money!! BLAH! BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!

From the corner of my eyes, I saw my manager slink into a corner and disappeared up the stairs into his office.

WTF?! Sales you want! When sh*t hits the ceiling you don't want any part of it. That day forth there was no more respect. 

The husband gave me a piece of his mind and told me to take the money out of the plan even if its going to be a loss. Sheepishly, I said ok. He then stormed out of the branch after I let the wife signed some forms. 

In the evening after the branch has closed and the transaction done, I decided it was only right that I should give the husband a call just to let him know the transaction has been done. I picked up my phone dialed his number knowing its going to be another trashing he is going to give me. I so wanted to hang up the call at the ring tone when.... hello? the husband answered. *Gulp!*

Sir? I am Tang. I just wanted to let you know I have done the transaction and you should be receiving your money in a few days time. I braced myself for the lashing when he said: Young man..., in the most calming voice. Next time when you want to do something like that please find out where the source of money is from. The money is mine. My wife is a housewife where got this kind of money? Anyway thanks for calling but don't do it again to somebody else. 

I almost cried! My financial planning advocacy suddenly flowed back to me and I knew I cannot stay here any longer. I did not join the financial industry to be an errand boy! I did not join the financial industry so that I can be a cashier to complete transactions for my manager or the bank! I am a consultant! And I refuse to be pressurised into doing things that neither I nor my clients want. 

I started to be more client focused but being client focused the sales process was longer. Sales is not immediate as we have to do a proper fact find, generate solutions that are suitable and fit my clients' needs. I studied and researched more into the world of investments, learnt about the concepts of investments, put money into the structured products that I suppose to advocate (never made money in them) and started to explore investments that did not have any capital protected element. But this was frowned upon as it did not generate figures as fast as the management wanted to see.

Manager set me down one day, Tang, upper management said that if you don't produce they have to ask you to leave. Ok, by the end of this month I got no sales, I resign. That shut him up. 

Next morning my manager walked into the branch, Tang yesterday I talked to management and they say if you got no figure they can ask you leave anytime. Then tomorrow I give you my letter, I replied. Tang don't be so rash, they only saying... 

Words are so cheap! But not for me, my letter was sitting on my manager's desk the next day. He did not know I was already in talks with a friend of mine who was working in another bank that was more family oriented. 

Tang you want to reconsider? No...

The Unseen Monster

Read this in the papers yesterday and I was thinking of the times when I was in corporate, working 9 to 5 and receiving a take home pay at the end of the month.

I have always wondered 'Why does my pay never seem to be enough even when I get a raise every year? Why is it that I get a raise every years yet, you never seem to have more savings or a better standard of living?

After being in the financial industry I started realising the mistakes that most of us make and I have been through it myself.

Firstly, inflation has been slowly eroding away the value of our monies. We all know about inflation but many do not do anything about it. 

The government tells us CPI increased. CPI? What's that? Can eat or not?

For those who knows what CPI represents, most will also ignore the consequences of high CPI.

Some who knows what CPI is, what is its repercussion and consequences, they will still procrastinate about doing something about it.

So what is CPI? CPI, Consumer Price Index or what we know commonly as Inflation is the silent killer that has been eating at our monies. So how does inflation affect us.

I remembered the year 2003 when I started to indulge in kopi-o. One cup of kopi-o then cost $0.50. 8 years on in 2012, my indulgence is now, $0.90 per cup. (And I do not take only a cup one day.) What do you think inflation of my kopi-o has been the past 8 years. On an average the inflation for my cup of kopi-o per year is 7.6%. 

 Many of you might think: 'But its only $0.40 what! Tang why you bother write blog for $0.40!'

Let us move the decimal points, something that cost $5 will cost $9. Something costing $50 will cost $90. Something that had cost $500 now cost $900. The difference is now, $4, $40 and $400 respectively. The difference will get bigger once the sum of money becomes bigger. $0.40 seems acceptable, but does $40,000 in 8 years sound reasonable?

To put inflation into perspective, imagine you earn $4000 every month, you spend $3,500, and save $500. You get a pay raise of 4% and inflation has been at 7%. After 8 years, your income after a pay raise of 4% every year will be $5,475. Your expenses that is growing with inflation of 7% will be at $6,013, with no more extra for savings.

Based on the above example, how can we maintain our standard of living when the cost of our expenses are moving faster than our pay! It has moved beyond our means and we have to start digging into our savings just to maintain the lifestyle we enjoyed just 8 years ago. And once our savings run out, we either start signing our credit cards or compromise our standard of living.

