<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR>March 15, 2009
me & my money
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>He puts his trust in unit trusts
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Fundsupermart GM, who targets returns of 10%, says they are easier to manage </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Lorna Tan, Finance Correspondent
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Mr Wong Sui Jau and his wife Wai Mun with their children, Xiang Ting and Kiang Bin, and his mother-in-law Ho Nu. The family currently live in a five-room HDB flat in Kembangan but will be moving to Bishan when their condo unit is ready. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
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Wong Sui Jau is an ardent advocate of unit trusts, which is not surprising as he is the general manager of Fundsupermart.com, which sells unit trusts online.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>BEST AND WORST BETS
Q: What's your worst investment?
I still have the order acknowledgment form for this particular purchase. I bought into the Henderson Global Technology Fund at $5.06 in September 2000. It fell by 70 per cent when the technology bubble burst.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He channels part of his savings into his unit trust portfolio every month. He says he likes unit trusts as they give him a wider exposure to stocks.
His portfolio grew to a peak of more than $230,000 last year, but it is now worth $113,000 as he liquidated $80,000 worth of unit trusts in July and August last year.
=> The peak is in 2007 lah! Who is he trying to con? Is investigative journalism dead in Peesai?
This was when he needed the money to buy a piece of property.
He obtained an accountancy degree from Nanyang Technological University in 1998 and became a tax consultant at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He joined Fundsupermart two years later. Mr Wong, 34, is responsible for its Singapore and Malaysia operations.
He is married to Ms Poon Wai Mun, 32, a regional manager for a health consulting firm. They have a son, Kiang Bin, four, and a daughter, Xiang Ting, two.
Q: Are you a spender or saver?
I am more of a saver. I invest about 15 to 20 per cent of my monthly income. The balance goes towards household expenses and housing instalments.
I generally don't stint on spending on my family. I spend less on myself. I have never been big on brands. Besides, I like well-worn clothes because they are much more comfortable. The most expensive item in my wardrobe is my watch, which cost $500.
My wife and I take public transport to work. I also donate to charity each month. In short, I live well within my means and never spend money I don't have.
Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?
I have two credit cards but use only one. I always charge purchases to the card whenever I can because I don't like to carry too much cash.
I pay off my credit card debt every month so I never incur any interest. Typically, I put $1,000 to $2,000 a month on the card. Once a week, I withdraw $200 from the ATM. Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
I drew up a financial plan for myself soon after I started working because I wanted my money to work for me.
My core portfolio, which makes up about 70 per cent of my investments, includes regional funds and balanced funds, which combine stock and bond components. Examples are Aberdeen's Pacific Equity fund and Singapore Equity fund.
I also have a smaller supplementary portfolio where I keep my higher-risk funds such as the Fullerton Asian Financials Fund. Such funds generally make up 30 per cent or less of my total portfolio.
The portfolio does not include United States equity funds as I remain wary about the US economy; instead, it leans heavily in favour of Asian equities. Financial funds and high-yield bond funds make up a large chunk.
My target is to earn long-term returns of 10 per cent a year.
For insurance, I believe in buying term and then investing the rest. My coverage comes to about $740,000 for death, $70,000 for critical illnesses and $35,000 for partial disability. I also have a Shield hospitalisation plan.
Q: Money-wise, what were your growing-up years like?
I'm the oldest child in a family of four and we lived in a five-room HDB flat.
My parents were both teachers and they were poor when they were young. They made sure my sister and I understood the importance of saving and frugality. They saw to it that we had a good education and even sent us for piano lessons. I remember giving all my Chinese New Year hongbao money to them so they could save the money for me. They were my best mentors. Apart from a trip to Taiwan, they did not take any regular vacations until I started working.
My father was very much into stock investing. He would call up the stock pages on the Teletext screen whenever he was free.
That's why even though I was taught the importance of being frugal, I also learnt that money could be invested.
Q: How did you get interested in investing?
One book that inspired and galvanised me was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
I made my first investment in 1998, not long after I started work. I was young and game for anything. It wasn't a large sum. I placed $1,000 into UniFund, a unit trust investing in Singapore and Malaysia, and saw it go up more than 50 per cent in late 1999.
I made other investments in unit trusts during this time and continued to invest in them throughout my working life. I just find it much easier to manage a portfolio of funds than a large portfolio of stocks.
Q: What property do you own?
I have a 1,100 sq ft, three-bedroom condominium unit in Tanjong Rhu that I bought with my parents for $850,000 in 2000. It's being rented out for $3,200 a month.
I also have a five-room HDB flat in Kembangan that I bought in 2005 with my wife for $395,500. We live in this flat.
Last year, we bought a 1,800 sq ft, four-bedroom condominium unit in Bishan for about $1.3 million. It won't be ready for three years. When it is, we will move there and rent out our HDB flat.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
I love investing and I might never quite retire if I can continue to work in the investment world. But I would like to work without having to worry about money.
I would like the flexibility of working short hours so I can remain in touch with the investment world yet have much more time to spend with my family and on my own nerdy pursuits like computer games, Warhammer Fantasy miniatures and writing.
I would also like to be free to go out and see the world.
In our golden years, my wife and I would need about $5,000 a month.
Q: I drive...?
I don't own a car and I have saved a lot of money from not buying one. [email protected]
me & my money
</TR><!-- headline one : start --><TR>He puts his trust in unit trusts
</TR><!-- headline one : end --><TR>Fundsupermart GM, who targets returns of 10%, says they are easier to manage </TR><!-- Author --><TR><TD class="padlrt8 georgia11 darkgrey bold" colSpan=2>By Lorna Tan, Finance Correspondent
</TD></TR><!-- show image if available --><TR vAlign=bottom><TD width=330>
</TD><TD width=10>
Mr Wong Sui Jau and his wife Wai Mun with their children, Xiang Ting and Kiang Bin, and his mother-in-law Ho Nu. The family currently live in a five-room HDB flat in Kembangan but will be moving to Bishan when their condo unit is ready. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->
Wong Sui Jau is an ardent advocate of unit trusts, which is not surprising as he is the general manager of Fundsupermart.com, which sells unit trusts online.
