Overcoming 3 Financial Issues That Young Singaporeans Face

We encounter several new hurdles as young adults. We no longer receive a daily allowance from our parents and we have to pay the bills. Not to mention, our financial capabilities are seemingly low at the start of our careers.

On that note, here are three financial issues that young Singaporeans face and ways to overcome each one…

ISSUE #1: LACK OF FINANCIAL KNOWLEDGE

We cannot deny the fact that personal finance is rarely taught in schools. According to Kevin Gallegos, a consumer finance expert at Freedom Financial Network, the Millennials’ crying need for more financial literacy cannot be overstated. It is never too late! Financial literacy is something you shape through conscious effort, much like learning how to write.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Young adults must take the initiative to educate themselves about the important topics surround money. These topics include budgeting monthly expenses, saving for retirement, and managing student loans. Following an online resource like MoneyDigest.sg or MoneySENSE.gov.sg can provide the foundation for you to learn the basics.

ISSUE #2: HAVING A LOW INCOME

Unless you are an heir to a successful company, the start of your career marks the time when your finances will be stretched. Having a low income impacts your ability to fulfill your primary needs such as food and shelter. Proper allocation of funds can help improve your situation.

Young Singaporeans shall distinguish between the needs and wants. If your income is not sufficient to address your primary needs then, you may consider taking a part-time job or freelance projects. Alternatively, you may eliminate unhealthy (and costly) lifestyle choices such as smoking. Imagine how much cash you will exhaust in a week if the price of a package of Marlboro cigarettes is about S$13!

ISSUE #3: CONFUSION BETWEEN SAVING AND INVESTING

Young adults are often experiencing a mix up between saving and investing. The idea behind it is similar, but the “mechanics” are different. Both involves the act of setting money aside for future use. The former is allocated after meeting your fixed and variable expenses. While, the latter is allocated if you want to grow your savings. Maintaining a realistic balance between these two is crucial for wealth cultivation.

Do not be afraid to read about investing as the power of compound interest works in your favor at the present time.

Image Credits: pixabay.com

Image Credits: pixabay.com

To conquer the challenges that young adults face, they must educate themselves about personal finance. This will help them manage their spending habits, repayment of student loans, and so on. This is a great start to your financial journey.

May you have the confidence to overcome each financial issue ahead!

Sources: 1 & 2

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The perfect way to trade the smaller time frame in the market

The forex market extremely volatile market and in order to make a profit in the financial industry you need to execute your orders with an extreme level of precision. Most of the novice traders in the forex market jumps into the online trading world without knowing the market basics and ultimately loses money in real life trading. If you look at the professional traders in the Singapore trading community then you will notice that most of the traders are trading the live assets with the professional brokers like Saxo after developing solid trading knowledge in the financial industry.

Due to recent technical advancement, the traders can execute high lot size trade in the market during the extreme level of market volatility by using the robust trading platform like SaxoTraderGo. Most of the time the market exhibit a high level of volatility during the high impact news release. But trading the high impact news release requires precise knowledge about smaller time frame trading. In this article, we will discuss how to trade the smaller time frame in the options trading industry like the expert traders.

Find the key support and resistance level

Most of the time the market tends to reverse its direction after hitting the key support and resistance level in the market. If you truly want to master the art of smaller time frame trading then you need to have a solid understanding about the support and resistance level in the market. The professional traders draw the key support and resistance level in the high time frame and switch back to the smaller time frame. They simply try to find confluence between higher time frame support and resistance level with the smaller time frame. Once they find the perfect confluence they execute their trades in the options trading industry with perfect risk management factors.

Price action trading strategy

There are many different types of trading strategy in the world. If you look at the experts in the trading industry then you will notice that every single one of them is using the price action confirmation signal in the market. It’s true that if you trade the higher time frame then you will be able to execute high-quality trades by using the price action confirmation signal. But in options trading, you need to use some advanced technique to trade the smaller time frame by using the price action signal.

Most of the professional traders draw the key support and resistance level in the market prior to the high impact news release and once they news is published they try to find possible price action signal in the 5-minute time frame in favor of the long-term trend in the market. It’s true that you will face little bit difficulty in trading the high volatile market conditions but if you trade with solid risk management factors you can easily make lots of money in the high volatile market conditions.

Do the fundamental analysis

Fundamental analysis is one of the key ingredients to execute high-quality trades in the market. Most of the novice traders in the forex market trade the live assets without knowing the perfect way to do the fundamental analysis in the market. It’s true that mastering the art of fundamental analysis is a little bit difficult but if you trade with an extreme level of devotion then within a very short period of time you will see that there is no other alternative other than fundamental analysis to trade the smaller time frame in the market. The fundamental factors in the forex market are so powerful that event the long term prevailing trend in the market often gets changed due to this high impact data.

Trading the smaller time frame is a little bit risky and requires pin perfect execution of the trading plan. If you truly want to master the art of smaller time frame trading then make sure that you follow the above-mentioned tips very precisely.

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Make your time count: Three tips for managing freelance finances

The on-demand economy is booming, driven by ride-sharing, peer-to-peer rental, project-based job platforms and the ease of e-commerce. There are unprecedented income opportunities for freelancers but this work comes with a host of new challenges – many of which are all too familiar for me and my family – like co-mingled and confusing business expenses, quarterly and year-end tax headaches, and a general lack of visibility into your ‘real income’.

My brother and uncle are entrepreneurs, and I’ve seen how they have setup their businesses starting at day one. Having the ability to track earnings, expenses, and taxes automatically are keys to success and always top of mind. Getting better insights into their financials, including net income and tax obligations throughout the year is also increasingly important.

