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08-03-2015, 10:10 PM
An honorable member of the Coffee Shop Has Just Posted the Following:
Wendy Lim's first encounter with the wealth management industry was figuring out how to market this concept to Singaporeans.
She had studied marketing, and was marketing deposits, investments, insurance and the Citigold premium service at Citibank.
"I went in there with the big challenge of educating the general population that CPF (Central Provident Fund) wasn't enough for retirement," says Ms Lim, 45.
Retirement planning, she explains, was a fairly new concept to many Singaporeans back in 1997.
To "scare" people into planning for their future, Ms Lim used to ask them to count the number of years that they would work: "Say you start after university at 25, retire at 65. That's 40 years."
"The average life expectancy of a woman is 84. From 65 to 84, that's another 20 years. Effectively, you have 40 income-generating years, and 20 non-income generating years."
Her point: "Every two days you work, you need to provide for one day of not working. And most people are not saving at that kind of level."
Ms Lim's marketing project eventually became her career.
She joined HSBC in 2003 as head of marketing, and was later named head of the retail business.
In 2008, she moved to RBS which soon after sold the business to ANZ, where she became managing director for retail and wealth management in Asia-Pacific. Ms Lim joined BNY Mellon Investment Management just over two years ago.
She is chief executive of Singapore and managing director for business development and marketing in the Asia-Pacific region. As for her scare tactics over retirement planning, Ms Lim is on track to proving that it can be done.
"A lot of people stare at the objective - 'I need x amount of money' - and they get scared. But the one day later you leave it, the harder it becomes. So start as early as you can. Small steps add up," she says.
Ms Lim's initial savings plan was very simple. Every year, when she got her bonus, she would spend nothing of it. Over time, as her cash pile built up, she started investing with it.
"So it wasn't any big bet I took or foresight I had that made me rich overnight," she says.
That strong sense of discipline also defines her lifestyle. "I always say 'free time' is how you make it," says Ms Lim, who is single.
"I go to the gym twice a week, I do hot yoga two, three times a week. I play tennis once, twice a week, and I golf. People say, 'I don't have time'. I say, 'If you wake up at 5.30am, you'll find time'."
Ms Lim is also committed to learning one new thing a year - from tennis to skydiving - but her sense of adventure is more measured when it comes to investments.
"It's always good to have a balanced portfolio. We're all amateurs, we're not going to be able to call the market right, so build a portfolio that can take you through different cycles and be able to hold through downturns," says the self-titled conservative investor.
Q: Are you a spender or saver?
Right now as I get older I'm probably more balanced. When I was younger I saved more than I spent. Now I've relaxed a little bit.
Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?
I'm quite an air miles junkie, so I try to charge everything to my credit card that rewards me with points that I can convert into air miles.
I put my telephone bill on it; anything. The amount varies quite a bit month to month. My spending heightens during the year-end and months when I take my biannual vacations and weekend golfing trips.
But my rule since I got my very first credit card at 21 is to always pay my credit card bills in full.
I love the fact that I'm debt-free. My house, my car - everything is fully paid for.
Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
My financial goal since I started work was to achieve financial independence by the age of 45.
Now I have a new goal. I want to generate sufficient passive income from my investment portfolio to fund my retirement lifestyle, without touching my capital. I'm still working on that.
Q: What do you invest in?
I'm more biased to bonds right now, so I have 60 per cent in Australian and Singapore dollar-denominated corporate bonds, and 40 per cent in stocks or equity funds.
I also put my savings into different currencies.
I put together a portfolio that I don't have to worry too much about because I buy and hold.
Sometimes I have a portion of my portfolio that I do experiments with - whether it's new instruments or new investment ideas - but I limit that to not more than 10 per cent.
I went into distressed assets once, but that was a bit hard because there isn't much liquidity. I was just curious, I wanted to learn what it was all about.
Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
I come from a middle-income family, and my parents never denied me anything. My mum wanted to give me a back-up plan in case I didn't do well in school, so I had piano lessons, ballet lessons, gymnastics, everything.
