Road Map to Financial Freedom

Dear friends

I’ve completed writing my next book, Panzer’s Road Map to Financial Freedom and am pleased to pre-launch it here for a limited period (until end of June 2009 at the price of SGD 18.95!).

The concise 28 page book provides value that includes:

• Simplifying your financial life by using Panzer’s 5 step approach to helping you achieve financial freedom
• Saving you money
  
  from using the value-packed Excel worksheet to manage your cash holdings
• Clarifying your goal of achieving financial freedom
• Motivating you towards being in control of your finances and your life

On top of the benefits listed above, I’ll be supporting those who invest in Panzer’s Road Map with Six months of email support in terms of questions, queries and tips on how you can develop your own unique strategies towards your own version of financial freedom.

The price of all these is only S$18.95 (less than two movie tickets)!

I guarantee that you will immediately save more than $18.95 if you practice at least one of the techniques in this book.

I look forward to seeing you be equipped with the tools to drive yourself towards your very own financial freedom by buying it now.

Are you spending too much on toys for your children?

Image by 4-6 via FlickrEvery child is precious
Children are becoming a precious commodity in Singapore as the fertility rate has dipped below the replacement level of 2.1 for many years.

Small families of 1-2 children are becoming quite common due to increasing educational levels, attitudinal changes towards family size and in some respects, the dollars and cents of having children.

As a result, many parents love to dote on their one or two children and buy toys, clothes and all manners of material ways to show their love for their children.


But are we spending too much on toys and stuff?
I also want to provide the best for my four-month old daughter, and expose her to books and to develop a lifelong love for reading. Instead of spending money on buying new books, I realised that the public libraries provide a wealth of good quality children's books. With a premier membership costing slightly over $20 a year, you can borrow up to 8 books to entertain your child. Your membership allows you to borrow the books for up to 3 weeks.

I remember as a child myself, I didn't have LEGO but shared a set of PLAYMOBIL with my brother and sister and played a lot with the household furniture and simple thing found at home. The most powerful plaything is actually the child's imagination as I often played cowboys, spaceships, fighter planes all using the re-arranged home furniture. Frugal Hacks shares how even simple everyday items presented many opportunities for play in children.

Children need our time and energy. Beyond a certain level of material comfort and well-being, it is really up to parents to be creative to encourage play using whatever resources is available instead of spending money on toys.

It's about quality or play, not quantity!

Can you afford to send your child to university?

Image via Wikipedia

Congratulations! It's a boy/girl!

Parents receive congratulatory messages when your child or children are born into this world. That adorable little boy and girl will soon grow up and help to fulfil their (and maybe YOUR) hopes, dreams and aspirations.

But wait, pause, can you afford to send your child to university when ah-boy turns 21 (after 2 years of full-time national service) or when ah-girl turns 19?

Financial Planning for University Education
Bringing up a child in Singapore is expensive as most parents will attest seeing their hard-earned dollars being spent on doctors' fees, infant formula, groceries and clothing their beloved ah-boy and ah-girl. In order for you to plan for your child's university education, you need to get your finances in order and to save consistently towards a college fund.

How much is enough?

It really depends on whether you want to send junior to one of the local universities or to an overseas one or none at all! The current annual costs of local university are currently (for Singaporean Citizens, Permanent Residents/Non-residents pay more):

• Nanyang Technological University (NTU) : $6,360 a year.
• National University of Singapore (NUS) : $6,360 to $7,880, $18,230 (Dentistry/Medicine)
• Singapore Management University (SMU): $9,130 to $10,050
  

Note these fees exclude other miscellaneous administrative fees and charges such as examination fees, registration fees, student fees, hostel accommodation, living expenses etc.

Looking ahead, if inflation continues at 7% per annum over the next 18 years, a four year $6,360 / year today for will require $85,958.48 in 18 years time. Assuming you can invest at 3.5% (CPF ordinary account interest at 2.5% + 1% additon) returns, you will have to set aside about $287 a month for the next 18 years to save up for that amount.

Of course, if you have intentions for ah-boy or ah-girl to be a MBBS (i.e. doctor), then he or she would need to go through 5 years of medical school at $18,230 a year or $308,080.83 in 18 years' time. You will need to set aside about $1,026 a month for the next 18 years or else ah-boy or ah-girl will need to borrow or be smart enough to get a scholarship to get funded.

There is a third alternative, that is to avoid University altogether but this is unpalatable to most parents and even for my own parents, even though they didn't go through university themselves, they were prepared to send all their 3 children through it.

As parents, you may not want to consider yet one more possibility, which is to allow ah-boy or ah-girl to self-finance their education by working for a few years and then studying as is the route for a number of polytechnic graduates I know or to basically self-finance by taking up student loans as is the norm for US residents.

At the end of the day, you have to decide based on your own circumstances, situation and ah-boy and ah-girls capability.

So do you think you can afford to send ah-boy or ah-girl to the university in the future?