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Many people do not see the importance of insurance until they need it, or until it is too late for them to do anything with it, and what’s worse, many considers it an unnecessary expense. In reality, however, insurance is more than that – it is a useful financial tool that forms part of our wealth management planning.

Starting Out

Our financial needs, income and liabilities vary at different stage of our life, as shown above. Those who are young and single who have just started their working life in their 20s are only interested in investment to grow whatever little money that they have.

Although it is good to have the desire to start accumulating wealth early, many of them are unaware that the risk of falling ill can happen any time while accumulating wealth.

Thus, at that particular age, they should also look into wealth protection. If they are still single, they should at least have healthcare planning. 

What is healthcare planning?  Is it just a medical card?  When someone is sick and have to be admitted to the hospital, do they stay for a longer period of time, or do they recuperate at home?

For instance, a cancer patient who is undergoing treatment at the hospital might be required to stay at the hospital for a certain period of time. Even after being discharged, they will still be required to go for follow-up treatments, and all in all, the recovery period could take up to a year or more.

There is a possibility that they might not be able to work like before, and thus, their income will be affected. In cases of major illnesses, besides medical expenses, many will find themselves having to spend their money on daily sustenance, alternative therapies, supplements, and sometimes they might even require a caretaker.

A complete healthcare plan should include a medical card and critical illness coverage. Do remember that a medical card solely pays for hospital expenses while critical illness insurance pays a lump sum when one is diagnosed with any of the critical illnesses listed.

A patient can use this lumpsum amount to cover their daily needs resulting from the loss of income as well as for alternative treatments.

Having a Family

Thirties is the age where many people choose to start a family. At this phase of life, having children will also mean creating an education fund and protecting the family income and assets.

This is the period when you need to look into family income protection to take care of your most important responsibility – your loved ones. Should anything unfortunate happen to you, you can rest easy knowing that they will be well taken care of.

That being said, their financial needs – including their daily expenses and funds for their education – need to be calculated. The amount required might be several million ringgit, and most people in their 30s do not have such a large amount of money available.

In this instance, the cheapest tool is to purchase an insurance for the required sum, which will provide a peace of mind with the knowledge that in case of any tragedy, your loved ones will be protected.

Take this case study as an example. Mr Tan, 33, is married with two children aged two and five; his wife is a homemaker. Mr Tan, whose monthly disposable income is RM5,000, is the sole breadwinner of the family, and since this is the case, he is worried about his family’s wellbeing should anything happen to him.

He has estimated that his family needs RM60,000 a year, and wants to ensure that his family is provided for until his youngest child is 22 years old. To achieve this, he would therefore require 20 years’ worth of funds amounting to RM1.2 mil.

At 33, Mr Tan does not have that much savings. His house may be worth RM1.2 mil, but his family will still need to live in it. Therefore, having a life insurance coverage of RM1.2 mil to cover this risk would be the most effective financial tool.

Bear in mind that we should review our insurance policies every 5-10 years as our financial status and priorities change. 40-50s is the prime time where we have more assets and liabilities, as well as changes to our lifestyle as we move into our retirement years.

It is also the time when our income is more stable and we have excess funds to prepare for our golden years.

Preparing for Golden Years

We would want to enjoy our retirement days without worrying about whether there is sufficient money to tide us through the years. If we prepare well in our 40s or even earlier, we would not need to worry about risks or expenses that might take away our retirement funds.

Someone once asked, “What and how to prepare financially in order to enjoy the golden years?” Well, there are three types of expenses that we need to prepare for post-retirement, namely

• Daily living expenses (which can be from our EPF fund that many of us have accumulated during our working years);
• Maintenance or medical expenses; and
• Happy fund.

Advancements in science has led to an extended life expectancy rate, but while people are now living longer, many are still unaware that older medical plans only insure a person up to the age of 70. Medical hospitalisation is becoming very costly, and therefore, we need to ensure that our healthcare insurance plan covers us until are 80, at the very least.

Furthermore, as we age, there will be an increased risk of developing health problems such as high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol. Such health conditions require daily medication which is not covered by medical cards and will eat into our retirement funds.

On top of the daily medications, there will also be other supplements and nutritional needs required to promote better health. These are the maintenance expenses that need to be taken into consideration as well.

To enjoy our retirement years to the fullest, we need to have a certain amount of money to do the ‘fun’ stuff like travelling and indulging in hobbies. We should start accumulating our lifestyle or ‘happy’ fund as early as possible by growing our wealth through unit trusts, shares and saving plans.

