Born free. Live free. Retire free. Die free.

This wouldn’t be a bad way to live our life here on earth whatever comes after.

Born free – that’s the area of politics. Thank God if you are born in a country where there is political freedom.

Live free – this again is the area of politics and your personal responsibility, as well as to stay free from the law. It is also the area of economics in that you want to be free from want. Living free is not necessarily as a hippie, but being able to do the things you like and enjoy the things you find meaningful. If you have a good paying job or a profitable business, you would have the chance to stay free financially.

Retire free. This would be really nice. To retire from work, to have enough savings for a comfortable retirement, to be mentally and physically fit and free from illness, and above all, to be free to do the things you like but perhaps had little time for while working, and to spend time with the one you love – these would be “out of this world”. And in fact, it is out of this world and out of reach for many who do not realize that dreams generally don’t come true by themselves. Retirement years, far from being the best years, can be one’s worst nightmare. For the government, it is also a time bomb.

I was born free, have lived free thus far, and want to retire free, and one day die free.

Like most people on the verge of retirement, I am concerned about many issues, money included. As they say, money is not everything but everything is money. And the prospect of having another 30 years to live in retirement certainly spells money, and often money trouble.

I am more fortunate than many others because I’ve held good paying jobs and have run a profitable business for many years. But even more fortunate, it is my business to plan for my clients’ retirement among other things, and thus I was forced to look into my own retirement planning. It did not come easily or naturally. There is a saying that the 30s think it is too early to plan for their retirement, the 40s think it is too hard to plan for their retirement, and the 50s think it is too late to plan for their retirement. For the majority of people, if statistics is something to go by, retirement planning was never in their screen, until it exploded on them.

For Singaporeans, the CPF which was instituted primarily for retirement, is often the only savings accumulated for retirement. And even then, many will not have more than the minimum sum in their CPF at age 55.

Property bought with CPF money counts as an asset, but since a person has to live somewhere, owner-occupied property is not always cashable for retirement.

Property is a large investment especially for those living in cities where property prices are exorbitant. For example, the majority of Singaporeans would have almost the entire live savings in property. What is left for retirement for these people?

There are several social and demographic factors which make the retirement issue critical in Singapore.

One factor is the ageing population brought about by a declining birth rate and a longer life span.

The typical retiree is looking at 20 years of retirement. A good percentage of retirees would live to 85. It is projected that many in the post war generation can be expected to live beyond 100.

Demographic statistics in the USA show that the retirement age of 65 should now rightly be 75 based on the longer life span.

The second factor is the declining family size and increasing singlehood.

Children used to be the only means of support for their retired parents. With a family of four or more, parents can perhaps be assured of a roof and three square meals each day, and some pocket money to spend at the coffee shop and cinema occasionally.

The typical one-child or two-child family and growing adoption of changing values and ethos of the west no longer assures parents of lifelong support on children’s sponsorship.

Rising cost of living, especially in medical expenses, also makes growing old in Singapore a financial challenge. Yet another factor is that most parents are spending on, or hopefully, “investing” on their children, especially in education.

Many parents fork out thousands and thousands of dollars in overseas education for their children – often late into their working and retirement years as well.
Local education is affordable, but there are limited places in the local universities.

Such is the love of most parents that they are willing to extend their working life for the sake of their children.

To retire free from work is thus a worthy goal. It is not that working is a drudgery, which many make it out to be. As they say, some slog at their work in order to retire and then find they have nothing to do or to live for. It is that one must be financially free to choose whether to work and what work to do.

There are well-adjusted and highly motivated ones who don’t need to retire at all because “they retire every night”, and are fit and fresh the following day.

There are those who only need short breaks or work at their leisure and who retyre rather than retire.

But to retire free from having to work at a job which you dislike would be nice, and to do this you need to plan for your retirement. It will not come naturally or by just hoping for the best.

It will require working out your retirement goals like when to retire and how much you need each month.

It requires a regular savings plan for your nest egg, and to ensure nothing gets in the way, whether it is unexpected events like medical expenses or children’s education.

