I was invited as a panelist on 20 January by Samuel Rhee, Founding partner and CIO, and Sheng Shi Chiam, Personal Finance Lead for Endowus, on investing and the future of your CPF in 2020. This is the first step and kickoff of 2020 for TOC in the quest of engaging the masses on raising the level of financial literacy in Singapore. Much more is in the works in upcoming months.
The auditorium for this evening was in full attendance, and the crowd was highly enthusiastic in understanding the different ways available to maximise their CPF returns and leverage on CPF both as a retirement tool and as a financial safety net. It is built on by the fact that several gurus were in the schedule to share real-life experiences and stories on how their investment journey could be applicable to the listeners. It is both a balance of perspectives and sharing of tips and tricks. It ain’t all talk, and no action.
To a speaker, a good crowd is important. Having a fun crowd doubles up the joy in sharing and is uplifting to the overall mood and atmosphere, as we could see.
I share my thoughts, strategies and experience on saving and investing for my child from age zero. With a longer time-frame of at least 50 years, how she could take on a higher risk profile and continue to be vested in the various market dips to come in a lifetime.
There is more ways than one in which parents with young children could explore, at their own comfort level, on how to set a role model in investing for their children using their very children as real-life examples. Something I wished my own parents had done it for me, or that I had been “woke” much earlier in life.
I continued to be intrigued by the power of compounding interest and to write extensively on it — with a recent article on Why Investing early matters. With a long time-frame and by starting early, you actually need to save less on a regular basis as compared to someone who starts off later. Mathematically, it has been shown that to reach the same financial goal at age 65, every 5 years that a person start off early would mean that he essentially could afford to half his daily savings and investment.
It was an engaging session with the audience afterwards, who were equally concerned on how their children and grandchildren, from the very young to mid-30s, to get started and interested in their investment journey. The only time when it is too late, is when you continue to procrastinate.
The point here is really, time waits for no one. To enjoy more in life later, there is a need to just sacrifice a little now. We call it delayed gratification in other words. Frugality and thriftiness is different from being stingy. It is a virtue whereby one exercise self-control and restraint in the appropriate situations and to be big-hearted, charitable and generous in others.
It was a great experience and good fun. I would do it over and over again, given the same opportunities to engage like-minded folks. Till next time.
Theory of Constraints 
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