Everyone should review his or her financial portfolio regularly. Reviewing of personal finance gives you the opportunity to understand where you are now, what are the coverage that you have and where you want to be in the future. The way you manage your money will impact your future therefore reviewing your finances with a financial advisor would be the first step to help you achieve your goals. Of course, there might be times when you have differing opinions with your financial advisor, but most of the time they offer you a second opinion pointing out blind spots that you might have missed.
Having said that, majority of us procrastinate in our quest to financial wellness. This is because of various reasons such as busy with the hustle and bustle of life, too little spare cash or financial review is just not at the top of our priority list. Currently, you might not be ready to sit down with a financial advisor for a portfolio review, but here are some of the things that you can do.
Get an Integrated Shield Plan
According to the statistics by Ministry of Health, there were 546,256 that were admitted to hospital in 2016. Considering that Singapore has a population of 5.79 million, there is approximately 1% probability that one will be admitted to hospital. This might seem insignificant but this is a risk that one is constantly exposed to for the lifetime. In addition, the risk of developing chronic illness will increase with age. With Integrated Shield Plan, it helps to take care of the deductibles and co-insurance providing more options for patients. It allows one to choose between seeking treatment from public or private hospital and the type of ward during admission.
Top up your CPF special account
More than half of Singaporeans are worried they will not have enough money to maintain an adequate standard of living when they retire, according to a survey conducted by Aviva. If you are unsure of how to invest, topping up your CPF special account is something you can consider. As compared to leaving your spare cash in the bank’s savings account with an average interest rate of less than 0.5% per annum, CPF Special account will give you better returns. Any funds that you top-up into your CPF Special Account will earn you a minimum return of 4.0% per annum. On top of that, the first $60,000 in your CPF accounts earns an additional 1.0% in interest. Considering that this is virtually risk-free, the returns from the CPF Special Account is decent for those of us who are not confident of investing.
Review your portfolio online
With the never-ending tasks on our to-do list; meeting the deadlines at work and fulfilling the needs of our loved ones, it is practically impossible to regularly take time out for a sit-down review with our financial advisors. With everything going digital, the process of financial portfolio review can be simplified too. We bring the tools for financial review online. With Ottermise, we adopt a proprietary process that rates and reviews your insurance portfolio, giving you a glimpse of how to stretch your dollars. With that, we aim to save time for busy Singaporeans like you and me, who are too caught up with the hustle and bustle of life to meet up with a finance professional. However, all of the above does not replace a proper financial review with your financial advisor. These are interim steps that you can take to beef up your portfolio before getting the experts in to help you streamline and refine it. With the constant changes in life, we can never predict what will happen next. Ultimately, one should definitely engage a financial advisor to sit down and start planning for the future.