Q: How did you get interested in investing?
I got into the habit because I started in the wealth management industry and grew with it.
Q: What property do you own?
I own the house I am living in.
Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought?
My house, followed by my car and then my country club membership, for golf. I have three club memberships.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
Financials aside, figuring out what I'm going to do when I retire is the bigger challenge.
While I would love to play golf every day, physically that would not be possible. I worry: What do you do every day in retirement?
I've got to find that purpose. When I've found that purpose I will start thinking seriously about retirement.
Q: Home is now...
A corner terraced house in the east with an Asian eclectic style. I enjoy the east a lot, and for me, I was looking for a place where I could have a garden. I've lived here three years. I display all my finds I collect during my travels around Asia here.
Q: I drive...
A Porsche 911 Targa. I've always enjoyed convertibles. It's a new car for me, but not a brand new one.
WORST AND BEST BETS
Q: What is your worst investment to date?
I bought into a United States equity fund a week before 9/11.
At that time, the US equity market was doing very well. All I can remember is that I felt I was missing out; that I should start investing. I finally got started, and a week later, 9/11 happened.
The thing is, the US market recovered fairly quickly after that.
So I had a paper loss, but I kept it. And in the end it all worked out. But at that point, it didn't look like the smartest decision.
I didn't pull out after the crash, probably because of the hazard of my work. I always tell people to invest, stay invested, ride through the market cycle - so I told myself, let's practise that. Also, I really didn't want to recognise the paper loss.
As long as you haven't sold it, it means you haven't incurred the loss.
Q: What is your best investment to date?
There wasn't that one big idea but I think my best investment is to have a portfolio that allows me to sleep at night. I don't worry, and I wake up feeling good about things.
Some people have a higher risk appetite - I could never be in that position to take huge bets. I always say, if you don't know better, buy yourself a global equity product or buy an index product that invests in different key markets - that's the best way to go.
[email protected]
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?202199-A-life-of-discipline-with-eye-on-silver-years&goto=newpost).
Wendy Lim's first encounter with the wealth management industry was figuring out how to market this concept to Singaporeans.
She had studied marketing, and was marketing deposits, investments, insurance and the Citigold premium service at Citibank.
"I went in there with the big challenge of educating the general population that CPF (Central Provident Fund) wasn't enough for retirement," says Ms Lim, 45.
Retirement planning, she explains, was a fairly new concept to many Singaporeans back in 1997.
To "scare" people into planning for their future, Ms Lim used to ask them to count the number of years that they would work: "Say you start after university at 25, retire at 65. That's 40 years."
"The average life expectancy of a woman is 84. From 65 to 84, that's another 20 years. Effectively, you have 40 income-generating years, and 20 non-income generating years."
Her point: "Every two days you work, you need to provide for one day of not working. And most people are not saving at that kind of level."
Ms Lim's marketing project eventually became her career.
She joined HSBC in 2003 as head of marketing, and was later named head of the retail business.
In 2008, she moved to RBS which soon after sold the business to ANZ, where she became managing director for retail and wealth management in Asia-Pacific. Ms Lim joined BNY Mellon Investment Management just over two years ago.
She is chief executive of Singapore and managing director for business development and marketing in the Asia-Pacific region. As for her scare tactics over retirement planning, Ms Lim is on track to proving that it can be done.
"A lot of people stare at the objective - 'I need x amount of money' - and they get scared. But the one day later you leave it, the harder it becomes. So start as early as you can. Small steps add up," she says.
Ms Lim's initial savings plan was very simple. Every year, when she got her bonus, she would spend nothing of it. Over time, as her cash pile built up, she started investing with it.
"So it wasn't any big bet I took or foresight I had that made me rich overnight," she says.
That strong sense of discipline also defines her lifestyle. "I always say 'free time' is how you make it," says Ms Lim, who is single.
"I go to the gym twice a week, I do hot yoga two, three times a week. I play tennis once, twice a week, and I golf. People say, 'I don't have time'. I say, 'If you wake up at 5.30am, you'll find time'."
