Photo taken in Dec 2013, Dubai, Desert Safari
Many Singaporeans treat Money as a Commodity.
As a commodity, monies are supposed to be accumulated and stored. You only use them when necessary.
I met this lady prospect, Aged 56, Single, in 2015. I consolidated her assets which total up to about $1.35 million and are mostly from CPF, Cash Fixed Deposit and 5% in Equity.
I created a Retirement Plan which allows her to enjoy an immediate retirement income of about $2,400/month and 5 years later, at Age 61, she will receive about $4,500/month. By Age 65, she will receive a total of $5,700/month.
After 2 weeks of consideration, she told me that she will not take up my proposal because she lives a very simple life and does not need that much money for her retirement.
She told me, she only spends about $800/month for her retirement needs. Every morning, she will go for a walk near her HDB and will end up at a food court in a shopping mall nearby. She does not eat breakfast there, and instead she brings along her water and will read her free newspaper which she collected at the nearby MRT station.
At about noon, she will walk over to the nearby market to pack cheap food ($3.50) back for lunch. At about 2 pm, she will walk over to the nearby Community Club to use the free computer there. Including her dinner (also from the market), she only spent about $7.00 that day.
I have met many Singaporeans who are like her and this is the group of Singaporeans who will never be my clients. They tend to spend very little and prefer to accumulate their money and store them like a commodity.
I prefer all my clients to treat money like Trees.
If money were to be treated like trees, I will recommend my clients to plant trees that are big, strong and will bear fruit every month for a long time to come.
By planting trees that produce fruits which are constantly being pushed to my clients monthly, this will force my clients to consume them or sell them to convert to money for their retirement consumption. My clients can’t store these fruits because they will spoil.
This illustration explains my Retirement Planning philosophy : All the Yearly Retirement Income that I help all my clients to create for their Retirement should be spent and not kept or reinvested.
This will help make sure that my clients are enjoying a Retirement Lifestyle they deserve.
All trees recommended will be strong and will outlive my clients. Thus, their Assets are being maintained and passed on to their loves ones upon their decease.
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