Archive

Gary Tay

Myths and Truths of the Life Insurance Industry

January 25, 2012 by Gary Tay
Life insurance is something very close to my heart.  It was one of the first financial products I marketed since I joined a local bank as a financial consultant 5 years ago. Toda, I am a firm advocate of proper insurance planning and am glad that my career decision has allowed me to gain tremendous [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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Why one should engage a qualified financial planner

December 11, 2011 by Gary Tay
Financial planners have a bad name in Singapore. For many, the mere mention of them often bring back memories of aggressive insurance salespeople harassing passer bys at mrt stations and crowded streets to conduct a fake “survey”. Being a strong believer in providing professional financial planning services to my clients, I often found it difficult to [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Is Insurance like Gambling?

December 1, 2011 by Gary Tay
Many of my clients who often compared life insurance purchase to gambling. Their rationale is that by paying premiums to cover an insured event, we are betting against the insurance company. Since insurance is an expense and one effectively loses the “bet” if the insured event such as death, disability or critical illness does not [...]

in Categories: Insurance

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Personal Finance of a Singaporean Youth

November 27, 2011 by Gary Tay
This is a topic particularly close to my heart as I also consider myself a young person.  Like any Kiasu Singaporean, I have always been interested to find out where my fellow Singaporeans stand on the issue of personal finance and how I am doing relative to them.  Why are some of my friends able [...]

in Categories: Uncategorized

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Why Singaporeans fail financially?

November 7, 2011 by Gary Tay
Statistics regarding the financial well being of Singaporeans are depressing.  In a recent survey published by HSBC in 2011 (The future of retirement), it is identified that many household financial plans contain significant gaps: About 1 in 3 of those in their 50s do not have retirement savings and 1 in 4 couples with children [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Are young people investing or gambling?

October 22, 2011 by Gary Tay
A colleague of mine commented that there are in fact 3 casinos in Singapore. That is namely Marina Bay Sands, Resorts World Sentosa and the Singapore Stock Exchange. Due to the $100 levy imposed on Singaporeans for casino entry,  it may be cheaper to invest in the stock market than to enter the casino if [...]

in Categories: Uncategorized

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Why most financial product purchases end up badly

October 11, 2011 by Gary Tay
A couple of years ago,  I had a particularly memorable experience when I was working in the consumer banking channel in a retail bank. A woman in her 50s was screaming and calling us liars and cheats and making a din in the bank. She had lost around $100K investing in a lehman brother linked [...]

in Categories: Investing

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CPF system and its application of behavioural economics

September 29, 2011 by Gary Tay
Singapore is a successful nation which revolves on a national philosophy of self-reliance. Throughout our rapid development, we have refrained from becoming a welfare state. This was made possible through the introduction of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) in 1955.  There are many external forces which can hinder the effectiveness of our CPF system. One [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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CPF system and its application of behavioural economics

September 25, 2011 by Gary Tay
Singapore is a successful nation which revolves on a national philosophy of self-reliance. Throughout our rapid development, we have refrained from becoming a welfare state. This was made possible through the introduction of the Central Provident Fund (CPF) in 1955.  There are many external forces which can hinder the effectiveness of our CPF system. One [...]

in Categories: Uncategorized

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Online Seminar (Sat, 24th Sep 2011)- Predicting Future Investment Returns

September 19, 2011 by Gary Tay
Can one really beat the market? There will be an online seminar conducted this Saturday, 24th September 2011 at 10:00AM regarding Techniques to Predict Future Investment Returns. There are many techniques used to forecast the future. Forecasting the future in investment is called ‘capital markets expectations’. Without formulating an expectation of the future, it is [...]

in Categories: Investing

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10 types of clients financial advisers should avoid

September 14, 2011 by Gary Tay
Calling all fellow financial advisers!  Have you ever come across a client who is unreasonable, demanding, treat you like a doormat and expect you to work like a slave? Clients are not always right and it is our job to source only for the right clients. Whether you are in the property, investment or insurance [...]

in Categories: Uncategorized

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Planning for children with special needs

September 6, 2011 by Gary Tay
All parents with children with significant mental disabilities (or PSNs – Persons With Special Needs) are burdened by two things: The huge financial resources to support their children on a long-term basis. Assuming the PSN require $5000 per month in living expenses, medical, special school, special education and cost of care giver – the total [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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The Sandwich Generation in Singapore

August 26, 2011 by Gary Tay
The Economist has recently published an interesting article highlighting the relationship between age and happiness in a 1st world country like US. This happiness index is popularly known as the U bend of life. Look at the graph below and see if you are able to find any interesting observations? Source: The Economist,  Dec 2010 [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Why young people should NEVER invest their CPF savings?

August 18, 2011 by Gary Tay
In the course of conducting investment reviews for many of younger clients, I have observed that many of them have invested a large portion of their CPF monies and have suffered substantial losses due to the 2008 recession.  I will put forward several reasons why young people below the age of 30 should never invest [...]

in Categories: Investing

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Difference between Financial Sales & Financial Planning

August 9, 2011 by Gary Tay
Financial planning is not a glamorous job in Singapore. Regardless of one’s education and experience in the industry, it is inevitable that some consumers I come across do view practitioners in a negative light. I believe this is strongly attributed to its intense focus on financial sales rather than financial planning. As a result, many [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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Common mistakes Singaporeans make when approaching Financial Planning

August 4, 2011 by Gary Tay
Having worked in the banking and financial services industry since 2007, I have observed that the average man on the street often make the same common mistakes as stated below. Recent statistics have shown that individuals who plan for their finances at a young age are likely to be 2.5 times financially more successful than [...]

in Categories: Personal Finance

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