How we choose from the different wealth accumulation tools will depend on our risk appetite and duration of investment.

Financial planning at different stages of life is important. Insurance is one of the cheapest tools to manage risk and is only one of the many financial planning tools out there today.

In addition to protecting your wealth, there are other financial tools in the market, each with its own purpose such as accumulating and growing wealth through savings and investments; and wealth distribution though estate planning.

About the Author

Andrea Siew is an Approved Financial Adviser with Harveston Wealth Management Sdn Bhd.

My wife and I are both accountants. We have two children, one of them is a child with special needs. I’ve always known the importance of getting our family’s financial planning done, but never quite came around to it due to our busy schedule.

We were lucky to have met Pauline, our Financial Planner. She was interested in finding out our goals and how she could help us to achieve them. After taking the time to understand us, she helped us in assessing where we are now and what actions we need to do in order to achieve our goals. She helped us to come up with our financial plan.

I’m very happy that we engaged Pauline for her services. Truth be told, it is actually a tedious process to get the plan done. It requires perseverance and knowing how to go through each of the steps. Luckily, with Pauline’s help, she guided us through it and gave us the options and suggestions which helped us a lot during our financial planning journey.

Once we have completed our financial plan, we now know our financial standing, and what our spending is like. When we first saw our cash flow, we were surprised that we have been running a deficit. Within a month, Pauline helped us to identify the key areas which can be improved.

Through financial planning, we also realized that some of our insurance plans did not match with our family’s needs. Pauline was non-biased and was very objective in her advice to us. She helped us to streamline and optimize our current policies to meet our objectives. With this, we are able to save a substantial amount of money on insurance premiums alone.

Pauline also helped us with our estate planning. We initially had our Wills and Trust drawn up. After reviewing it, we realized there were many areas that were left hanging and no longer matched our needs. Pauline highlighted the areas which we never considered before and it was extremely helpful for my wife and me to consider restructuring our Will and Trust.

This was especially true for our special needs child. This area has always been a major concern for us as we want to ensure that both our children are taken care of, in the event something happens to us.

I’m glad we did our financial plan with Pauline. Once you are her client, she puts your interest first and lets you know the best way to manage your finances even if it means she’s not going to get anything out of the recommendation.

This is what I call “professional” and doing her business with “passion” and “from the heart”. She is also very detailed and tactful on how best to resolve the issues by giving us options for us to consider.

The best thing about getting my family’s financial planning, is that me and my wife are clear on what our needs are and how much we need to save to achieve our goals. We no longer need to second guess like before. After going through this process, I feel that having a financial plan is very important. Especially if you have a family to take care of, or if you are unsure whether you are saving enough for the future.

About the Author

Pauline Teoh loves to coach busy professionals to achieve their financial independence. She is a Licensed Financial Planner, Childpreneur Coach and is an expert in Risk Management, Investment Planning and Estate Planning

“Losing your loved ones is tough, but having a financial planner in your life does help”

I am Monica, a widow aged 52 years old. I came from a poor family and didn’t know anything about finance or money management when I was growing up. I have been working hard with my late husband Andy, in the trading business for the past 20 years and we managed to grow our assets along the way.

Initially we thought that buying a simple life insurance is all there is to financial planning. That was until I was introduced to Stanley back in 2013.

We were skeptical and delayed our meeting with him as we thought he is another salesman coming over to sell financial products. I am a person who does not believe in investment and financial planning. Instead I believed that holding cash is the right thing to do.

Stanley spent many hours meeting us and patiently listening to our financial concerns. He is then able to understand and identify our life and financial goals. Stanley shows the financial pitfalls that we are facing and help us to visualize our cash flow and net worth at that time, while being able to identify our financial gap and estate planning concerns on multiple different scenarios.

After his careful review, he restructured our existing insurance portfolio and managed to increase my late husband’s insurance coverage substantially from what we have based on our limited cash flow. His integrity and process-oriented independent review, and ability to access all types of financial products in the market really impressed us.

Stanley also advised us to set up a complete testamentary trust in our will for resource preservation. Using resource liquidation strategy, we are able to avoid estate shrinkage and potential resource squandering by anybody who is not good at financial management. I am fortunate to follow the advice from Stanley which makes the estate execution process very efficient.

My husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2017 and passed away a year later. Stanley did a good job with timely and efficient claims process. I was able to sail through the difficult period smoothly. He even visited my late husband almost every week in the hospital and accompany us until his last breath. Some of the big insurance policies that we bought a few months before the diagnosis date, Stanley is able to help us claim the insurance payout within a short period of time.

Our family benefited a lot from the insurance payouts. We managed to pay off our mortgages and ensure that our children’s tertiary education is fully funded. Our life and dignity is improved by using the resource optimisation strategy recommended by Stanley on a conservative money management. I am holding a well-diversified investment portfolio and received timely fixed payment to cover our living expenses. We are also being updated regularly on the market’s movement.

I am glad that Stanley is also able to provide my children with solid financial knowledge. Now all my children have graduated and they are back at my company to help me run the business. Stanley also provided my children with tips on business resource optimisation strategy to weather the pandemic and it has helped us tremendously.

I am comfortable knowing that we have a financial peace of mind under Stanley’s good hands. We are very much on track to achieve our family’s financial goals!

About the Author

Stanley Hon is Practice Group Director at FA Advisory Sdn Bhd. He is a Licensed Financial Adviser, MDRT & Speaker, Will & Trust Specialist.

Anwar reached out to me in 2018 as he needed help with his personal finances. As the only son in his family, he was the executor of his late father’s inheritance. His father passed away many years ago due to cancer, and he remembered clearly the financial drain from cancer treatment.

34-year-old Anwar is a lecturer at one of Malaysia’s largest universities. His wife is a housewife taking care of their two children, aged 7 and 4.

“Although my father’s death hit us badly, we were thankful that he did not leave us with massive medical bills. This is because our prudent father had a healthy emergency fund,” shared Anwar.

Being the main breadwinner of his own growing family, he needed to prepare for such emergencies. Just like his father, he wanted to ensure that his wife and children are well-provided for in case anything happened to him.

Anwar’s father was a banker and had taught his children about saving money. Anwar also has a keen interest in personal finance and investment, and had read books and attended a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) course from a financial guru.

However, he found that the information was too overwhelming and didn’t know where to start with regards to his own personal finances. Having been approached by unit trust and insurance agents, he was wary as he recalled, “They were more interested in pushing their products for commission rather than to put a roadmap and direction for me to achieve my financial goals”.

Here are the 3 values of a full financial planning.

1. An Expression Of Love

Anwar and his wife know how dire their financial situation will be if Anwar passes away prematurely. People tend to forget verbal reminders easily. But if it is written in the form of a will, wishes, hopes and dreams; it helps tremendously.

Furthermore, the engagement allows him to translate his expression of love, his long-term and short-term goals into actions, and not just a wish. During our discussion, one of Anwar’s goals is to support his wife’s pastry business once his financial situation has improved.

After the third year of our advisory engagement, Anwar manages to make his wife’s goal into a reality. (You can check it out on Instagram Pastreen; it’s really delicious)

2. Aligning Strategy With Financial Goals

We provided insights to help him map out the strategies to reduce the Debt-to-Service Ratio (DSR), ideal asset allocations for his financial resources and guidance on financial products he should consider getting with the time horizon he needed in order to achieve his financial goals.

Since he was willing to start early, he will have more options and opportunities to optimise his wealth. As his financial planner, my role is to guide him with the options available so that he can take ownership in his financial planning by making an informed decision.

Anwar now understands the importance of building a healthy cashflow, and how to lead his ideal life within his means.

3. Financial Needs And Wants

A common situation is the relationship between savings for building cash reserves and other goals in life such as buying an asset. Many are unsure if they are over-committing one financial goal at the expense of another.

With a holistic financial plan, we can see how extra commitments will affect other financial goals. It helps to adjust our actions, weighing the pros and cons before deciding. Most importantly, it is a tool to effectively communicate your financial situations and life goals.

Conclusion

Anwar is a real-life story of “It is not about how much income you make, but how well you manage your income”. Without a roadmap and direction, we might spend unnecessarily and make poor financial decisions. Financial mistakes are painful.

Similar to inflation, financial goals and financial freedom are a challenge to understand and to manage, because it is intangible. Only after acknowledging what an ideal life is, you can move on to support your goals in life.

About the Author

Saidah Asilah started her career as a graduate trainee with Securities Commission Malaysia. Then, with a deep interest in investments, she furthered her studies in MSc in International Business and Emerging Markets, graduating in 2013 from The University of Edinburgh, UK. She is a Licensed Financial Planner, CFP Professional & IFP Certificant and describes herself as a multi-talented adventurer with a positive impact to whomever she meets. She can be contacted at saidah@wealthvantage.com.my.

