Me & My Money Series (Sunday Times)

[corydorus]

It won't be easy to share because it can't often. I do not want to sound negative, but i feel generally alot of connections and insider info with those rich people that are already there. So is not really based on ones expertise or capability. Is like fate to be born around this group of atmosphere.

You may asks how i get to know ? Because ...

[Musicwhiz]

Feb 6, 2011
me & my money
Expat puts money to work everywhere
Indian oil drilling specialist has worked - and thus invested - in many countries
By Lorna Tan, Senior Correspondent

His 25-year career in a multi-national company in the oil and gas industry has taken him to Kuwait, India, Oman, Iran, Britain, Nigeria, Norway and, since 2005, Singapore.

Because Mr Nitin Vaidya worked in so many countries, he had investments in various schemes and institutions spread all over the world.

'My wife and I didn't give much thought to how to manage them at a later stage. It was okay for the few moves, but over time we realised we lacked a good adviser or a 'one-stop solution provider',' said the Indian expatriate.

It was only in 2008 that he took pains to consolidate his investments. He found the adviser he needed in an HSBC personal wealth manager.

Mr Vaidya, 46, is a mechanical engineering graduate from the University of Mumbai. After he graduated in 1985, he joined a multi-national company in the oil and gas industry. He is still with the same firm where he provides technical expertise in oil drilling.

He is married to housewife Rucha, 43. They have a daughter Avita, 18, and a son, Neil, 15.

Q: Are you a spender or saver?

I am a saver, although my wife would disagree with me. Anyone who makes a conscious effort to save at least 20 per cent of his net income is a saver in my opinion.

Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?

I tend to use credit cards as debit cards. In other words, I pay off everything monthly.

Having said that, I use credit cards more frequently for purchases, which allows me to track expenses and adjust accordingly. I keep just enough cash for weekly sundry expenses and pocket money for the kids. Every month, I charge about $6,000 to my debit and credit cards.

Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?

I am not looking at fast money but rather a healthy portfolio that gives me stable growth in a highly volatile market.

An HSBC personal wealth manager who helps me make the right investment choices manages my portfolio. Ultimately, it's my decision but I find it more reassuring listening to experts rather than making ill-informed decisions on my own, which had happened in the past.

My portfolio comprises 60 per cent (of investments) in properties and 40 per cent in bond and equity funds, shares and insurance policies. I hold some Indian and US stocks. In 2008, I invested in three funds via regular saving plans and they are HSBC China, DWS China and HSBC India. My target return is about 6 per cent on the non-property investments.

I have eight insurance life policies and they are mainly 15- to 25-year term plans. I'm covered $500,000 for life. I also have a 21-year endowment plan for my daughter.

Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?

I grew up in a middle-class family with two brothers and we enjoyed a modest living standard. I'm the middle child. My father was an engineer in an airline firm and my mother is a housewife. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment in Mumbai.

My parents taught us to save money for the future. We never got pocket money but we had a bank account each where we saved the money gifts we received. It is not about how much we managed to save but the pride we had in having savings of our own. The importance of saving is a valuable gift I learnt from my parents.

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

As is probably the case with most Indians growing up in the 1980s and 1990s, the popular investments back then were life insurance plans and government bonds. The majority of investments were done to offset our income tax.

In India, you get tax rebates from owning insurance policies. I bought my first insurance plan when I was 21. I saw a surge in stock prices in the mid-1980s which attracted me to invest, although at a very small amount. As a complete stranger to the stock market, I made a few wrong and ill-informed choices which resulted in losses of under $10,000 between 1986 and 1992. My interest in the stock market evaporated quickly and I came back to reality - which was to save 20 per cent of my pay in bonds with little or no risk.

Q: What is your outlook on China investments?

The China market will continue to grow. The gross domestic product for this year is projected to be 9 per cent. As Europe is still in recession mode, interest rates there are bound to stay low. As such, most investments are expected to flow to China, fuelling its economic growth.