There are several important things to do which will free you from the financial worry. Good thing financial advice is freely available.

“Success is not a matter of chance. Success is a matter of choice”.

Well said, but what constitutes ‘success’?

Mention the word ‘success’ and financial or material success would quickly spring to mind.

The rich are landed and often lorded by many who seek after money.

Someone aptly described the generation today as people who worship their work, work at their play and play at their religion.

In our “conspicuous consumption” society, many purchase what they don’t need with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t like.

Many would agree that riches are highly valued in our capitalistic and materialistic world, and would count for success. But inquire further and there are several provisos.

The first proviso is health.

Many wealthy people who suffer ill health have found out that health is more precious than wealth. Hence, the oft heard advice: “Don’t trade your health for wealth”.

Indeed, pain – physical, emotional and mental – will spoil one’s enjoyment of wealth, even if wealth does pay for health’s bills.

The second proviso is death.

Death is the enemy of wealth in more than the literal sense. Besides the fact that “naked came I from my mother’s womb, naked I return thither”, there are also hefty death taxes in many countries.

There is also the stern Biblical warning that “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”, which means that death ushers in the eternal specter of suffering.

In the Biblical parable of the wealthy farmer who became immensely successful and wanted to store up for years to come, God called him “fool” because his soul would be required of him and who then would enjoy his wealth?

But other than sickness and early death, material success has other potential drawbacks also.

Often, the love and pursuit of money is at the expense of other arguably more important things in life – marriage, parenting, family, friends, hobbies, recreation, etc.

One rich doctor said wryly, “Yes I have the money but not the time to enjoy using it”.

How true that the poor have the poor man’s problems and the rich have the rich man’s problems. This is not just the stuff of novels and movies, but art truly reflects life here.

The thing that everyone wants is, “Can I have wealth and also all the other blessings – good health, a love-filled marriage and closely knitted family and time to enjoy my wealth doing the things I love best?”

Well apparently yes, and I know of many who have for the moment (at least until the next surprise which life often brings) achieved this seemingly utopian state.

There is a proverb which says that God can increase your wealth and adds no trouble to it, meaning that if you accumulate wealth in your own way, trouble will come with it.

There are also many stories of people getting rich the legal and perhaps even ethical way, but became proud and arrogant and forgot how they became rich, and they were brought down to earth. Riches are uncertain and deceitful.

Getting riche is considered high risk not only financially, but more so spiritually. So much so that one wise man’s prayer is, “Give me neither poverty nor riches, but just enough.”

The plain teaching of the Bible is that being blessed with riches simply means being trusted with more responsibility because we are mere stewards of the wealth and not rightful owners.

God looks to the rich to do “good works” and this includes helping the true poor and relieving suffering whenever possible. Not helping is a sin of omission and such help is to be given not grudgingly, but cheerfully. So it is not a case of forced communism but a voluntary community of brotherly love.

There are thankfully wonderful examples of rich people who have shared their lives and their financial resources with the poor. They are respected as saints by their community, but often labeled as religious nuts by others of a different bent.

These have found the true riches and are said to be rich toward God, seeing the poor as God sees them and delighting in obeying God’s commandment to love their neighbours and even their enemies.

There are non-religious rich who do help the poor for “humanitarian” reasons and perhaps for other motives as well. Philanthropy generally brings respect and admiration, and salves the conscience and gives a good feeling of wellbeing besides reducing one’s tax liability.

Whatever the motive, society benefits from those who share their success.

Many rich give of their largesse and cannot be said to have sacrificed at all, while others truly give sacrificially. Jesus pointed to the widow who gave two small coins (which was all that she had) as having given more than the rich who gave more in quantity but much lesser than percentage.

In fact, it has been pointed out that the true measure of giving is not what is given but what is left.

Just as success is not a matter of chance but a matter of choice, how you use your success is also not a matter of chance but a matter of choice. Real success comes from using your wealth in the “right” way.

But getting rich is not the measure of success as much as finding your life’s true calling, which is service – Serving God and serving men. And unto whom much is given, much is expected of him.