We at Smart Investor and Wealth Vantage is committed to help you better manage your financials. Get a free consultation from an expert by filling in your details here: https://www.smartinvestor.com.my/SIxWealthVantage

Based on the OECD/INFE 2020 International Survey of Adult Financial Literacy that included 26 countries, Malaysia was ranked third highest behaviour score after Slovenia and Indonesia. This ranking was achieved thanks to three common, prudent financial planning behaviours that emerged in the survey answers, including saving and long-term planning, making considered purchases and keeping track of cash flow.

However, Malaysia was also placed in the bottom tier in the section of financial knowledge. The report also highlighted that globally, youths (defined as those aged 18-29) have a lower financial literacy score compared to middle-aged individuals (30-59 years old), of which a similar trend was seen in Malaysia as well.

Thus, I would like to take some time to share about costly mistakes that you should avoid in your financial planning journey, especially for the younger generation to take note of!

1. Ignorance

Ignoring the basic knowledge about invest and power of compounding is like ignoring the blinking fuel light on your dashboard while driving! In the worst scenario, ignoring this indicator may result in your car inadvertently stopping in the middle of nowhere after running out of fuel. Not a pleasant situation to be in!

In financial planning, you may end up paying a huge price in the future because you will not be able to get back time which is essential to growing your personal financial assets through your active income period, either via employment, business or investments.

The first step you must take is to accept your current financial situation, no matter what level you are currently at. This is just like the example above, where you can drive your car to the nearest petrol station to refuel before continuing your journey. Just do not run out of fuel!

Once your financial situation is assessed either by doing it yourself or getting professional assistance, identify several steps you can take towards your goal such as starting to put aside savings regularly, monitoring your cashflows, and identifying investment assets that are suitable for your risk appetite in order to build and grow your wealth.

2. Procrastination

Procrastination tends to occur when we would rather do other things instead of what we actually need to do. Thinking that reviewing and planning your finances is something that can be delayed or put off to a later date is actually a very common problem.

In investing, this will translate to you needing to save a higher amount each month due to the shorter investment horizon, compared to another individual who started earlier than you. The cost of procrastination may not bite you early on, but its effects can be far reaching in the future!

This can also apply to insurance planning – some individuals may have certain conditions excluded or charged more on their premiums should they want to apply for and purchase health insurance at a later stage. As their health is not in as good a condition as it was when they were much younger, naturally the price will increase.

Therefore, it is advisable to get insurance early on with appropriate coverage when you are young. Review your insurance needs annually or whenever there are changes to your lifestyle. After all, any medical emergency can wipe out your savings in an instant so always be prepared!

3. Fear

Some individuals may have adopted the wrong beliefs or have misconceptions about investing, creating their own meaning out of their own experiences or that of others. That may also be the reason why some of them tend to keep most of their wealth in their bank accounts, or at best, fixed deposits. Although they would rather opt for certainty in life, the only thing that is certain is change.

What is more important for you is to implement proper diversification in your portfolio, being disciplined and focused on consistent savings, and growing your wealth in order to reach your long-term financial goals.

Do you worry that you might not have enough financial resources to fund your retirement in 320 years’ time? Or would you rather worry about the short-term fluctuations in your investment portfolio during periods of market volatility?

You cannot turn back the clock if you do not have enough savings in your retirement age, so it is wise to maintain a long-term perspective when looking at investing.

Give yourself a head start. Learn how to gain the right knowledge through reading, attending seminars or seeking out financial professionals such as licensed financial planner to guide you. These avenues will greatly help you with overcoming fear of volatility and taking advantage of it to grow your retirement nest egg or reaching other financial goals you may have.

In conclusion, the three mistakes to avoid in your financial planning journey (especially among the younger generation) is to get rid of your ignorance, overcome procrastination and conquer your fears.

It is important to start taking smaller steps as early as possible to improve your financial literacy, and start to save and invest regularly to enjoy your financial planning journey with more confidence. Your future self will be very grateful!

About the Author

Goh Chee Yong is a licensed financial planner under Capital Markets Services Representative License (CMSRL) and Bank Negara approved Financial Advisor Representative (FAR). Prior to becoming a financial advisor, he spent eight years working in Big 4 audit firms and multinational corporations. He can be contacted at cygoh@imaxfinancial.com.my