Ms Lim is also committed to learning one new thing a year - from tennis to skydiving - but her sense of adventure is more measured when it comes to investments.
"It's always good to have a balanced portfolio. We're all amateurs, we're not going to be able to call the market right, so build a portfolio that can take you through different cycles and be able to hold through downturns," says the self-titled conservative investor.
Q: Are you a spender or saver?
Right now as I get older I'm probably more balanced. When I was younger I saved more than I spent. Now I've relaxed a little bit.
Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?
I'm quite an air miles junkie, so I try to charge everything to my credit card that rewards me with points that I can convert into air miles.
I put my telephone bill on it; anything. The amount varies quite a bit month to month. My spending heightens during the year-end and months when I take my biannual vacations and weekend golfing trips.
But my rule since I got my very first credit card at 21 is to always pay my credit card bills in full.
I love the fact that I'm debt-free. My house, my car - everything is fully paid for.
Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
My financial goal since I started work was to achieve financial independence by the age of 45.
Now I have a new goal. I want to generate sufficient passive income from my investment portfolio to fund my retirement lifestyle, without touching my capital. I'm still working on that.
Q: What do you invest in?
I'm more biased to bonds right now, so I have 60 per cent in Australian and Singapore dollar-denominated corporate bonds, and 40 per cent in stocks or equity funds.
I also put my savings into different currencies.
I put together a portfolio that I don't have to worry too much about because I buy and hold.
Sometimes I have a portion of my portfolio that I do experiments with - whether it's new instruments or new investment ideas - but I limit that to not more than 10 per cent.
I went into distressed assets once, but that was a bit hard because there isn't much liquidity. I was just curious, I wanted to learn what it was all about.
Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
I come from a middle-income family, and my parents never denied me anything. My mum wanted to give me a back-up plan in case I didn't do well in school, so I had piano lessons, ballet lessons, gymnastics, everything.
Q: How did you get interested in investing?
I got into the habit because I started in the wealth management industry and grew with it.
Q: What property do you own?
I own the house I am living in.
Q: What's the most extravagant thing you have bought?
My house, followed by my car and then my country club membership, for golf. I have three club memberships.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
Financials aside, figuring out what I'm going to do when I retire is the bigger challenge.
While I would love to play golf every day, physically that would not be possible. I worry: What do you do every day in retirement?
I've got to find that purpose. When I've found that purpose I will start thinking seriously about retirement.
Q: Home is now...
A corner terraced house in the east with an Asian eclectic style. I enjoy the east a lot, and for me, I was looking for a place where I could have a garden. I've lived here three years. I display all my finds I collect during my travels around Asia here.
Q: I drive...
A Porsche 911 Targa. I've always enjoyed convertibles. It's a new car for me, but not a brand new one.
WORST AND BEST BETS
Q: What is your worst investment to date?
I bought into a United States equity fund a week before 9/11.
At that time, the US equity market was doing very well. All I can remember is that I felt I was missing out; that I should start investing. I finally got started, and a week later, 9/11 happened.
The thing is, the US market recovered fairly quickly after that.
So I had a paper loss, but I kept it. And in the end it all worked out. But at that point, it didn't look like the smartest decision.
I didn't pull out after the crash, probably because of the hazard of my work. I always tell people to invest, stay invested, ride through the market cycle - so I told myself, let's practise that. Also, I really didn't want to recognise the paper loss.
As long as you haven't sold it, it means you haven't incurred the loss.
Q: What is your best investment to date?
There wasn't that one big idea but I think my best investment is to have a portfolio that allows me to sleep at night. I don't worry, and I wake up feeling good about things.
Some people have a higher risk appetite - I could never be in that position to take huge bets. I always say, if you don't know better, buy yourself a global equity product or buy an index product that invests in different key markets - that's the best way to go.
[email protected]
Click here to view the whole thread at www.sammyboy.com (http://www.singsupplies.com/showthread.php?202199-A-life-of-discipline-with-eye-on-silver-years&goto=newpost).