Being young and having my first credit card was detrimental. With inflation increasing, and me trying to keep up with my standard of living, I ran up a total of almost $30,000 in credit card bills. And with the interest rates of credit cards at 24% p.a it is almost impossible to clear my debt while just trying to pay off the minimum amount. 

But when I started in the financial industry, the idea of planning began to sink in. I always thought that Income - Expense = Savings, but some seminars I attended changed my whole perspective. One speaker actually mentioned that the real formula to be rich and financially independent is to save and to save the formula is Income - SAVINGS = Expenses!

That blew me away! I had been a slave to my money! I have allowed myself to work for money, I have not allowed money to work for me. I have to be a master of money and not a slave to it! That day, I got home, took out my scissors, cut away my cards. 

Found some personal loan that will give a slightly lower interest and transferred my balance so that I can pay off my debt in a very systematic way. 

In the mean time, I also walked into POSB,  ask them about an account that will take my money from my salary on a monthly basis on a fixed date. I do not want an ATM card or internet access for this account. They told me about the fabulous MySavings account that allowed flexibility of setting aside a fixed amount of my salary on a user defined date! If I need to withdraw from the account I had to go to the branch, queue, to get my money. (Though now the account has changed, they now give internet access and tie it to your ATM card. But the habit of savings has been formed)

Life changed, debts was cleared and inflation was still a concern. 

Savings interest: 0.125%

Inflation: 7%

Real rate of return on my money: - 6.875%

I knew I had to do something about it.

Family Impact Analysis

Let us look at our family, do we run our family like a business? Let us look at how similar a family is compared to a business. Businesses is about profit and loss. Its about bottom line. Its about being responsible to their shareholders. 

So who are the shareholders of your family and are you being responsible for them? Parents, kids, spouse and anybody who may have a vested interest. The profit or loss in your home will be taking your combined household income minus all expenses. 

Businesses have balance sheets every month to ensure they are still running on profit. If they know they are running close to a loss, they have measures and strategies to cut cost and bring the business back into the black. They know their fixed expenses and cash flow needed every month. They project how much expenses may be needed in future to sustain the business. They have risk management strategies to ensure that profitability and net worth of business is not compromised.

Do you know if your family is running on a profit or loss? Do you have a strategy if your family is running on a loss? Do you have projections for the future so that you know the family is sustained? Do you have risk management strategies to ensure profits and net worth are not compromised in your family?

Businesses also understand that they have to invest their liquid assets to allow their money to work harder for them. They may think of doing other businesses to diversify their exposure in their core markets. They may also employ asset management companies to invest their monies. They leverage on these companies' expertise in markets and sectors they may not be familiar with.

Are you letting your monies sit in liquid assets? Is your family's assets being invested to allow it to work harder for you? Is your assets diversified to reduce your exposure in one market?

If you have not thought about the above you may like to consider doing a Family Impact Analysis. Think about all the possible risk that may affect your family. Think about the probability of the risk happening. Think about the impact on the family. Then if you want a better understanding, complete the below questionnaire with your name, email and phone number

Lessons From Businesses You Can Port Into Your Home

I will like to thank Mr Steven Ng Liang Hwi who has gave me much inspiration for this post. Your input as a risk manager in your company is a great learning lesson for me too.

Have you ever wondered what the risk management department in your company does? They seem to disapprove many of your initiatives or create many unnecessary red tapes before you can push your idea through. Why are they being so narcissistic about new ideas and initiative? Don't they realise the amount of productivity/ sales/ bottom line that will be increased if this initiative is passed through?

Well that is the job they do. They have a system called a Business Impact Analysis, they look at the company as a whole, find out all possible risk that may affect the company. Put a figure to the possibility of the risk happening. Put another figure to the impact of the risk if it happens. Put these figures into a software which will calculate whether the risk is big enough to mitigate it.

For example, if the risk is not probable and will not impact the company they may choose to neglect the risk as the impact to the company is negligible. But if the probability of the risk is high and the impact to the company is high then they will have to adopt one of 4 strategies to mitigate this risk.

Therefore when you decide that you have a great idea and initiative that will greatly benefit the company, you have just created another risk for the risk department. They will have to go through the whole process of finding out all the risk that is associated with your idea; Put the figures in to the software for the probability of the risk happening. Calculate the financial impact of the risk happening. Then decide which risk they want to take and which they do not and on and on and on. By the time they say ok, the fire in your belly for the idea has extinguish.

