Archives

As the first half to 2019 draws to a close, the equity markets are celebrating one of the best first-half performances for a year in a long time. In fact, the S&P 500 has posted its best [...]

“Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.” —Socrates In our consumeristic-culture where discontent is promoted and material gratification is encouraged, learning to be content [...]

There are two distinctive phases for retirement planning- Accumulation and Withdrawal. However, many of us tend to only focus on the accumulation bit pre-retirement and often neglect the [...]

I was chatting with a new client this week and they mentioned that they just weren’t bothered about saving for the future. They said that they wanted to live in the here and now and that they [...]

Active investing can stimulate a rush of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with excitement and, potentially, with addiction. Akin to gambling, active investing gives investors a thrill. The [...]

If we look at the historical data, the old saying of “Sell in May and go away” isn’t exactly very accurate as the markets don’t always go down in the May-Oct period. [...]

Instead of living for the weekends, or counting down the years until retirement, you need a reason to get out of bed every day. And that reason needs to stem beyond money. After all, what are you [...]

Near-death experiences can not only change our perspective on death but also empower us to live more meaningful, fulfilled lives. Watch this video as Christopher Tan, CEO of Providend, shares a [...]

Do you know of any magic indicator that can always successfully point out the next market crash? If not, does that mean that all these economic indicators are useless? Well, we don’t think [...]

Do you judge people by how much money they make? Money holds a lot of power both in our minds and in the real world. It can mean the difference between getting by or thriving, and it can also [...]

The market has fallen for the first time in 2019! But fret not. This video was recorded only yesterday and by today, the market has gone up again- further proving the point that it is almost [...]

In a world with so much geopolitical issues and uncertainty, retirement seems to be a scary subject to think about. Retirement planning during withdrawal phase is more complex because retirees [...]

All investors want to have successful investment experience. This is why many try to time the market in order to get the most out of their investment. However, this takes a lot of knowledge, time [...]

In my last 2 parts, I shared the need to initiate a conversation with your other half and to take actions as soon as possible. In this final part, I hope to touch on the topic of children. After [...]

Many investors are too fixated on picking the right stocks at the right time. Instead, they should be fixated on their total return after all fees. Watch this video as Vincent Tey, Head of [...]

Stock markets had another strong month in April as the S&P 500 closed at a new historic high of 2945.83 at the end of the month, notching up a 4.05% (in USD) gain for the month. Local [...]

In the previous article, I shared that by starting the conversation about finances and retirement planning with your other half allows both of you to think about your desired current and future [...]

Somewhere in the middle of last year, I met up with a friend of mine. Over coffee, she lamented, “Hey, Yong Cheng, you know I have been wanting to speak to my husband about planning for our [...]

One of the main things I talk to my clients about is their attitude to risk, after all, it’s an inherent part of investing. There is no such thing as risk-free investing. There is no [...]

Borrowing from the movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, the following lists a number of things you should consider doing to tidy up your estate plan, if not already. If you’ve [...]

People always tell me that the financial services industry is an exciting industry to be in. Every day, either in the papers, on TV, radio or on social media, analysts will predict what will [...]

What do stocks do after one of the worst Decembers on record (in terms of market performance)? Start 2019 with one of the best first quarters in history! (For global equities. STI is another [...]

Many textbooks have defined investing as the act of committing money or capital to an endeavour with the expectation of obtaining an additional income or profit. Indeed, so much emphasis has been [...]

About a month ago, I gave a talk at the Seedly Personal Finance Festival entitled “Insurance – Cutting Out the Fluff” to an audience of almost 1200 young people. In the talk, I shared about how [...]

As you journey through life, the phases of your retirement planning process should progress with you. However, many retirement planning instruments available are meant for the earlier stages. [...]

This is an article published in The Business Times as a recognition for our ethical practices on financial planning and strict adherence to the fee-only model. FEE-ONLY advisory firm Providend [...]

The S&P 500 closed February with its longest losing streak in 2019 of 3 days. It might sound a little gloomy, but this has been the best start for the index since 1991. The chart below shows [...]

On 22nd December last year, I invested the monies in my SRS account into one of the investment portfolios that my company manages. About one month later on the 19th January, I went to check on [...]

When the Central Provident Fund (CPF) was introduced in 1955, it only had one intention and that is to help Singaporeans to save for retirement. Since its establishment, the fundamental of it has [...]

Many investors enjoy predicting when the next stock market crash is going to occur. So anything that can apparently predict such a crash is often sought after by investors—much like adventurers [...]