What are the financial steps to take with regards to the milestones of a person’s life?

Hi anonymous, thank you for your questions and sorry for the late reply. Here are my thoughts

1. Starting work

a. Having an emergency fund with up to 3-6 months of your expenses in cash/SSBs

b. Having a suotable medical expenses insurance to pay for hospital bills

c. Having death coverage, critical illness coverage to replace loss of income upon death or contracting a dread disease

If you are unsure if you have sufficient insurance, you can check it out here: https://www.moneyowl.com.sg/#/guideme

2. Working a few years

a. After you have done the above, you can now invest your excess cash into a portfolio of low cost ETFs or Dimensional Funds. Low cost = less than 0.5% p.a. in management fees.

3. Getting married

a. Making sure that your spouse has sufficient insurance as well

b. Investing towards your retirement

c. Writing a will and making CPF nomination

4. Raising kids

a. Making sure that your kids have suitable hospital plan and if needed, a critical illness plan to have the option to pay medical expenses that might not be claimable via a hospital plan.

b. Making sure you start saving for your children's education using low cost ETFs or Dimensional Funds

5. Preparing for Retirement

If you have done the above, you will be ready for retirement

Hope this helps.