Are insurance and investment like gambling? This is the question on everybody’s mind whether said or unsaid.

It can be answered simply or it can be a lengthy debate.

If gambling is defined as a game or venture involving taking of risks of making money or losing money, then it can be said there is this element in insurance and investment also.

One person has neatly summed up the motives of financial ventures as either the fear of loss or desire for gain.

Some ventures combine both motives, and one of the objectives of a good financial plan is to take care of both risk management and investments.

Personal life insurance is to protect against financial losses due to loss of earning power or the incurring of expenses e.g. medical.

Fire and casualty insurance protects against loss of assets due to perils like fire, accidents, theft, etc.

To purchase ‘pure’ protection, you pay a price (premium) for a probable payout (death benefit, fire claim, etc.)

Since the event insured against may not happen, you may stand to ‘lose’ the premium or to win the insurance payout. There is this element of losing and winning, although for pure protection life insurance, winning is not what one would wish for. If there is no claim, the premiums paid could be viewed as the price you pay for peace of mind. Term insurance is a good example of such a life insurance product – you either lose the premium or ‘win’ the claim (death or total and permanent disability). For the record, only about three per cent of term insurance policies pay out, according to statistics I came across for the USA.

Personal accident policies which insure against accidental causes only, is another example. Even lesser percentage of this type of policies actually result in claims. But it is a good ‘bet’ to take to protect the family for a small premium.

Investments, which can range from money investments (time deposits, etc.) to equities, bonds, unit trusts, and alternative investments (hedge funds, managed futures, life settlements, etc.), also have the element of losing and winning.

Risks are involved and one of the important objectives is to understand and manage risks while aiming for wins.

Just as there are many kinds of investments, there are many kinds of investors who use many kinds of strategies, all hoping to do better than others. Financial Advisers, bankers, Fund Managers, analysts, etc. aim to advise and help investors to do better with their money, for a fee or commission of course.

Investment is definitely more complex than insurance and more uncertain. Invariably, the risk of losses is borne by the investor.

Terms like “guarantee” and “capital protected” have been used loosely and investors have learnt the hard way that even apart from the risk of fraudulent schemes like Ponzi scheme, a guarantee is only as good as the financial strength of the guarantor, and capital protected is not the same as guarantee. In fact, this term will not be used any longer after the Lehman Brothers saga.

So we see that there is a common factor in gambling, insurance and investment – the risk of losing part if not all of the capital.

Obviously to sweeten or cushion the deal, product providers have come up with cash back and guarantees. For example, whole life insurance if kept till death, has a definite payout, and moreover has a cash back feature called cash value or cash surrender value. Some investments have capital guaranteed features as well.

In the case of insurance interestingly, not buying life insurance is itself a form of gambling with your life that the feared 3 Ds – death, disability, diseases, would not happen. This is often called self-insurance.

Similarly, in general insurance, a property owner who does not insure his property against the perils of fire and other perils like earthquake, aircraft falling, etc. is taking the risks himself.

But there is a vital difference between insurance and gambling. In the case of insurance, the risks already exist and insurance is to cover the risks. In the case of gambling, no risks exist until you start to gamble.

In a sense, investment is more similar to gambling than insurance because before you invest, you don’t run the risk of losing your money (except losing to inflation).

What then is the difference between investment and gambling?

The key thing is the degree of dependence on chance.

There are many forms of gambling and investments. A friend wisecracked that the biggest casino in Singapore is not Resort World or Sands, but the stock exchange. Is it?

Gambling can range from hundred per cent chance (without any skill required) to games prided for the higher degree of intelligence and experience required e.g. mahjong. I am not a expert in gambling given my conservative family and religious background and all my knowledge is theoretical. But it is common knowledge that certain gambling like 4D and Big Sweep are pure chance (probability), while other forms do require a certain degree of skill.

Investments differ from gambling in that it requires both the science and the art of investing. It may be debated whether the science (analysis, fundamental technical analysis, tactical strategies, etc.) outweighs the art, and at times random picking outperforms the professional analysts, but on balance, most people would prefer to depend on analysis and asset allocation and other strategies than just “hantam” or randomly picking stocks, bonds, or unit trusts.