The Strategies to Mitigate Risk

So now lets say your idea is fantastic and risk department has identified the risk and wants to mitigate it. There are 4 strategies and these are to:

1) Accept the risk,

2) Avoid the risk, 

3) Reduce the risk, or

4) Transfer the risk

Lets look at each strategies individually. Lets assume that one of the risk for a company is working at height. If a company Accepts this risk, they will just get workers to work from height without safety gear and accept the fact that if a worker fall they will cover the bills and liabilities that come with it. 

If they assume a Avoid risk strategy, they will not take jobs that is too high. They will only jobs that have no heights thus limiting the jobs they take and limiting their income.

The above 2 strategies are totally impractical as accepting the risk creates too significant an impact to a company happens if something happens.

Therefore, the 2 practical approach will be Reduce and Transfer. Risk reduction for the above example will be for company to ensure safety gears are used. Safe standard operating procedure are in place. Penalty in place for flouting of safety guidelines. These will help the company reduce the risk while working from heights.

But reducing risk is only one strategy and does not ensure that accidents don't happen and most companies will adopt a risk transfer strategy as well. They buy insurance that will transfer the financial risk to insurance companies thus ensuring that liabilities resulting from an accident does not affect their profits or savings. They transfer this risk by paying a small portion of their total liabilities in premiums for a substantially bigger payout when an accidents happens.

So what lessons can be learnt from a business? Are we running our family like a business? Are we exposing our families to unnecessary risk without mitigating them? How can we do a Family Impact Analysis? 

Stay tune for the next post!

Lessons From A Taxi Driver

23/10/2012 Tuesday

Dropped my bike off at AMK industrial park 2 for some oil leaking from my engine and decided to grab a cab home. As I was walking towards the junction, a cab pulled up going to make a left turn. Flagged it. Uncle wound down his window,

'Where you going?' He asked. 'Uncle, Simei.'. He hesitated , took a second glance at his clock and waved me on board. 'How you want to go? CTE then PIE then exit Simei?' he asked.

'Uncle, TPE also can' I said.

'CTE then PIE then exit Simei? Ok ah?' he asked again. Figured he was hard of hearing already, I said: 'Ok, ok, can can.'

As I was sitting in the back of the taxi, I remembered attending one of Dr Andrew Goh's training titled: Think Like A Taxi Driver and decided to engage with uncle. 'Uncle, you had lunch already?' I asked.

'After I drop you off I am going to return taxi at Sengkang.' he said.

Eeeerrrrr... ok ok uncle hard of hearing. Ask again: 'Uncle, you had lunch already?' 

'Eat liao. But nowadays don't eat rice, just eat porridge. Drive taxi no time eat.'

'So uncle, how long have you been driving taxi already?' Uncle ask me guess. '10 years?' I answered.

'34 years already. This year I 67. (At that moment I felt at peace knowing I had at least a million dollars worth of insurance coverage) 3 years time, I going to retire'

'Wa uncle so long ah? You got kids or not?' Uncle said got kids, 1 boy, 1 girl. 'Then uncle relax liao la, no need work so hard.' I said.

Uncle went on to tell me his wisdom; he said he used to drive taxi for 12-14 hours when younger now drive for 6 hours, enough to cover his basic needs. He told me not to expect from my kids. If they make it big in life they can give you more ok. If cannot then have to continue working to sustain. He gets $300 from CPF and he has some savings. He said he co-owned his taxi for 20 years. If you don't co-own, you pay $60 rental for taxi in 1980s. If co-own you pay $60 for 4 years and $30 after that. He said he saved the $30 per day and now has savings to pay off some stuff every month. In essence, he told me he cannot stop driving his taxi.

Then he told me: Young man, now that you are still young, better save for your retirement. Don't anyhow spend your money. When young earn more, but also save more.

Sigh! As a financial planner we advocate that to people on a daily basis. We have plans and solutions for many of these financial objectives including retirement. But half of the replies you get when you want to meet up with people: I got already. You people earn so much. Bluff people one. Think about it. No need. And finally the best: NOT INTERESTED. 

And guess when will people be interested to do something about their retirement?

During retirement.  

Well guess life's like that. The quote from Gladiator sums it up: What You Do In Life Echoes in Eternity. So whether your retirement allows you a choice to work or not depends on what you do today.