<TABLE width=200 align=left valign="top"><TBODY><TR><TD class=padr8><!-- Vodcast --><!-- Background Story --><STYLE type=text/css> #related .quote {background-color:#E7F7FF; padding:8px;margin:0px 0px 5px 0px;} #related .quote .headline {font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size:10px;font-weight:bold; border-bottom:3px double #007BFF; color:#036; text-transform:uppercase; padding-bottom:5px;} #related .quote .text {font-size:11px;color:#036;padding:5px 0px;} </STYLE>BEST AND WORST BETS
Q: What's your worst investment?
I still have the order acknowledgment form for this particular purchase. I bought into the Henderson Global Technology Fund at $5.06 in September 2000. It fell by 70 per cent when the technology bubble burst.
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>He channels part of his savings into his unit trust portfolio every month. He says he likes unit trusts as they give him a wider exposure to stocks.
His portfolio grew to a peak of more than $230,000 last year, but it is now worth $113,000 as he liquidated $80,000 worth of unit trusts in July and August last year.
=> The peak is in 2007 lah! Who is he trying to con? Is investigative journalism dead in Peesai?
This was when he needed the money to buy a piece of property.
He obtained an accountancy degree from Nanyang Technological University in 1998 and became a tax consultant at accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He joined Fundsupermart two years later. Mr Wong, 34, is responsible for its Singapore and Malaysia operations.
He is married to Ms Poon Wai Mun, 32, a regional manager for a health consulting firm. They have a son, Kiang Bin, four, and a daughter, Xiang Ting, two.
Q: Are you a spender or saver?
I am more of a saver. I invest about 15 to 20 per cent of my monthly income. The balance goes towards household expenses and housing instalments.
I generally don't stint on spending on my family. I spend less on myself. I have never been big on brands. Besides, I like well-worn clothes because they are much more comfortable. The most expensive item in my wardrobe is my watch, which cost $500.
My wife and I take public transport to work. I also donate to charity each month. In short, I live well within my means and never spend money I don't have.
Q: How much do you charge to your credit cards every month?
I have two credit cards but use only one. I always charge purchases to the card whenever I can because I don't like to carry too much cash.
I pay off my credit card debt every month so I never incur any interest. Typically, I put $1,000 to $2,000 a month on the card. Once a week, I withdraw $200 from the ATM. Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
I drew up a financial plan for myself soon after I started working because I wanted my money to work for me.
My core portfolio, which makes up about 70 per cent of my investments, includes regional funds and balanced funds, which combine stock and bond components. Examples are Aberdeen's Pacific Equity fund and Singapore Equity fund.
I also have a smaller supplementary portfolio where I keep my higher-risk funds such as the Fullerton Asian Financials Fund. Such funds generally make up 30 per cent or less of my total portfolio.
The portfolio does not include United States equity funds as I remain wary about the US economy; instead, it leans heavily in favour of Asian equities. Financial funds and high-yield bond funds make up a large chunk.
My target is to earn long-term returns of 10 per cent a year.
For insurance, I believe in buying term and then investing the rest. My coverage comes to about $740,000 for death, $70,000 for critical illnesses and $35,000 for partial disability. I also have a Shield hospitalisation plan.
Q: Money-wise, what were your growing-up years like?
I'm the oldest child in a family of four and we lived in a five-room HDB flat.
My parents were both teachers and they were poor when they were young. They made sure my sister and I understood the importance of saving and frugality. They saw to it that we had a good education and even sent us for piano lessons. I remember giving all my Chinese New Year hongbao money to them so they could save the money for me. They were my best mentors. Apart from a trip to Taiwan, they did not take any regular vacations until I started working.
My father was very much into stock investing. He would call up the stock pages on the Teletext screen whenever he was free.
That's why even though I was taught the importance of being frugal, I also learnt that money could be invested.
Q: How did you get interested in investing?
One book that inspired and galvanised me was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.
I made my first investment in 1998, not long after I started work. I was young and game for anything. It wasn't a large sum. I placed $1,000 into UniFund, a unit trust investing in Singapore and Malaysia, and saw it go up more than 50 per cent in late 1999.
I made other investments in unit trusts during this time and continued to invest in them throughout my working life. I just find it much easier to manage a portfolio of funds than a large portfolio of stocks.
Q: What property do you own?
I have a 1,100 sq ft, three-bedroom condominium unit in Tanjong Rhu that I bought with my parents for $850,000 in 2000. It's being rented out for $3,200 a month.
I also have a five-room HDB flat in Kembangan that I bought in 2005 with my wife for $395,500. We live in this flat.
Last year, we bought a 1,800 sq ft, four-bedroom condominium unit in Bishan for about $1.3 million. It won't be ready for three years. When it is, we will move there and rent out our HDB flat.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
I love investing and I might never quite retire if I can continue to work in the investment world. But I would like to work without having to worry about money.
I would like the flexibility of working short hours so I can remain in touch with the investment world yet have much more time to spend with my family and on my own nerdy pursuits like computer games, Warhammer Fantasy miniatures and writing.
I would also like to be free to go out and see the world.
In our golden years, my wife and I would need about $5,000 a month.
Q: I drive...?
I don't own a car and I have saved a lot of money from not buying one. [email protected]
