What Financial Advisers Can Do for You

For us, it is not about needing to make good money – it is about consistently making good decisions. About reaching an amount that is enough for your future and your family’s. There is a lot that goes into retirement-planning and achieving financial goals. Here’s a list of some of them:

1. Budgeting and Expense Management
   

   The first step to achieving any financial goal is to thoroughly understand your financial situation. This includes learning the amount of income (plus the regularity of it), monthly expenses, debt obligations, and the cost of making certain dreams a reality. Based on this information, we can craft a tailored budget that allocates funds for essential expenses, savings, debt repayment, and discretionary spending. With your opinion being valued at every turn, we can help create a realistic budget that aligns with your financial capacity, ensuring that you live within reasonable means while setting aside a portion of your income for savings and investments. We have tried and tested strategies to trim unnecessary expenses, to find alternative arrangements for insurance and to allocate any surplus funds to a savings plan.

2. Insurance Needs Assessment and Reviewing Insurance Policies

   Assessing insurance needs is crucial, especially for someone with dependents. We can help determine the appropriate level of life insurance coverage and explore affordable options. It starts first with reviewing your current insurance coverage, including all existing life insurance policies and general insurance plans. Once we’ve done the review, we will help you determine the appropriate amount of life insurance coverage you need to protect your family in case of unexpected events. With changes that happen over time, we will assist in the adjustments to the coverage and premiums as well. There is a risk evaluation that comes into play for the work that you do, the place that you live in, and the life that you lead. We try to factor them in to ensure that you have the safeguard you need for the truly crucial moments.

3. Emergency Fund Planning

   There are things in life sometimes that even insurance cannot cover. So a financial safety net is still essential for such expenses that can’t be covered, like job loss. In the process of planning the emergency fund, we will first assess your need for it, taking into account the budget, expenses, family size, income stability, and potential risks. Based on this assessment, together we will set realistic goals that determine how much money should be saved and how long it may take. To ensure consistent saving, the amount is to be an appropriate number that does not cause any strain on your daily life. However, as life circumstances change, we can assist to adjust the expectations of the fund and allocations towards it. Unlike a retirement savings account like EPF or PRS, we will find you one that is easily accessible whenever you need it.

4. Debt Management

   If you have any high-interest debts, like credit card balances or personal loans, we can develop a debt repayment plan to minimise interest payments and eliminate debt more efficiently. Not having to worry about creditors at your door is important not just for your financial well-being, but also mental and emotional well-being. With a comprehensive debt assessment, we can help you prioritise your debts based on factors like interest rates, loan terms, and the urgency of repayment. This will lead to a structured debt repayment plan that outlines monthly payment amounts and timelines for each debt. This visualisation of your progress would be a motivational approach towards debt freedom.

5. Savings, Investment Strategies and Retirement Planning

   With so many savings and investment options out there, it is important to tailor your plans to your risk tolerance and financial goals. The choices of short-term, long-term, high-risk, and low-risk, are all important decisions that need to be made not just based on your budget and projected returns, but also your knowledge and emotional involvement on the matter. If you have children, then we can recommend an education savings plan to ensure there is a fund for the studies that they may want to pursue in the future. Even with a modest income, it’s essential to plan for retirement. We can assist in setting up retirement accounts, beyond just the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), and explore additional retirement savings options.

6. Estate Planning
   

   It’s not something anyone really wants to think about, but in the event of one’s passing, it is vital that this part is settled. For the financial future of your family, there are ways to allocate your assets to them in the way that you want. Having taken stock of your total assets, investments, savings, other valuable possessions, outstanding debts and/or liabilities, we will then assist you in creating a will. This is possibly the most crucial aspect of estate planning. We will help you clearly outline how you want your assets to be distributed, and who you would want to appoint as the legal guardians to your children. You could set up trusts to manage those assets and plan for taxes that may apply to the passing down of those assets. As the law and regulations may evolve, so will we help in making the necessary changes to stay aligned with the new updates.

   This support and guidance will hopefully also empower you to make informed financial decisions, to manage your family’s day to day expenses effectively, and work with a clearer motivation to your financial objectives.