Blog

Contributed by Michelle Ee, Wealth Management Director, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at michelleee@fa.sg)

While advances in medical science helps to prolong our lives, it also increases our health care and treatment costs. Therefore, it is crucial to have medical insurance – such as critical illness insurance and hospitalisation insurance – help pay for these costs. However, many people are confused over how critical illness insurance & hospitalisation insurance works. Here are some quick pointers to help you understand.

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Any money-savvy individual would appreciate a good professional opinion when it comes to their finances. Obtaining advice from a financial advisory professional can be extremely helpful to those looking to grow one’s wealth, make wise investment choices and save for one’s future. In these cases, engaging a financial adviser representative who offer a wide suite of financial consulting services for you can be the best option.

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Contributed by Kenny Loh
Senior Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at kennyloh@fapl.sg)
To learn more about him and read his articles, visit his blog 

There is nothing wrong with investing in dividend stocks to generate passive income for your retirement planning. However, it will cause a huge dent in your retirement portfolio if you are investing wrongly. The following are the 3 dividend traps that you have to avoid.

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Contributed by Kenny Loh
Senior Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at kennyloh@fapl.sg)
To learn more about him and read his articles, visit his blog 

Many retail investors are drawn to the hype of investing in cryptocurrencies as they believe this asset class, which is aggressively marketed as a phenomenal wealth creation tool, fulfils “get rich quick” dreams.

Bitcoin is the best known and largest of the 1,600-odd cryptocurrencies. The US$140 billion market capitalisation of Bitcoin is even bigger than the famous McDonald’s (Ticker: MCD) of US$129 billion.  The meteoric rise of Bitcoin has drawn many investors, with some believing that the underlying blockchain technology could become one of the most powerful tools in the future financial world. No doubt cryptocurrencies may change the financial world in future, but this asset class may not be suitable to everyone due to the underlying risks. The following are the 3 No-No reasons if you are investing in cryptocurrencies for your retirement planning.

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Contributed by Kenny Loh
Senior Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at kennyloh@fapl.sg)
To learn more about him and read his articles, visit his blog 

Like the physiotherapist who has to check the physical health of the professional soccer players before declaring them to be fully fit to play in a 90-minute competitive game, we as retail investors need to understand our own personal financial ratios so that we prioritise allocating our limited resources to the more pressing areas in our personal financial plans.

In short, don’t jump straight into investments if we are not sure of our financial “fitness level.” So how do we know what our fitness levels are?

There are 8 basic personal financial ratios we need to check.
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Are you stuck in a career rut? Are you a banker or a tied agent who’s hoping for a career with real job satisfaction? Among the possibilities out there, you may have even considered joining an independent financial adviser .

But what does independent mean, and how will it benefit you in the long run?

Firstly, independent financial advisers (“IFAs”) are organisations whose professionals (also known as representatives) offer independent financial advice to their clients and recommend suitable options from a wide range of financial products.

According to Financial Alliance founder Vincent Ee, IFAs offer unbiased financial advice, always acting in the best interests of their clients. “Being “independent”, IFAs are not tied to any particular financial product as opposed to a personal banker or an insurance agent.”

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HDB flats are covered by the compulsory HDB Fire Insurance Scheme—but is that enough? Some HDB owners would think that getting enhanced home insurance isn’t necessary as their flats are already insured. When it comes to protecting your home, it is important to understand why the HDB Fire Insurance Scheme alone may not be enough, and how a home insurance can give you a better sense of security and a peace of mind.

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Contributed by Kenny Loh
Senior Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at kennyloh@fapl.sg)
To learn more about him and read his articles, visit his blog 

Most investors are attracted by the high yield and passive income REITs offer. However, there are 3 important points to take note of when investing in REITs.
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Contributed by Kenny Loh
Senior Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at kennyloh@fapl.sg)
To learn more about him and read his articles, visit his blog 

One of the most common questions I am asked in my seminars is, “What types of asset classes are suitable in our retirement  portfolios? Endowment, annuity, universal life, bonds, equities, physical properties, land banking, hedge funds, etc?”

Physical properties are one of the most sought-after asset classes when it comes to investing in Singapore. However, there are some disadvantages relating to investing in physical properties when we are approaching our retirement age. We could instead consider investing in REITs.

REIT stands for Real Estate Investment Trust, and can serve as an alternative to investing  in physical properties. I will share 5 reasons to include REITs as alternatives to physical real estate in your retirement portfolio.

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For almost every parent in Singapore, getting a decent education for their child is a top priority. Some parents are willing to fork out a substantial amount of money in the name of education. Prepping the child for good education requires proper planning from the start.

In Singapore, university education costs an average of $21,000 a year. That is not a small sum, so what are ways to finance a child’s tertiary education?

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Contesting a will  is not a scenario we would like to see happen in the event of the testator’s death. However, it can still happen due to certain circumstances when the will was drafted. When drafting a will, it is highly recommended to engage a professional will writer to prevent such occurrence. Let’s explore the common grounds for contesting a will in Singapore:

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Contributed by Kenny Loh
Senior Consultant, Financial Alliance Pte Ltd
(The contributor can be contacted at kennyloh@fapl.sg)
To learn more about him and read his articles, visit his blog 

It was a very unfortunate event that investors lost their hard-earned money and retirement funds with Six Capital (Read the story here: Angry investors file police reports against FinTech firm Six Capital).

I am rather concerned with this statement in the Straits Times article on Six Capital: A few retirees indicated that they had poured in significant retirement sums. One lady was the age of my mother. She said that she was going to the temple to pray.

What can we learn – as retail investors – from this incident?

Let’s use the SABO model to analyse this incident. By the way, this SABO is NOT the Singlish word for “sabotage”.

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