There is also a lot of room to grow in China because consumer demand will continue to rise. Of all the emerging markets, China is a success story and I am glad to be a beneficiary of it.

Q: What property do you own?

We have two residential and two commercial properties in India. In 1992 - the year Rucha and I got married - we bought a 1,400 sq ft two-bedroom apartment in a prime area in Thane district in Mumbai. It has appreciated by about 800 per cent. We also bought two commercial units, about 300 sq ft each, in the same year. A year later, we bought a 3,000 sq ft landed property in Bangalore and it has appreciated by about 500 per cent since then.

We are not renting out the residential properties. The two commercial units are rented out at a negligible yield as the tenants are like our caretakers of the properties. My wife ran a boutique from one of the commercial units from 1996 to 2000.

Q: What is the most extravagant thing you have bought?

I have been wearing the same watch every day since 1992. That year, I bought a pair of Rado 24-carat gold watches at US$5,000 to commemorate our wedding. It's of great sentimental value to me.

In 2004, I bought a 3ft by 6ft Persian rug in Norway for US$5,000. It was coming to the end of my work stint there and I knew it was authentic.

Q: What is your retirement plan?

I am covered under my company's pension plan for life. How much we will need in our later years depends on where we finally retire. Having said that, we would like to return to India when we grow old. I estimate I will need US$4,000 a month for my wife and me.

Q: Home is now...

I'm renting a three-storey house in Upper Bukit Timah Road.

Q: I drive...

A grey Hyundai Tucson.

lorna@sph.com.sg

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WORST AND BEST BETS

Q: What has been your worst investment to date?

I have made a few bad choices. One bad decision was a 17-year endowment plan, which was meant for my daughter's education fund. Back then, it sounded like a great plan, but today, I consider it my worst investment. When the policy matured last year after I had paid annual premiums of US$2,000 (S$2,560), I got back less than what was projected. The only consolation was that I managed to get back the principal amount. In reality, I lost money because of inflation.

Q: And your best investment?

My best investment so far is the DWS China Equity Fund, which has given me an investment return of 18 per cent, even during the recession period between 2008 and 2009. The average annual returns have been about 12 per cent since 2008.

[redcorolla95]

It won't be easy to share because it can't often. I do not want to sound negative, but i feel generally alot of connections and insider info with those rich people that are already there. So is not really based on ones expertise or capability. Is like fate to be born around this group of atmosphere.

You may asks how i get to know ? Because ...

Financial planners are probably over-represented here. I wonder if anyone recalls any private bankers or portfolio managers being featured. But we should still be quite grateful for when they manage to persuade someone to share. I wish the ST would feature more people like Peter Yim (ex-construction GM turned full time investor), Chong Kee Hiong (Ascott CEO) etc

That said, if we we really want to learn, then we should be a little more pro-active than waiting for the ST to persuade/beg/cajole people to share their secrets. There are people who share incredibly generously like Warren Buffett & Charlie Munger. So for those of us who want to learn there is more material out there than many of us can read: we balance between finding the time to read them, and putting their ideas into practice.

[flinger]

i find it interesting that the interviewee said that the best investment was the DWS China with 18 % compared to the properties which were 800% and 500 %.

[Musicwhiz]

i find it interesting that the interviewee said that the best investment was the DWS China with 18 % compared to the properties which were 800% and 500 %.

Consistency is valued more highly by him, I guess, rather than one-off huge capital gains which probably have almost no chance of repeating itself.

[Musicwhiz]

Feb 13, 2011
me & my money
Free Willy
Research engineer's switch to insurance results in more control of his time, more money and more rewarding job
By Lorna Tan, Senior Correspondent

Mr Willy Tan cites several key reasons for making a significant career change in 2005, from working as a research engineer to venturing into the insurance sector.

One, plainly speaking, was the better money he believed he could earn as a full-time financial adviser at Prudential. But he also felt he would have more control of his time, and a more rewarding career.

He is now a financial services director at Prudential.

