Was interviewed on FM93.8 The Living Room on my Book “Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often” by Stanley Leong. This was my third time on FM93.8, on the first two ocassions, the interview was on personal and family financial planning.

Stanley is suave and steady, with an impeccable voice, and is friendly and humble. It made the interview fun and enjoyable.

Last year in my talk and seminars, I managed to sell the book and raised $10,000 for the Children Cancer Foundation. (The non-profit organisation that people are shaving their heads bald to raise funds).

Here’s an excerpt from CCF Tribute Magazine Oct - Dec 2008 :

This year I am aiming to raise $20,000 for them through the sales of my book and from fees collected in my training/seminars. (Keeping my fingers crossed :-))

Once again, thank you for your support on behalf of Children Cancer Foundation.

The Client’s Appreciation Dinner cum Market update was held 23 Apr 2009 over at Toa Payoh Hub HDB Auditorium.

Some 300+ guests and clients attended this event. Many hours were spent in organising this event and the turnout and the various feedback was very good and the event was a success!

Here’s some pics taken during this event. Enjoy!

Welcoming All the Guest

Mah Ching Cheng from iFAST

An insightful talk by Ms Mah

Ms Kelly Loh from Children’s Cancer Foundation

What CCF is all about

Apelles Poh sings “You Raised Me Up”

Dr Fred on the keyboard

Dr Fred engaging the audience

Lucky Draw

Some Closing Remarks by Mr Pat Cunningham

The Goodie Bags Distribution

The Book Autographing

Now at the top of his industry, financial adviser who once barely knew what
to do with his own money talks about how he saves and invests

By Lorna Tan, Financial Correspondent

Mr Apelles Poh, 44, can afford to relax and live life at a leisurely pace because he is confident he has the resources to retire any time he wants to.

But this certified financial planner at Professional Investment Advisory Services (PIAS) still pushes himself to

see three to five clients a day.

This is because he is passionate about his work and finds purpose in helping others.

Last year was his ‘best’ one at PIAS: He was the top producer, having more than doubled his personal revenue.

A former Air Force officer, Mr Poh became convinced that insurance satisfied a real need for almost everyone after, at the age of 27, he was approached to buy an insurance policy.

He joined the now-defunct Insurance Corporation of Singapore (ICS) in 1991. PIAS bought over the company’s agency sales force in 2001.

Mr Poh recalled how ‘investment illiterate’ he was in the past.

‘Before I became a financial adviser, I put all my money in the bank, mostly in savings accounts. I left the money there because I didn’t know what else to do with it,’ he said.

Mr Apelles Poh (right) who is married to Ms Linda Ang (left), 43, both financial planner at PIAS, with the book
that he has written, ‘Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often.’

As he has no time to monitor the stock market, he steers clear of equity investing. Instead, all of his investments are in properties and unit trusts.

Mr Poh has achieved the coveted Million Dollar Round Table qualification every year for the past 14 years, and for the past four, he has made it to the Court Of The Table, which boasts the world’s top 1 per cent of financial practitioners.

He is married to Ms Linda Ang, 43, who is also a financial planner at PIAS. His book, Live Well, Love Much, Laugh Often - a book about finding success, balance and meaning in the journey of life - was launched in late January.

Q What are your money habits?
I buy what I need, not what I want, at least 80 per cent of the time. I’m a simple man. I usually don’t go for branded stuff. My shoes cost $40, and I find them very comfortable.

I have three pots of money. The short-term and emergency pot, which contains three to six months of income, sits in a bank for liquidity purposes.

The mid- to long-term pot is for long-term goals such as retirement. I fill this pot regularly and put in lump sums as well, all of which is channelled into unit trust investments. This is one good way to beat inflation.

About 10 per cent to 20 per cent of my excess cash goes into the speculative pot, which is invested in unit trusts when markets are volatile and down.

Q What financial planning have you done for yourself?

Being a financial planner, I steer my own ship. I am a high-growth investor, and my unit trust portfolio is made up of 90 per cent equities and 10 per cent bonds. For the equities portion, Asian equities make up 60 per cent, and emerging markets and European funds, 40 per cent.

I’m a long-term investor, and I believe that equities will outperform bonds and cash in the long term. I have avoided United States equities in the past four years because of the declining US dollar. In the long run, I expect average returns of 6 per cent to 8 per cent a year.

I have done a will, and I’ve made the beneficiary nominations for my Central Provident Fund monies and my policy with NTUC Income.

Q What about insurance planning?
Investments can be likened to a sword, and insurance to a shield. In the battle of life, we need both sword and shield.

Insurance is the foundation you have to lay even before you start to invest.

I have personal accident coverage as well as medical insurance, which includes a critical illness cover of $500,000, mortgage insurance and a life cover of $1million. My annual premiums amount to $15,000 to $20,000 a year.

Q Any property investments?
I have invested in several properties in Singapore and a bungalow plot in southern Johor. The rental yield from my properties is about 4 per cent to 5 per cent.

I bought my first property, a freehold condo unit on West Coast Road, when I was 28, for $380,000. It was rented out for 13 years, and then it went on en bloc in 2006, for almost double the value.

Q Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
I’m the youngest in a large family of 11. When I was at kindergarten, lunch was sometimes just porridge and soya sauce. At 13, I started giving tuition and continued to do so for six years, to supplement my allowance.

Dad used to deliver raw noodles and when I was 11, I earned 50 cents a day when I helped him over the weekends. Mom was a homemaker. My dad passed away when I was 17. Through all this, I learnt the value of money.

Q What has been a bad investment?
In my early 20s, I invested in a fashion retail shop with someone I had known for only two months, without knowing much about the business. I ploughed my entire savings of $20,000 into it, and I lost all of that within six months when the business folded. I didn’t know that my friend was already in debt.

Q Your best investment to date?
I bought into a portfolio of unit trusts when the Straits Times Index dropped to about 1,200 points during Sars and the Gulf War in 2003. The value of those investments has appreciated 170 per cent despite the current economic climate.

But my best investment has been to plough time and resources into developing, growing and stretching myself.