Safeguarding your Income

an article on channels news asia talked a little bit about how to "Increase real incomes for better lives"

From the government's perspective - "the only way to sustain real wage increases is to keep improving productivity, especially through upgrading the quality of workers and jobs."

Now, i'm not about to start a political debate, but i'm more concerned about the point at hand, which is that real wages are decreasing in singapore! i've been telling some of my clients recently that i'm so shocked about how the times have changed i.e costs of living and inflation

i've had friends who've been complaining ESPECIALLY about cigarettes. When there used to be small packs of 10 sticks selling at $2.50, and big packets of 20 sticks selling at $5. Now in the stores, there are no small packs, and big packs are going at nearing $13 now! 

depending on our parents for a $200 monthly allowance, we used to be able to save money for CD players which went for a few hundreds in the 1990s. In those days, we're get 50 cents to a dollar a day? 

it might be a little unfair to compare things this way, considering we were a lot more carefree when we were younger. we didn't have to worry about our responsibilities to our family's upkeep, to our children's education, to our household expenses, to any other commitments that require an assignation of a part of our income.

That poses a number of different problems -

1. We find it difficult to commit large amounts of money on anything!
2. $1 now could not buy the same amount of goods that $1 10 years ago could have bought. Meaning that to buy big ticket items, we need to have increasingly more and more money the longer we delay buying it, regardless of the reason for delay.
3. how then do we safeguard our shrinking income? what can we do about it?

i was going to go into a long and needless discussion on banks versus investments. But to be honest, everybody has a different impression on how best to use their money; some ways are better than others. Some are more efficient, cost-efficient, less time-consuming, but most importantly not many ways are guaranteed.

there is no true "best way", as long as you are comfortable at the rate your money is growing, at the risk level that you've taken. the worst thing to do is over-commit to an investment and potentially lose money that will wind you up in a place worser off than where one starts at. 

it's important to consider a good mix of returns versus risk, and endowment policies and investment linked policies are a good way of diversifying your portfolio. Not only do you have a chance to earn on your investments, but policies have an advantage which is the cover on death and disability. there are few other methods which will guarantee an amount given to a family if something happens to any of the breadwinners.  

Depending on what methods you are the most comfortable with, discuss options with your financial advisor today! any one of these policies could very well help YOU safeguard your income in time to come :)

 Be Protected Everyone!
Jessica