Source: Fundsupermart.com

• Planning for your children's higher education?

• An around-the-world trip?

• Investing for your dream house?

• Protecting your income for your family?

• Increasing life expectancy and rising health care costs?

• Inadequate retirement nest egg?

These are the hopes and fears that most of us are familiar with. But how confident are you of reaching them? Do you know that if you are one of the many Singaporeans who depend solely on your CPF for retirement, you can look forward to a retirement income of only S$750 or less?

To avert a potentially bleak retirement future for all Singaporeans, our government has sponsored initiatives such as the MoneySense (www.moneysense.gov.sg) program to improve financial knowledge among the general public. The private sector too has spent advertising dollars to urge Singaporeans to be financially prepared for retirement and other eventualities. As a result of the heightened interest and awareness, there is now a profusion of financial instruments and services in the market to help consumers attain their lifestyle objectives.

With increased choices, however, the possibility of leaving your hard-earned money in the wrong places becomes greater. So, how do you ensure that you have the right financial plan and instruments that will help you reach your lifestyle objectives?

What is Financial Planning?
Financial planning is the process of objectively assessing and managing your finances in order to achieve your lifestyle objectives. A good financial plan provides direction and meaning to your financial decisions. To use a simple analogy, financial planning is akin to planning a long and distant road trip. There are numerous decisions that need to be made and factors to consider before you embark on the journey. Even when your journey has started, you might realise that, sometimes, even the best-made plans need to be changed mid-journey, due to changing circumstances.

Financial planning is similar except the stakes are much higher; the journey is much longer and the consequences of poor planning are direr. What are the questions that you typically need answered before you embark on a trip? And how do they compare to the questions that need to be answered before constructing a financial plan?

Asking these questions presents a starting point in the process of constructing a financial plan. The next step is to find the answers to these questions!

Do I Need Advice?
It really depends on your unique situation. With the wealth of information that can be easily found on the Internet, it has now become more feasible for individuals to independently manage their finances.

However, making quality financial decisions requires both an ample commitment to learn and research, coupled with a great dose of self-discipline. And even though the Internet provides a rich source of information, the sheer amount of information available can be overwhelming for a layperson. It takes a certain level of financial knowledge to make sense of the industry jargons, concepts and methodologies.

Ultimately, the question is not whether you need advice per se. Rather, the question is whether you have the necessary EXPERTISE and TIME to do your own financial planning. If your answer is "No" to either, it is important to get sound advice from the professionals. These professionals will:

• objectively assess your financial circumstances;
• advise you on how to achieve your lifestyle goals;
• manage your finances and allow your money to grow for the future whilst ensuring you and your families are financially protected.

Where Do I Get Advice?
Whether you are planning for early retirement, saving up for your children's university fees or aiming to ensure that you and your family are adequately protected, rest assured that there are trained professionals who have spent their careers serving many others with the same concerns. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regulates persons who provide financial advice to consumers under the Financial Advisers Act (FAA). The term Financial Adviser (FA) refers to a corporation and the individual providing the advice is referred to as the Financial Adviser Representative (FAR). Exempt FAs are banks, insurance companies, finance companies, insurance brokers and holders of a capital markets services licence.

It is important that you deal only with FARs from a licensed Financial Adviser. To find out if the person you are speaking to is a representative from a licensed FA, a "Financial Institutions Directory" on the MAS website (www.mas.gov.sg) provides a directory of all licensed Financial Advisers in Singapore. It is also important for you to be aware that the type of advice given ranges even within the industry. It is important to know how these distinctions affect you.

A Final Note
There are no hard and fast rules to getting the best advice, and it is difficult to quantify how trustworthy the adviser is. Just like any other product or service you buy, shopping around for advice is crucial. It is important for you to get on with your adviser, especially since you will need to share a certain amount of personal information with the adviser.