- I do not have any insurance policies, not even a life policy.
- I do not allocate a fixed amount of my salary for savings. Basically, I just spend what I need and make sure that my savings acount is just of the acceptable level at the end of the day.
- I do not have any debts or loans. My uni tuition fees have all been settled.
- I do not have any credit cards or any other loans with the bank
This arrangement is fine by me but after a while it gets kinda scary when I realize that I am not protecting myself very much. What happens when I get involved in an accident or stuff like that? And I don think savings alone will be able to cover my retirement requirements. Beside I am still young, so I definitely am in the position to take up something which will force me to save and at the same time make my money grow. Putting everything in the bank is rather boring and stupid actually if you think about it since the interest rate is so tiny that its virtually invisible.
Conclusion, I suck big time in managing my finances.
And with that in mind, I asked for some help. And this is where Cons came into the picture. She is going to be my personal financial advisor! Heh, I never know that my JC mate will be my personal financial advisor! Cool!
To cut the story short, I spent the night with her, catching up and talking about stuff, stuff other than financial products. Suddenly all my Econs and Financial theories are coming back to me.. *sweat*
Anway, we also talked about how she actually went to consult a feng shui master to help me look at her future. She told me quite a lot of surprisingly stuff about her session.
And then it just came back to me. When I was just in my teens, something freaky happened to me, related to palmistry.
It was one fine day when I was chatting idly with my grannie, at least thats how I remembered it. And then the conversation turned into palm reading and she read my palm. She said I will have a bad marriage, one that will be 3-way and I will fail in my marriage, after which I will remaine alone.
I think it was about some time later when my auntie was reading my palm for fun when she said I will get involved in a triangular relationship, one which will end sourly.
And then, i think it was sometime later when an elderly uncle whom I was temping for during the holidays read me and my sis' palm to find out how many children we are gonna have in the future. When it came to my turn, he told me that I will not have any kids cos my marriage will not succeed so no need to even consider having kids.
So, you tell me, how freaky is that?
It may sound really stupid but thats perhaps my main reason why I do not wish to get involved in a proper relationship.
Cos I am afraid that all these will be true.
3 comments:
FREAKY.
To many, getting & having someone someone they know they feel is the best way to receive advice on personal finance. This is how miraculous the ways trust works. I am, however, from the school of objectivity. It is far better to engage the services of a licensed & experienced professional, the IFA - Independent Financial Advisor than to hand over money matters to someone you know, who may not be serving your interests but their own.
This is the natural result of the agency problem & information asymmetry. Every individual intends only his own gain, so says Adam Smith, father of economics. Your personal financial advisor knows more about insurance than you do, particularly which insurance policy type rewards her the fattest commission. With this information advantage, she has an information edge over you and might as well exploit it. This is the imbalance of information; this is the information asymmetry.
Therefore when she recommend proposals after a comprehensive assessment of your current health status, financial status, investment profile, these proposals might very well be the ones who rewards her with the fattest commission and yet may not be the most suitable policy for you. Remember, insurance policies tailored to benefit the insurer & the sales personnel who brings in the sale. Sometimes, at the marginal expense of the client.
What you can do to counter the lower ground you are on is to bring along a trusted friend who has knowledge of personal financial planning and do not stand to gain anything from you by helping you out on evaluating the proposals by your newly appointed personal financial advisor. If your PFA genuinely recommends proposals that are the most suitable to your current & future needs, it will show. And the trusted friend will be happy to concur with your PFA's proposals.
Be gullible no more. Especially when it comes to money.
You can bet that I am not so gullible anymore.
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