Steward of Wealth

15/10/2022

https://www.fool.com/research/stock-performance-recessions/

A great reminder that we are here for the long term and how we can stay disciplined and patient to benefit from recessions!

A good look at history tells us good news is to come to those who stay calm and buy in the dips in a CORE total portfolio.

Are stocks a good investment during a recession? We dug into the data to find out.

16/09/2022

Tax planning overlooked for doctors and high income earners

This is one of the most neglected areas of planning for this group because we all have a good income.

Since financial planning is really a total coordination of....
💎 Investment planning
💎 Insurance planning
💎 Wealth distribution
💎 Tax planning
💎 Debt planning,
most doctors and high income earners may have missed out some parts of each of them when they focus on their planning in piece meal and products only.

Just to give you an example, when a person decides to buy US stocks or US index or ETFs, they unknowingly subject themselves to the following.

😧 Inheritance and estate tax - up to 40%!

So imagine when you diligently accumulate and build assets for retirement that is worth a few million dollars, your family will need to pay about 40% of tax to the US government when the person passes the assets to the next of kin.

Most investors like the exposure to the US markets because it has been the largest and longest stock market in history but this can cause potential tax issues.

As financial advisors, we are still able to get you access to the US markets without the need to pay the hefty inheritance and estate taxes, and we will help to structure it appropriately.

In any case, one of the things we do, is to diversify your overall portfolio to ensure that we are not only concentrated into the US markets. We also want to participate in the global growth of all the other markets in the world as well, apart from just the US markets. This helps us to bring the risk down to reduce over-concentration risks.

⁉️ Did you know you pay lots of taxes on your property that you own in Singapore as well, apart from the ABSD (Additional Buyer Stamp Duties), due to wealth tax?

There are also other ways to build wealth with minimum tax strategies and better liquidity which we can share about in other posts in future, if there is a request or demand for it.

Or you can just reach out and have an initial non-obligation chat to see if there is a fit to work together.

We listen to what keeps people awake at night and remove those concerns related to finance, whether they live too long, gone too soon or fall critically sick in between.

16/08/2022

Where should you invest?

I was having coffee with a senior director of the government sector...

He shared that he was researching about how to invest his money and where.

After having researched for more than 3-4yrs, and seeing the markets climb before COVID to plunge during COVID and go on the roller coaster ride till now, he realized he still does not have competence nor the confidence to be able to do it on his own, because there is so much uncertainty.

I shared that volatility can be your friend and can even bring opportunities if used well and appropriately.

He gave the analogy of a doctor. I probably can read online about how a doctor can do surgery. And I can follow the steps to the tee, but there is so much complexity of what can go wrong along the way which can immediately change the course of decision making.

I added that even if you asked a skin specialist to do a surgery, with a short stint in the surgery department 5 years, he will not be confident to do it.

When you have professional experience for the past 18yrs, you make the decisions with confidence but if you are doing it by yourself, this may cause tremendous emotional stress and potential losses too.

This hinders the process of getting to his goals especially when we are dealing with amounts that are 6-7 figures in nature.

I shared with him that we do not need to aim for the highest returns, we just need to get to his personal goals safely and with peace of mind.

When I asked him what was his purpose of investing, it was not clear initially which causes the dilemma and uncertainty of decision making. Once there was clarity, the next step was building confidence through the process and building an investment philosophy that he can be disciplined to stick with.

After the entire conversation, he says what he liked most was that he could simplify his life. We bring confidence to his plan, with assurance of his decisions. He was in comfort to know that he has someone who understands his background on the journey with him.

29/06/2022

If you are a business owner, these are some questions to ask yourselves.

Business Business owners consideration for transfer of assets June 24, 2022June 24, 2022 by Gregory Fok When a business owner is young, he uses his blood and sweat in exchange for an income he works hard for. Once he has built it to a reasonable size, he needs to have the following considerations. 1...

18/05/2022

Can we sleep well at night with reliable strategies?

With the backdrop of a very uncertain near term outlook, how do we ensure that we can still sleep well at night based on evidence based backed strategies that can boost our confidence in planning forward?

How do we grow our wealth confidently, through periods of volatility, with large amount of wealth?

You can register for the session below.

https://tinyurl.com/yckd5nuu

Wealth and investing is a very interesting subject. When you have too little of it, you struggle and work hard to get lots of it. When you too much of wealth, it potentially becomes a problem, maybe not for you, but maybe your future generations to come. How should we transform the way we view wealt...

11/05/2022

Money and happiness have a very close relationship.

People work harder and harder to make more money so that they may be happier. Well, at least I used to do that when I first started 17yrs ago.

But happiness is easy and simple and does not cost much - sometimes it is just about having more free time.

So nowadays, I still work hard, but I also choose to work smart and block out designated free time for myself and my family.

When was the last time you carved out free time to reflect on your blessings in life and what is the vision you have for yourself?

Enjoying life requires time, but too often we willingly give it away in pursuit of money and career. Ashley Whillans shows how to restore the proper balance.

21/04/2022

$1mil +$1mil = $3mil. Is that possible?

If we design it right, you can!

07/04/2022

What values do you want to teach your children?

Inspiration What kind of values do you want to teach… April 7, 2022April 7, 2022 by Gregory Fok We were having a conversation with a couple recently and they shared that they are concerned and worried that their children may not be able to manage the wealth that may be going down towards them. As ...

25/03/2022

Have you or your friend come across large amounts of money and is stuck of what to do with it?

Here are a few thoughts for you.

Financial Planning How do you manage LARGE amounts of wealth March 25, 2022March 25, 2022 by Gregory Fok I was having a conversation with a person recently who had come into a rather significant amount of wealth a few years ago. I asked him what his experience had been holding on this amount of mone...

16/03/2022

What does the evidence tell us..? And then how should we manage our portfolios when it comes to an increasing rate environment?

Given the possibility of upcoming federal funds rate changes, it’s a good time to examine the relation, or lack thereof, between past changes in federal funds rate and future bond performance.

14/03/2022

With the recent Budget 2022 announcements, are you still on track towards retirement?

I am grateful to be given the opportunity to share about how the Budget might affect you.

Do us a favour to share this article to help create awareness and help the people around you!

Singapore's recent Budget 2022 revealed a slew of changes aimed at making Singapore's tax system more progressive and addressing social inequalities. Amongst