Active management and trading strategies still depend on analysis and judgement, and not done haphazardly or randomly.

Can gambling qualify to be a form of investment? There are professional gamblers in reel life and probably in real life as well. And I know of friends who visit casinos often and who would take umbrage if you call them gambling addicts. They prefer the title “high rollers”.

Legalised gambling is a big business (some say the RSW and Sands is a big gamble themselves), but few investors would invest money with gamblers to “invest” in playing whatever games they are good at. The risks involved are generally higher in gambling than investments, and the “trades” are quicker. The motive is clearly a desire for gain (greed to some).

It is probably true that gambling is more exciting as you have live action, and the gambling operators provide frills, and jackpot players get a kick out of the sound of coins crashing into the till.

But those who know the odds would probably put more bets on investments like property, equities, bonds and even alternative investments.

What the layman gambler does not know is that the high rollers could lose and still are okay because of their big reserves.

Those who are depending on gambling to make their living would be the ones most at risk to themselves, their families and society.

Better to put your hard-earned cash into insurance protection in the roulette of life and death.

And safer to put your savings in investments backed by real assets (property, equities, unit trusts) and not chance.

There are indeed differences between insurance, investment and gambling.

Grace and mercy are not words you will normally encounter in business and this is understandable but sad.

Grace and mercy should characterise all that we do or say whether at home, in our social life, or in the marketplace.

Every week I hear stories about people and from people who have been hurt, cheated or taken advantage of. While some of the matters are legal or contractual, often the only reason is that one party has used certain advantages (bargaining power, superior intelligence, sleight, etc.) to take advantage of the other party.

Before I go further, let me first define what I mean by “mercy” and “grace”.

Mercy is not doing to a person what he deserves. E.g. not punishing someone who has done wrong.

Grace is doing something good to a person when he does not deserve it. E.g. giving gifts to a person when there is no justification for them.

One of the most well known Biblical scriptures is 2 Corinthians 8:9 –

“You know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ for though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that you through His poverty might be made rich.”

The majority of kind actions is characterised by mercy and this is laudable. But acts of grace deserve even greater respect.

Grace is often defined as unmerited favour.

The employer who employs a worker for only two hours and yet pays him a full day’s wages shows grace, even if he is called a poor businessman.

The father who receives back the prodigal son who had demanded his inheritance and squandered it is showing grace.

The victor who releases his captives shows grace of another kind.

Strangely, grace is often seen as “unfair” by others who do not enjoy the same grace. E.g. the workers who work for a full day and get a full day’s wages are usually not happy with the employer who pays the full day’s wages to the worker who is employed at the eleventh hour.

Such is human nature which begrudges others who receive grace and would rather have “equal misery” for all.

The good news of God’s gift of salvation by His sovereign grace is often thought of as bad news for those who think everyone should work for his own salvation. Justice and fairness are more common than mercy and grace, although not prevalent enough.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” speaks of justice and not exacting more for a person than what has been suffered. Loving your enemy and going the second mile for someone who ill treats you speaks of a much higher standard.

One of the ways to show mercy is to give a second and third chance to one who has committed an offence. How often should we forgive a person – as often as seventy times seven was Jesus’ answer to Peter. “Mercy” should flow like a river, unending and inexorable.

I have benefited greatly from the merciful acts of many people – from teachers, army officers, bosses and friends.

I have also encountered the opposite – abuse of power and privilege, backstabbing, slandering gossip, cheating, corruption, bullying, etc. In the course of preserving self interest, many would disregard others’ interest. In the fight for survival and racing to the top, many would use others as stepping stones or even stab others’ backs.

In our society, success is often measured by the prize won, not the rules observed.

Everyone loves a winner and few have time for “losers”. Unfortunately, there will always be winners and losers, and the poor we will have with us always. Not all poor are poor by choice or because of lack of industry. My generation benefited from the rising tide of economic growth which lifted the standard of living of many. But while there are many successes, we know of others who had fallen through the cracks or were sidetracked.

