A Common Sense Guide to Financial Independence Financial Wisdom for My Children

I wrote this book for my children who are now young adults, but I also thought about the many who could be helped. It will.

This is likely one of your most important books. Everyone needs to be educated on financial literacy. It could mean financial salvation in a world of uncertainties.

It attempts to capture the important aspects of personal financial management. These are the chapters:

1. The Foundations – live a simple life, stay healthy and invest in yourself
2. Start financial literacy early
3. Start investing early
4. Earn more than you spend
5. Think twice before taking on debts
6. The significance of investment as a second income stream
7. Max out subsidized retirement schemes
8. Take advantage of employee stock purchase plans
9. To buy or not to buy your own home
10. The effect of compounding
11. Understanding major investment types
12. Managing risks
13. Diversification
14. Sound portfolio management
15. Dollar-cost averaging
16. Expenses matter
17. Tax matters
18. The macro picture
19. The art and science of stock picking
20. Be very disciplined in your approach
21. Common sense is not beyond you
22. Setting goals and monitoring progress
23. Making sense of financial statements
24. Brokerage/Trading platforms
25. Professional advisors and asset management services
26. Have adequate insurance coverage
27. With my best wishes

These good practices in the book are proven and espoused by many professionals.

With financial literacy comes financial wisdom. With financial wisdom, we have a good chance of achieving financial freedom sooner. I set out the compelling reasons, by putting them down in numbers and putting forward the arguments with practical examples, for the actions required. Downloadable financial templates are also made accessible so everyone can create scenarios that better match theirs. There are specific steps we can take to change our fate in life, so that we do not leave it to chance to make it happen.

There are people we know, people we came across, people who are close to us, people who are related to us, that we feel for, care for. They need help, but we have limited means. Our resources, no matter how well-off we are, are finite. But knowledge can be shared, infinitely. I hope this book helps them to help themselves.

If you have $5000, or, if you are starting to have regular savings of $100/ month, what do you do with it? The takeaway, after reading and assimilating the essence of the book, you should have a good idea of where and how to start.

It should enrich you.



About the Author

A professional Accountant and a father of two young adults.

I grew up in Malaysia and have lived and worked in Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand and China. An avid traveler, I have traveled to all the continents except Antarctica. An eyewitness of too many people stuck hopelessly in a financial swamp, unable to extricate themselves.

I have bought stocks, I have also bought bond and mutual funds, and ETFs. I have done it myself and I have also engaged the service of asset managers. I have used different brokerage platforms to trade myself, and I have placed trades through intermediaries. I have gone through different boom-bust cycles. I have seen a portfolio sink by 30% or more, and portfolios remain stagnant for years. I have bought funds on the recommendations of the fund brokers that are still losing money after more than a decade. I have lived in different countries that do well and others that do not.

A financial independent.