Financial Health Check

Excerpt from The Star, March 7th, 2009

Achieving financial freedom

By DALJIT DHESI

A SINGLE mother of two school-going children from Johor Baru recently called up Whitman Independent Advisors Sdn Bhd for advise on how best to manage her personal finances in the light of the deteriorating economic environment.

She was told by one of the company’s staff that Whitman only caters to those who have RM2mil minimum worth of assets.

After much persuasion, she managed to speak to its managing director and told him her financial dilemma and thanked him for listening although he turned her down.

The managing director felt guilty and selfish for not imparting his knowledge on financial and wealth management which he has built up over the years, especially so in the current economic downturn.

Realising that there are lots of people out there facing a similar or worse predicament, he designed a guide for one to achieve his or her financial freedom, which he named the Roadmap to Financial Freedom. He then called the woman and offered her the service free of charge.
Yap Ming Hui, the managing director of Whitman narrates this experience over a cup of tea with the writer recently.

He charges a minimum fee of RM680 and this time, the customer does not need a minimum asset worth to qualify for the Roadmap to Financial Freedom service.

According to him, many people dream of financial freedom but very few have a roadmap to guide their aspirations.

Yap says his roadmap provides a comprehensive and holistic guide to achieve financial freedom.
Compared to the common financial check-up tests available in the market, he says this service is unique in that it allows a person to have a complete and detailed view of his or her financial status.

“Most people plan their personal money based on a specific financial goal like retirement goals, children tertiary education funding goal and others. When you only look at one specific goal at a time, you are only looking at a segment of your total financial picture.

“You will not be able to see how it will affect other financial goals. For example, when you only look at children’s tertiary education funding at a time, you will not know how it will affect your retirement planning.

“You can only tell how much you need to save or provide your children’s tertiary education but you will not know how your provision will affect your retirement funding,’’ Yap elaborates.

In reality, he says the more financial resources a person provides for his child’s tertiary education, the less financial resources he will have available for retirement.

Using a segmental approach does not reveal the real picture. By knowing how different financial goals affect each other, he says one is able to adjust each goal to reach the most optimum or comfortable point.

In a nut shell, what can the service do for you?
·Helps you to define how much wealth is enough for you.
·Tells you whether you will have enough financial resources to meet all your financial needs and wants.
·Makes you understand the relationship between different financial needs and wants.
·Allows you to find out the right code (combination) of the five essential elements of financial freedom like spending, inflation, return on investment, time and savings.
·Find out the adjustment you can make to reach an optimum point of financial management.

Once an optimum point is identified, one can have a few key performance indicators to keep them on track to financial freedom, such as how much exactly needs to be saved, how much can be spent, the right investments and so forth.

A clear plan such as this can even reveal at what age one’s wealth will last if a person continues to manage his money based on the current practice. That’s a good point to start to adjust and re-prioritise one’s financial goals.

A roadmap also allows one to become the master of his or her money and frees a person’s from money-related worries so better enjoy the really important things in life.

No one plans to fail but many fail to plan, Yap says.