Insights
Notes on building lasting financial security.
Writing on planning, investing and the decisions that matter more as life gets more complicated.
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.
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.
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.
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 not the rejection, but whether the money for another route was already there.
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.
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.
More writing (9)
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. The difference is rarely intelligence or discipline. It is usually three things nobody points out while the income is still growing.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 reason they give is not markets. It is that nobody prepared the people who inherit.
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.
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.
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.