Plans Are Nothing, Planning Is Everything

Welcome back to another edition of my newsletter! This week's focus is on setting your life's portfolio and developing it in a SMART way.

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BE SMART

Written by Dave Loh

As the saying goes, “The plan for a day is in the morning". When the New Year comes, everyone prepares their New Year resolutions to establish their new goals to have a better year ahead. If you have not decided on your goals and plans for this year, the following may help.?

As we know, each of us has a different focus on life. I think most people's life portfolio will be their own life, family, career, and friends. We are aware that these four important combinations can make such a big impact on us in our daily life.?

First, set a keyword. You may write the keywords on your desktop such as "My wonderful 2022" or "Live in the moments". Next, write down your goals, dreams, and plans on a paper or board. It is best to use different kinds of coloured pens, to make the layout more fascinating. Then, stick or hang it on the wall in front of your desk to stimulate your mission and vision every day.?(Example as below)

Wonderful 2022:

Family:

• Spending more time with family members?
• Sending daughter to attend dancing class?
• Supervise your child's activities?

Friends:?

• Diving with friends?
• Might be participating in more than one event this year??

Career:?

• Promotion?
• Develop your team?

Life:?

• Read a book every month?
• Eat healthily, take good care to health?
• Participate in cultural activities?

Next, set your life’s portfolio and develop it in a SMART way:?

S: SPECIFIC?

The goal should be simple and clear. For example: Write down "Saving Expenses", this goal is too vague. Another more specific goal should be, to save 10% of your income.?

M: MEASURABLE?

Measure your progress while you work towards your goals. Let's set the above target as an example. We have to keep track every month to see whether our goals are achieved or not. You see, you stay on track in terms of time or date or perhaps year(s) when you measure your progress. You can determine if an adjustment is needed.

A: ACHIEVABLE?

Your goal must be set within reasonable limits. For example, giving birth needs 9 months time and there's no way to give birth in 6 months' time. Therefore, in this 9 months' time you'll make sure your goals need to be achieved. Simply put, you MUST break down your action plans into monthly, weekly or daily goals. You will soon realise that it is much easier to achieve.

R: REALISTIC?

Your goal should represent an intent towards which you are able to work. The purpose of setting goals is to allow us to achieve good results in a certain project. Therefore, we must also strike a balance between "achievable" and "too difficult." For example, we set our mind to save more money, but the most common barrier is that we must have sufficient expenses to live our lives, rather than saving on a very limited budget which leads to unbalanced spending.?

T: TIME FRAME?

Although not all goals have established deadlines, setting time limits can create a “Sense of Crisis” for us and urge us to achieve goals.?

In financial planning, we do have a different set of SMART:?

S: STRATEGY?

We need to create strategies that are suitable for ourselves. For example, divide your savings by referring to the 1/3 rule. It contains three pots, short-term, medium-term, and long-term money growth pots.

M: MONEY?

Make your savings grow. Making good use of your income will enable you to plan well for the future. It is recommended for you to set aside 30% of your income in this.?

A: ADVISOR?

There are many different types of financial advisors in the market, including insurance, banking, investors, or independent financial advisors, each with their characteristics and specialist. In recent years, independent financial advisors have continued to grow in market share, mainly because they can give more independent and non-biased advice.?

R: RISK?

Everyone has their risk tolerance, therefore you have to ask yourself how much risk you can take. Are you a risk-averse person or risk taker? Some questions you can ask yourself such as if you are investing $100K and it drops 30%, will you choose to continue investing, or will you give up the investment or invest more??

T: TOOLS?

Once you know your risk profile, you should find the most suitable investment tool for yourself. Low-risk bearers are suitable for investment in fixed deposits, and high-risk bearers can look for stocks or other suitable investment tools.?

Therefore, I hope in this year, everyone's resolution and wishes will be achieved and able to make their goals better from time to time. In 2022, let's SMART together.?

Do you find my sharing this week helpful? I was hoping you could share your thoughts with me in the comment below.

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