We often hear of complaints that consumers do not have time to review their portfolio. The opposite rings true too! I’ve met committed individuals and families who make time to do their reviews.
“Why will they do that?” you might wonder.
Simple. Everyone should review his or her financial portfolio regularly as we are constantly growing through life with differing milestones at various points. And these committed people are aware of that.
Reviewing of personal finance gives you the opportunity to understand where you are now, what are the coverage that you have and where you want to be in the future. Let’s not forget how regardless of how efficiently we “think” we planned? Life happens, often throws a curveball in our way and bam! Things change. What this also means is that your plans need tweaking!
The way you manage your money will impact your future therefore reviewing your finances with a financial advisor would be the first step to help you achieve your goals. Of course, there might be times when you have differing opinions with your financial advisor. And that is okay! We are all human. The main thing to remember is that they offer you a second opinion pointing out blind spots that you might have missed, they grow with you and seek to assist you towards achieving your goals.
Now you might be thinking “huh, you sure?” … and if you are? Well, it might be time to reevaluate if you are choosing to trust your advisor. Trust works both ways, doesn’t it? But that is a story for another day.
Now whilst there are those who are on the ball about their reviews? A huge majority of us procrastinate in our quest to financial wellness. And the reasons vary from being busy with the hustle and bustle of life to having life crisis where they have limited cash to the simple reason that there are more important things to do at the current point for them.
If this is you?
There are some things you can do a quick check on your own till you schedule that meeting with your advisor.
Ensure you have an Integrated Shield Plan
According to the statistics by Ministry of Health, there were 546,256 that were admitted to hospital in 2016. Considering that Singapore has a population of 5.79 million, there is approximately 1% probability that one will be admitted to hospital. This might seem insignificant but this is a risk that one is constantly exposed to for the lifetime. In addition, the risk of developing chronic illness will increase with age. With Integrated Shield Plan, it helps to take care of the deductibles and co-insurance providing more options for patients. It allows one to choose between seeking treatment from public or private hospital and the type of ward during admission.
Top up your CPF special account
More than half of Singaporeans are worried they will not have enough money to maintain an adequate standard of living when they retire, according to a survey conducted by Aviva. If you are unsure of how to invest, topping up your CPF special account is something you can consider. As compared to leaving your spare cash in the bank’s savings account with an average interest rate of less than 0.5% per annum, CPF Special account will give you better returns. Any funds that you top-up into your CPF Special Account will earn you a minimum return of 4.0% per annum. Additionally? The first $60,000 in your CPF accounts earns an additional 1.0% in interest. The returns from the CPF Special Account is decent for those of us who are not confident of investing and/or those who simply want to maximise these funds.
Review your portfolio online
Let’s be real: the “to-do list” will never end! Meeting the deadlines at work and fulfilling the needs of our loved ones, it sometimes feels like it is practically impossible to regularly take time out for a sit-down review with our financial advisors. With everything going digital, the process of financial portfolio review can be simplified too. We bring the tools for financial review online.
We’ve launched an app Ottermise adopting a proprietary process that rates and reviews your insurance portfolio, giving you a glimpse of how to stretch your dollars. It aims to save time for busy Singaporeans from those who are busy adulting, to getting ready for weddings, looking after kids and more.
That said? It does NOT replace a proper financial review with your financial advisor. These are interim steps that you can take to beef up your portfolio before getting the experts in to help you streamline and refine it. With the constant changes in life, we can never predict what will happen next. Ultimately, one should engage a financial advisor to sit down and start planning for the future.
