He told me that he once walked aimlessly on the streets of Kuala Lumpur at his wits-end, trying to figure out how to find money to buy formula milk to feed me, his 3 year old son. His business had failed and he had run out of money. So when my daughter was born, I resolved to make sure that she will never run the danger of not having food on the table. I think I became a real adult the day she was born. Although my father survived his ordeal and had a couple of rewarding ventures afterwards, he experienced business setbacks later in life.
I know he was still financially anxious during the last years of his life. So I have resolved a long time ago to make sure that my wife and I will have an anxiety-free retirement. I apply that principle to my personal finances too. The birth of my children made me realise that I needed to plan for the worst case scenario.
I never want them to be put through financial hardship. So I bought the most cost-effective life insurance policy, which is invariably a term life policy, that will give my family a seven figure sum if I die prematurely. That same policy will also give my family funds to take care of me if I became permanently disabled or suffer a critical illness. Of course, this was in addition to medical insurance plans for the whole family. I do not believe in an investment-linked policy as I feel I am likely to get the worst of both worlds: First, I am not likely to get adequate insurance cover, second, my investment returns, after deducting all the middlemen and administrative costs, will be sub-optimal.
I rather get the best of both worlds by separating my insurance and investments: Life insurance with a really high coverage amount that might tempt my wife to arrange to murder me, and a separate investment portfolio that is completely flexible, low cost and earning potentially higher returns. The Hunt for 10Xers Once I had that peace of mind, the fun then started yes, investing can be fun! I love the challenge of finding publicly listed companies that are potentially 10Xers, meaning, if I buy their shares, they will return me 10 times my investment within a 10 year period.
Some of my 10Xers so far: Amazon, Digi, Visa. Some are on the way there e. Industry, Materials and Utilities Updated. By Joseph Sotinel 3 Min Read. So, in a way, this was a golden-but-strings-attached handshake, but to me, it solved one big worry of my life. Is that serendipity? I mean, who does that for you, right? Be authentic. Be an ethical entrepreneur or businessman and you will be fine.
I have two hats on all the time. As a professional, my money habits are fairly stable, meaning fairly conventional. When I go into a new business, I check if I have enough savings, enough to last me during that lean period, and that is aside from retirement or education savings.
I put aside a certain sum to start BFM, and had enough left over to tide us over as a family for three to four years. I was lucky: Jobstreet listed and I had a small windfall from that. The rest of the funds needed for BFM was raised from investors, which included some of the co-founders of JobStreet.
I always try keep my expenses low, no fancy cars, and I consider a coffee at Starbucks as a treat. I even walk to work. I chose an apartment near my office and I walk to work. Yet it was still a great experience. Well, I have been battle-scarred, right? One for my Malaysia number, the other for my Singapore one. And the iPhone 5 is a hand-me-down from my wife. What else do I spend on? This points to Fitbit a compatible weighing scale that syncs to it, but these are things that help my health.
Though I rarely go to Starbucks, I still like my coffee. You can change your cookie settings at any time. You've rejected analytics cookies. We use cookies to make our services work and collect analytics information. To accept or reject analytics cookies, turn on JavaScript in your browser settings and reload this page. Next accounts made up to 31 December due by 30 September
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