I hope I have also been merciful and gracious to others in need of mercy and grace.

My brother who is helping in “Helping Hand”, a Christian half-way house, tells me of many stories of hardcore drug addicts and criminals who had turned around because they were touched by the mercy and grace of others. There are also those who go back to crime and this only goes to show that the recipients of mercy and grace must still do their part and be “worthy” of the gift of another chance in life.

Despite the risks and often the cost involved in giving people a second or third chance, we must remember that the alternative of not helping is worse.

Singapore is often called a “fine” country in more sense than one. Fines are fine if they help to keep people in check, but justice or law should always be tempered with mercy. The prophet Habakkuk prayed to God that “in wrath remember mercy”.

There will be injustice, broken promises, disappointments, and offences of all kinds, and we will have the wrong end of the stick at times. I must remember to be merciful and gracious. But I also need to be as wise as a serpent, as gentle as a dove, and to discover the thief in sheep’s clothing, and to be able to separate the sheep from the goat.

That is another challenge.

The past is past, the present is a present so use it well, and the best way to live the present is with the future in mind. Well said and hopefully well lived out.

If life is compared to a week, each day represents ten years for a person who lives to three score and ten years mentioned in Psalms 90:10.

At 60, I am on my Saturday and have more years in the past than in the future.

I remember at age 30 already being concerned about building for the future, and I was thinking of something really future – life in the hereafter spent in eternity with God. I had read a book entitled “Living for what really matters”, which challenged me to identify what truly are the important things I want to accomplish in this life.

It was easy to identify what I wanted. But it was far from easy to identify what God wanted of me.

From young, I had come to experience God in a real way and knew that He had a purpose for me. But what was it?

One Christian missionary gave a talk on what he wanted to hear in eulogies about him at his funeral wake. What would I be most happy and proud of when I look back at what I have accomplished in my life? These would be the important things I should set my heart upon.

But even this exercise would not be sufficient to ensure that you are identifying the truly valuable things. It is all too easy to think about what are important from your present viewpoint. Material success, to be loved by family and friends, good health, respect and recognition of people you value, happiness and peace of mind. These are the usual “blessings” sought after by almost everyone. And it is perfectly natural from the present earthbound viewpoint.

But what if we adopt a “future” viewpoint and in this case, the future meaning not a life on earth but the Biblical teaching of eternal life with God?

Many of us imagine eternity as a continuation of the hoped for good life on earth i.e. a good family life, good health, friends, hobbies, good sex, etc.

What if eternity is not these at all? After all, Jesus said there is no marriage and sex in the life hereafter, there is no ill health at all because there is no more pain or sickness. What if the greatest “happiness” in the hereafter is worship and communion / fellowship with God?

Wouldn’t the best way to prepare for the future then, be like what the apostle Paul stated as his ambition – that I may know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering being like Him in His death?

This ambition is evidently different from the ambitions of many others, which have to do largely with building a good life here – houses, land, large bank accounts, holidays, good dining, wining and sex, etc. Even a good family life here does not naturally take first place. Many of those who have their eyes on the future did not even start a family of their own.

Why am I talking about the future in this way, and yet spending so much time in the present doing the things that many others are doing – working, doing business, raising a family?

The reason is that these “works” qualify as the “good works” which God has given us to do for the blessing of men, that man may see and experience these good works and glorify God in heaven. Mat. 5:12 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

The thing which will make God truly happy with us is when others come to believe in His existence because of the way we go about our life. And we can only impact others positively if our lives are lived with eternity’s values in view. We are to be “holy” or set apart for God in the way we live our lives here.

The challenge operating in the financial services industry is to work for clients’ interest first. This is the credo of many firms and advisers, but only paid lip service to.

While we all agree on the importance of professionalism and giving trusted advice, we can only deliver if we take it as a sacred credo. Clients deserve the best of our intentions and attention, to protect not only their present but their future.

There’s the word again – the future.