Before that, Mr Tan, 34, spent four years at the National University of Singapore (NUS) from 2001, working as a research engineer. Back then, he was involved mainly in energy policy pertaining to commercial buildings.

'I wanted a more rewarding career that recognises my contribution and one that allows me to have more control of my time. Thus going into financial planning practice as an entrepreneur seemed a good option,' he recalled.

A year after he joined Prudential, Mr Tan's gross commissions were three times his previous annual pay of $60,000 at NUS. He made it to the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT), a prestigious select group of high achievers, in 2005, 2006 and 2007. His current gross commissions are about $400,000.

Last year, he became the top rookie agency manager at Prudential when his agency of nine financial consultants brought in annualised new business sales of $900,000. Currently, his agency has 11 consultants.

Putting aside monetary benefits, Mr Tan said the real significance of his work is when he delivers the promise to pay.

In 2009, he helped a 41-year-old female client claim $200,000 from her critical illness cover when she was diagnosed with colon and liver cancer.

Last year, he paid a death claim of $300,000 to the family of a 54-year-old male policy holder who died from a stroke. His financial advice to his clients is to get cover when they are still young and healthy.

Mr Tan graduated with an honours degree in engineering from NUS in 2001. His wife Adelia Huang, 30, joined him at his agency at Prudential in 2007 and has since made it to the MDRT and an even more select group, Court of the Table. They have two daughters, Calistia, six, and Velkissia, three.

Q: Are you a spender or saver?

When I was single, I could save 75 per cent of my income.

Currently, I save 30 per cent in cash while another 30 per cent is put regularly in an investment portfolio consisting of global real estate investment trusts (PruLink Global Property Securities Fund), emerging market equities (PruLink Emerging Markets Fund) and Asian infra-structure equities (PruLink Asian

Infrastructure Equity Fund) and PruLink China-India Fund. The remaining 40 per cent is for business and daily expenses.

Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?

I have seven cards but I use two more often. I charge about $10,000 to my American Express platinum charge card and PruPrestige credit card monthly. This includes household expenditure and any other expenses incurred for my family. A part of this monthly expenditure also goes into paying our insurance premiums.

The advantage of charging these expenses to credit cards is that they 'discipline' me to always pay on time and not default on payment.

I do not have a lot of cash in my wallet. I withdraw about $200 per week for my miscellaneous expenses.

Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?

My main investment portfolio consists of two regular premium investment-linked insurance plans (ILPs) which invest in a range of equity funds. I also own term, whole life and medical policies. My wife has two ILPs and my kids have one each too.

Last year, I invested in the badly battered S-chips such as Fuxing, China Sky and Yanlord. These stocks offer good value for money as they are heavily discounted. I maintain a stock portfolio, worth about $300,000, investing in counters like StarHub and ST Engineering.

I am covered $3.5 million on my life and $1.05 million against critical illnesses. I will also receive a weekly income of $2,000 if I am temporarily and/or partially disabled.

My family's premiums, including the recurrent single premiums in the investments I mentioned, work out to more than $100,000 per year.

Q: Moneywise, what were your growing up years like?

I grew up in a family that strongly believes in being frugal. I have one younger sister.

My father is a general manager at the government-linked conglomerate Singapore Technologies Group (which includes ST Engineering). My mother is a housewife.

As my father was stationed in Suzhou (in China) since I was in junior college, I learnt to spend not more than the pocket money given to me. I was given a supplementary credit card when I turned 21 which taught me to use credit sparingly.

My father is a good investor. He bought SPC and Citigroup during the recent crisis.

Among other things, my parents taught me not to spend unnecessarily, to save for a rainy day and not to be flashy.

Q: How did you get interested in investing?

It was in 1993 to 1994, during a time of exceptional GDP (gross domestic product) growth rate in Singapore, that I got interested in investing.

Some of my friends in junior college were already trading shares using their parents' accounts. That was also the time of the initial public offering craze which lasted for quite a while.

