Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Book on Financial Planning

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Book on Financial Planning

I will try to find the time to write a book on Financial Planning. The topics in this book are:

Chapter
1 Introduction
2 How much life insurance do you need?
3. What type of life insurance policy?
4. How to invest savings?
5. Investing in a unit trust
6. Investing on your own
7. Why avoid high commission products?
8. Saving for a child’s education
9. Insuring against medical expenses, disability
10. Structured investment products
11. Investment tips for a retiree
12. Life annuity
13. Government sponsored insurance schemes
14. Use of credit cards
15. Loans (mortgage, car, study)
16. Investing in property
17. Taxation
18. Leaving assets for your descendents
19. Conclusion

16 comments:

ym said...: great! seems like an interesting project for you...

also, i suggest a section on "what is money and how banks create money out of debt using the fractional reserve banking" will be very instructive for the general public..

this fundamental flaw of our banking system is hardly critised at all in the mainstream media.. for example in todays sunday times, all the explanations was just addressing the symptoms..

ym; September 21, 2008 10:55 AM
Junyang said...: I believe the book would be an excellent read for the general public. Unbiased advice about insurance, structured products and financial planning is lacking; yet important to understand especially in context to today's financial turmoil.; September 21, 2008 11:31 AM
zhummmeng said...: Also a chapter on financial advisers and insurance agents will be very useful to help consumers avoid the greedy, unethical, incompetent and dishonest ones.
What are the telltale signs of salesmen who only peddle and push wholelife and endowment or products with high commission.
What kind of appraoch the advisers should use.
You may want to get ideas from local licensee of the CFP Board of
Standards, Financial Planning Association of Singapore(FPAS)
at website http:www.fpas.org.sg
FPAS provides similar standard as other countries using 6 step approach .It is also adopted by ISO as practice standard for financial planning industry.
CFPBS boasts of the highest standard in financial planning.
We certainly look forward to your book.; September 21, 2008 12:59 PM
Yong Kiat said...: Mr Tan,

Glad you will come out with this book.

I hope the price will be cheap (Around S$15 ~ S$20) enough for everyone to buy it. Your version will be for the adult population.

After your first book is successful, you should come out with the teenager version, for secondary school and post-secondary (JC, Polytechnic, ITE) students. You may need help to made the book attractive to such groups to read.

You should also touch on topics such as credit card spending (which should be a no-no) and loans (HDB loan still okey, not for the rest); September 21, 2008 1:36 PM
hongjun said...: >>credit card spending (which should be a no-no)

Credit card spending is okay provided you know you are spending within your means.

>>loans (HDB loan still okey, not for the rest)

What about study loans? Some loans are "no choice". You must know what you are doing - that's the key.

Cheers
hongjun; September 21, 2008 3:11 PM
hongjun said...: And yes, I do hope the book to be launched should be affordable for many.

hongjun; September 21, 2008 3:12 PM
Unknown said...: Dear Mr.Tan,

I hope you can cover some area in car financing. I notice many dealers are "seducing" buyers with low monthly payment hidden by a longer repayment period. I guess most of these buyers do not understand the amount of interest that they are "feeding" the finance companies. I look at these as a form modern economic slavery system. These also applies to over-price public housing.; September 21, 2008 3:24 PM
yokoosi said...: what about adding one chapter on property; September 21, 2008 4:25 PM
Wealth Journey said...: Wow! I have some ideas for this as I also dreamt of writing a book and generating more business but is media shy.

I believe the structure of the table of content you described are done to death by many local financial planners in their own published books.

A book I would recommend is "Wealth by Stuart E. Lucas". Lucas is one of the heir for the Carnation Milk Company worth billions. I have read and loved this book as it is more holistic in the sense that financial planning is not just about you and it brings in the family. That is how I structured my own family planning. The book is skewed more towards investments, however.

After flipping thru countless financial planning books, here is my suggestion of the flow of the book that would get me interested.

A DIY guide to implementing a financial plan. So that when the person is reading thru' the book, there are exercise at the end of each chapter to plan for a certain aspect.

So, when the reader have finished the book, he/she will have a concreate financial plan with the appropriate products(not the specific brand, but just generic term policy etc or invest in low-cost index fund split into different regions example). Once he have that plan, he can discuss it with his financial advisor or he can implement it directly. Up to his discrection.

A further value-add to the readers for the book would be the online-version.

For example, for a monthly fee of $5, you get access to a forum, the monthly newsletter by your financial company. Apart from the normal financial planning knowledge or updates, the online content will also have reviews and analysis of local banking products.
For one-time fee of $50, your financial consultants can review existing customers financial plan or create one draft version for discussion.

I'm sure this will be a success. Your BRAND, established over all these years and the recent media publicity over NTUC and structured products, have reminded people of your integrity and honesty in dealing with customers.; September 21, 2008 4:34 PM
zhummmeng said...: How to look for an honest and competent adviser. What are the traits ?; September 21, 2008 8:15 PM
Unknown said...: I don't see a chapter on disability income. As you know, that is quite important for a well rounded portfolio (I actually think may be more important than death insurance, as the risk of becoming disabled is higher).; September 22, 2008 10:40 AM
Hendy Tanata said...: Looking forward to the book. I hope it's also practical, like listing out where you can actually find/buy the products.; September 23, 2008 2:23 PM
Anonymous said...: I think that this would be very useful, Mr Tan. Not many books out there cater to these matters in full.

Could I also suggest that you include maybe two chapters on investing in the stock market? That is another topic that Singaporeans may find beneficial.

On another note, I think that it is also important that Singaporeans should learn more about what they are investing or buying in. I wrote about this in my blog, http://www.geesiva.com/2008/09/16/money-matters/. Unfortunately, too many people I know go blindly into investments when that is probably the one thing they should take the most care in.; September 28, 2008 8:54 AM
Anonymous said...: Thank you for all your sacrifice for the public who are so ignorant about Financial Planning and lost so much.

All will be looking forward to your book. It will definitely be a bestseller.; October 09, 2008 6:59 PM
Anonymous said...: Great website, your advice is very appreciated. What about the current global economic conditions, where do you see it headed from here?; October 10, 2008 8:50 AM
Anonymous said...: How do you think each Presidential Candidate will affect the current path the economy is headed down?; October 27, 2008 11:24 AM