For those who are considering hitting out on their own this year, or the increasingly popular ‘side hustle’, here are my three tips to maximize your financial success.

1)    Don’t mix business and personal. I know firsthand the temptation of co-mingling your personal and business finances, whether it’s using your personal credit card for your freelance expenses or keeping your finances together in one bank account, but there are important legal, tax and financial reasons for keeping your finances separate. Self-employed workers often struggle to keep track of their finances without the luxury of an employer helping them manage tax or CPF contributions, and many have no visibility into their real earnings and income. Separating your finances will help you keep a closer pulse on the health of your business and prevent any unpleasant surprises when you find out how much you owe come tax time. 

2)   Ditch the shoebox. Our research shows that a large number of self-employed and freelancers are keeping track of their finances on paper and a fair proportion of on-demand economy professionals say that difficulty managing finances has the biggest potential to put them out of business. This is deeply concerning to me and points to a major financial literacy gap among this demographic. Part of feeling confident about your freelance business and its future is understanding the more in-depth financial aspects. Using cloud financial management software to track expenses, mileage and invoices all in one place can help you find more tax deductions and save thousands in taxes.

3)    Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Just because you’re self-employed, doesn’t mean that you’re on your own. Working with an accounting professional can help you create the building blocks for your financial future and make sure you’re not missing out on deductions. Building a close relationship with someone you trust early on can foster a value-added relationship, where they aren’t just doing your bookkeeping but giving you strategic insights on how you can set yourself up for long-term success. Whether you’re working towards quitting your day job to freelance fulltime, expanding your client base, or achieving profitability, if you’re direct about your goals and open to guidance, a strategic advisor can be a critical resource to help you realize them.

As someone from a family of entrepreneurs and someone who has spent the greater part of my career working to advance entrepreneurship, I’m thrilled to see a growing number of people taking control of their own future and leveraging the technology available to them to shape their careers and support their families. If you’re one of the many Singaporeans who will enter this economy in 2017, be bold; be diligent; be well-organized. You’ve got this.

Shirin Anne Wan Bio

Intuit - Shirin 01

Shirin Anne Wan is the Head of Customer Care for QuickBooks Asia Pacific, with more than 15 years of experience in customer service, customer care, operations and service excellence. Based in Singapore, Shirin has served in her role with Intuit as member of the APAC leadership team since 2013. Previously, she worked for Citi in customer experience management.

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Should you DIY or pay someone to draft your will in Singapore?

It’s a misconception in Singapore that it’s necessary to hire a lawyer to draft a will. Nothing could be further from the truth. Anybody can draft a will for you. In fact, if necessary, you can even write your own will, and it can be a perfectly valid will after you pass on.

While drafting wills does tend to lie within the domain of most estate-planning lawyers, many wills-drafting companies have also sprung up to service these needs. These companies usually don’t have any lawyers or even anyone legally trained but they survive by keeping themselves up to date on the existing law and marketing themselves heavily.

However, just because you can write your own will without having to spend a single cent doesn’t necessarily mean you should DIY. While it’s not impossible for the determined layman to pick up, there are a number of statutes and laws to get your head around if you want to make sure your will is drafted correctly.

You might want to take a look at this will-drafting guide if you’d like to draft your own will.

At the very least, you should be conversant with the Wills Act (Chapter 352) before embarking on writing your own will.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Drafting your own Will

Advantages

  1. There’ll be zero costs as you’ll be drafting the will yourself. All you need is a pen (or more likely, a word processor).
  2. There’s the added benefit of learning and picking up a new skillset.
  3. Anytime you need to update your will, you won’t have to make an appointment with a lawyer or will-drafting company. You can just do it yourself.

Disadvantages

  1. Exclusions will not be caught. It’s relatively easy to miss out on certain beneficiaries in a will. Someone who drafts your will, be it a lawyer or someone from a will-drafting company, will usually review your list of beneficiaries and ask you in-depth questions to make sure your will is an accurate representation of how you want your assets to be distributed in the event you pass on.
  2. There’s a higher propensity for error. It’s more difficult for someone without legal training and experience in wills and probate law to be able to perfectly draft a will. There are numerous grey areas in the law that a layman might completely miss out on or misinterpret.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Paying someone to Draft your Will

Advantages

  1. It’s relatively affordable to hire someone to draft a will for you nowadays. Simple wills tend to start from around $180. Complex wills can be more expensive but if you have a lot of assets in different countries, you probably won’t want to be drafting your own will as well.
  2. Hiring someone to draft your will ensures peace of mind, particularly if you’ve hired a lawyer to write your will. There’ll be less chance that a beneficiary will contest probate in the event of your passing and you’ll feel more assured that there won’t be errors in the will.
  3. Most estate-planning lawyers in Singapore can advise you on the whole estate-planning process, as opposed to merely the drafting of the will. Your lawyer can also assist you with getting a Lasting Power of Attorney and help your executors with extracting the Grant of Probate upon your passing.

Disadvantages

  1. You’ll have to incur costs to get peace of mind. While the price of having a will drafted is relatively cheap, you do still have to pay for it.

Conclusion:

There’s no real right or wrong answer here. If you’re willing to spend the time and effort to learn the relevant laws and statutes surrounding wills, it can be a fruitful exercise to write your own will.

However, if you’re not willing (or unable) to spend the time to pick up will-drafting, it’s probably in your best interest to go to a professional will drafter, preferably a lawyer. The last thing anyone needs is a will riddled with errors. A DIY will that’s poorly drafted can save you money in the short term but create a mess for your heirs when you’re gone.

Author Profile:

Shen is a writer for Singapore Probate, a website where Singaporeans can learn more about estate-planning matters in Singapore.

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