I started a trading account when I was 21 in 1998 with my hongbao money saved over the years. I was a first-year student at NUS then.

Q: What property do you own?

A 1,562 sq ft freehold condominium in Upper Changi Road bought in end-2006. I bought it for $570,000 and it is now valued at $1.2 million. It is fully paid up.

In 2009, I bought a 698 sq ft studio apartment in Loyang for $500,000. It was sold for $583,000 last year.

Q: What is the most extravagant thing you have bought?

A Loewe sling bag bought in Barcelona last year when I was on a company trip. It cost 990 euros (S$1,700). It has been in my storeroom since then. It's one of those moments in life when you made a buying decision without knowing the difference between a want and a need.

Q: What is your retirement plan?

We will need about $20,000 a month in today's value when we retire. I am working towards being financially independent by age 40.

Having a home that is fully paid for and sufficient income-generating assets or business to fund my daily expenses is my definition of financial independence.

I will not retire. I realise I am someone who cannot sit still doing nothing. My mind must be constantly challenged.

Q: Home is now...

My condo in Upper Changi Road.

Q: I drive...

A phantom black Audi A6.

lorna@sph.com.sg

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WORST AND BEST BETS

Q: What has been your worst investment?

When I was a third-year student at NUS in late 1999 and early 2000, I invested in technology stocks such as Media Ring, Horizon.com and I-Comm. I put in $20,000 but when they were delisted I recovered less than 10 per cent of my initial outlay in 2001/02.

Q: And your best?

It is definitely my family and the financial planning practice business in Prudential. The former gives me the joy and internal motivation to excel, while the latter provides me with a sound remuneration package and a fulfilling career.

I see my agency manager job as a business in which I can bring value to my representatives and customers. This is especially true when I start to train and bring out the best in the financial consultants I have recruited.

I invest approximately $4,000 a month in staff costs and training, which in turn helps me in daily operations, administration and recruitment. The money is well spent as the agency was able to bring in more than $1 million annualised new business premiums last year. I project this to grow at least 20 per cent per annum for the next two years.

[Ben]

I saw a news in Wan Pao that a divorcing couple went before the court and the woman was awarded $2400 (she is seeking $3600) for cost of maintenance of the children. What was interesting was that the husband was earning about $90K per annum and the wife, a housewife, was making about $1million a year. Her source of income (per month): $10K++ from rental income and $70K++ from stock trading/investing. Amazing that a housewife can make this kind of money from stocks. These figures are submitted as court evidence and so it must be accurate. Me and my money series should run an interview on her.

By the way, the husband is appealing the decision.

[memphisb]

Insiders?

Dad in ST and Son buying ST stocks?

[jeremyow]

I saw a news in Wan Pao that a divorcing couple went before the court and the woman was awarded $2400 (she is seeking $3600) for cost of maintenance of the children. What was interesting was that the husband was earning about $90K per annum and the wife, a housewife, was making about $1million a year. Her source of income (per month): $10K++ from rental income and $70K++ from stock trading/investing. Amazing that a housewife can make this kind of money from stocks. These figures are submitted as court evidence and so it must be accurate. Me and my money series should run an interview on her.

By the way, the husband is appealing the decision.

There is nothing interesting about having lots of money, but ending in a divorce with broken family. It is better to be contented with enough money (neither rich nor poor) for one's livelihood and having a loving family than be rich but with a broken family having permanently broken relationships.

I personally do not admire nor envy this particular family facing very likely permanently broken relationships scarred for life.

[aspeed]

There is nothing interesting about having lots of money, but ending in a divorce with broken family. It is better to be contented with enough money (neither rich nor poor) for one's livelihood and having a loving family than be rich but with a broken family having permanently broken relationships.

I personally do not admire nor envy this particular family facing very likely permanently broken relationships scarred for life.

you are assuming money is the culprit for the broken marriage, which may or may not be true.

since on this topic,
of "nothing interesting about having lots of money, but ending in a divorce with broken family.", would be even worst with no money and a broken family.