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In the very first episode, I will be sharing my objectives of publishing the Money Wisdom book back in 2019 and an overview of its content flow so you can have a better understanding of what to [...]

In the blink of an eye, 12 months flew past, and just like that, another year is coming to an end. How has the year been for you? For me, there were plenty of things to reflect upon. So, in my [...]

I have a close relative who was recently and suddenly diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Unfortunately, after one session of chemotherapy, the side-effects caused him to hallucinate and then one [...]

Last month, I wrote a piece in this column that took an honest look at ESG investing. The conclusion was that We cannot conclude the ESG companies will give higher expected returns. Fund managers [...]

How do we differentiate commission-based, fee-based and fee-only wealth advisers? Which life insurance plans do we need – term, whole life or investment-linked? Also, is there a way to live [...]

There have been a lot of talks about ESG investing recently. Financial institutions have been marketing their ESG investments aggressively to attract investors’ money and there are a lot of [...]

 In this video, we explain the rationale behind CPF Full Retirement Sum and whether CPF LIFE is adequate to fund our retirement. You can find the link to the other parts here: Understanding [...]

“Siao on” (a Singaporean term for being overly serious or on the ball) is how my closer friends would describe me when it comes to national service (NS). I started serving my NS in the army at [...]

 CPF LIFE is probably the best life annuity scheme you can find in Singapore. Question is, how do we choose between the Standard, Basic and Escalating plan? In Part 5 of this series, we share [...]

 How many accounts are there in our CPF? Three? Well technically, there are four. If you do not see the fourth account yet, that is because you are still young 🙂 In this video, we spell out the [...]

On 24th October 2020, I wrote in this column about Providend’s courtship with Vanguard funds. It was a 16-year courtship which started in 2004, speaking with 4 country heads to get them to bring [...]

 As a start to our 7-part series on understanding CPF for retirement, we talk about the 5 key risks that retirees face and specifically, in terms of investing, the sequence of returns risk. You [...]

Jane “Nightbirde” Marczewski, a singing contestant on this season of America’s Got Talent (AGT) took the internet by storm last week when she sang an original song called “It’s [...]

In March 2020, the markets tumbled and the S&P500 fell about 30% from its peak. While many investors panicked, we were busily engaging and assuring clients. The key message that we sent was [...]

The most recent changes to the Integrated Plan (IP) or sometimes known as the Integrated Shield Plan (ISP) caused a hot debate between the insurers and the doctors over the past 3 weeks. So, what [...]

In recent months, cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin has been a hot topic. When Elon Musk announced that they bought US$1.5 billion Bitcoins and that Tesla will accept Bitcoins, its price [...]

In conventional retirement planning, advisers often assume that their clients’ annual expenses (adjusted for inflation) remain flat throughout their retirement years. Therefore, many retirement [...]

In my previous article dated 28 November 2020, I wrote about universal life policies (ULPs) being touted as good instruments that allow the affluent to free up more cash for their retirement [...]

As we enter into the last day of an unprecedented year, I thought it would be good for me to take this time of the year to reflect on the past 12 months and share some of my key takeaways with [...]

Since 2003, we have been advocating the use of term insurance instead of whole life policies. The thinking is pretty straightforward: the primary purpose of insurance is to replace income loss [...]

My courtship with Vanguard funds started 16 years ago in 2004. Providend was licensed to give advice only about a year back and while we had an investment philosophy & process in place, there [...]

The anticipation building up to elections often brings with it questions about how financial markets will respond. But the outcome of an election is only one of many inputs to the market. When [...]

Like any industry, investing has its own language. And one term people often use is “investment portfolio,” which refers to all of your invested assets. Building an investment [...]

  Do you know which type of insurance is of the highest priority for you? The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in Singaporeans becoming more aware of protecting themselves and their loved ones [...]

Many years ago, I wrote an article in this same column that was based on the documentary movie “Food Inc”. Director Robert Kenner lifted the veil on the food industry, exposing often [...]

Are you aware that a will may not supersede the nomination you made in a life insurance policy? Typically, when a person passes away with a will, the person’s estate will be distributed to the [...]

Decades of research by organizational scientists, sociologists and economists have shown that when individuals from different walks of life come together and share unique viewpoints, positive [...]

The last month has been a crazy time for those of us who are invested in the equities market. The US market went up 10% in one day and then came down 12% on another. On the day when it came down [...]

There is a lot of uncertainty right now, with everything in flux. The natural reaction for most is to sell first which is why we are getting the reaction we see in the market today. It is [...]

In the previous episode, Christopher Tan, CEO of Providend, shared more on the distribution rules of intestate estates and the importance of having a proper will done.   But before you make a [...]