In short, you are losing money because you invested in SGD and if you were to liquidate today, you would suffer a loss due to FX fluctuations. However, on the bright side, your robo-advisor did make positive gains since it is denominated in USD. For investments involving foreign currency, it's would be prudent to take into consideration FX fluctuations, on top of the underlying investments if your aim is to receive your investment returns back in SGD. However, there are also specific funds that provide FX hedges against such currency movements but it may or may not work in your favour depending on the skill of the fund manager! Such investments should be kept for the long term, would be good to check in once in a while instead of every month!

Well, I would suggest getting an iPad with a keyboard and an Apple Pencil! One way is to look at carousel listings! you should be able to find something around your budget and iPads will perform the above just fine!

1) Total premiums paid will definitely be lower for a lower premium term 2) A key consideration for selecting a time-frame would be cash flow and opportunity cost 3) Personally, I would opt for 20 years to stretch my dollar as far as possible 4) Another scenario is whereby an ECI occurs 11 years into the policy, for a 10 year premium term, you would have fully paid up the policy! However, if you selected a longer premium payment term, u would have paid lesser but yet still receive the same payout! 5) Personally, I would concentrate on setting aside more for investment! Insurance is merely a risk management tool! Investing/savings is what determines your retirement and future lifestyle! 6) If you would like to find out more about Manulife's whole life plans which cover 126 conditions, and comes with 6 months premium waiver upon Retrenchment. Feel free to drop me an email at [email protected]

Agree with Tat Tian & Hariz! As financial planners, we can't provide specific financial advice online without fully understanding the whole picture of things. Based on the information you shared, here are my thoughts: 1) Death cover is no necessary since you do not have any dependents 2) Make sure you have health insurance! 3) Main concern for you would be critical illness coverage. Rule of thumb would be about 5 - 6 times of annual income for CI Coverage. This can be further broken down into ECI vs CI. Would suggest for ECI coverage to be approx 1 - 2 times of annual income and 3- 4 times for CI coverage! 4) The rationale for using income instead of expenses to compute coverage is so that you can still continue to contribute to your future retirement when you recover from any CI 5) A mix of whole life vs Term for such coverage would indeed be a cost-effective method as ECI term plans are pretty expensive, especially if we add up the premiums for the entire duration. Perhaps it would be more beneficial for you to arrange for a coffee chat with a financial planner so as to provide you with a better understanding of your needs! If you would like to, you may always reach out to me via my email: [email protected]

Firstly, it's always about suitability. ILPs are merely one of the many tools or investment solutions that one can take up! If one prefers passive investments, No doubt that ILPs may have higher charges or cost. However, the net returns that you eventually achieve (if managed properly) could actually be much higher than that of other options such as Robo-advisors, Index Funds etc. Most importantly is whether your adviser is able to manage your portfolio and conduct regular reviews to ensure that your portfolio is aligned with your goals/objective! At the end of the day, what matters more is the advisor's abilities to manage your portfolio! Should you decide the cancel, it is highly probable that you may lose the bulk of initial investment! The second question you should ask yourself is should you decide to cancel, will the alternatives be able to recoup the loss from early cancellation

Firstly, what is your definition of overpaying? Secondly, premiums depend on quite a couple of factors: Age, Gender, Smoking Status, Health Status, and the type of plans you think best caters to your needs. In a nutshell, personal financial planning revolves around 4 key pillars: 1) Health Insurance - cover hospitalisation bills, pre and post hospitalisation treatment and consultation 2) Life Insurance - Provides income protection in the event of Death, Disability, and Critical Illness 3) Retirement Planning - Consists of investments and savings 4) Personal Accident Coverage At the end of the day, the advisor should be able to explain to you the various types of options available to you to meet both your objective and BUDGET so that you do not think that you are over-paying! If you would like to find out more, I would suggest you speak to a financial advisor or myself. You may always contact me at https://brandanchen.manulife.sg/

Similar thoughts as Hariz! For yourself, it's great that you have a hospitalisation plan. You may consider an upgrade of your existing Eldershield policy to insure against long term care cost that may happen in the future. As you are also nearing retirement, it would be good for you to do a 'stocktake' of your personal wealth and assets to ensure that you have enough for your retirement years! Do look into your potential future cash flow from CPF Life and other investments/savings that you currently have! Also, you can consider getting some coverage on Death TPD and CI since your child is still depending on you till your child joins the workforce! If you would like to have a chat, feel free to connect with me at: https://brandanchen.manulife.sg/

It really depends from advisor if you invested the money with an insurance company or your own investment skillset. If you had invested a lump sum of money in 2016 and cashed out by 2018 in China Funds, your returns would have been easily in the double digit. Also, investments take time to mature in the long run

I am not a parent yet but for most of my clients and friends, they do give monthly allowances to their parents. it may not be alot of money but its a token of appreciation and gratitude to their parents for bringing them up to the man/woman they are today. For some, since their parents are still working and would most likely just keep the money in the bank account, instead of giving them cash, they help their parents invest the 'monthly allowance' for their retirement!

May I know if the internship is part of your university curriculum? If yes, You can look into MSIG Global Study! If you would like to find out more, feel free to drop me a fb message https://www.facebook.com/brandan.chen