Financial Planning – Photographers Edition
– Posted by Lee Shi Qing

Image courtesy of dupagepolicyjournal.com  

05th November 2018, Singapore – Our little island with an ageing population has seen many changes over the last decade. The estates had been upgraded to facilitate geriatric care, many community events are focused on seniors and by 2025, there will be a lot more seniors who are aged 60 & above. Given that our costs of living in Singapore is not exactly low, many retired or semi-retired persons will find living the golden years a tad  challenging.

Let’s take a look again – those turning 60 in 2025 – many would have worked for 35 to 40 years since 1985 – among these 4 decades, there’s been the great recession, Asia Financial Crisis, the sudden economy boom that came with great inflation in the mid 90s, then came SARS, and the property bubble busted several times at about the same period, Lehman Brothers broke the banks, jobless rates had fluctuated leaving many with just pay cheques away from living near to poverty. For the luckier ones, they survived, but probably left with a bank account balance that’s dangerously low & not ready for any form of emergency.

Now, let’s take a look at the photography community. Recently, we have noted on the increase of senior members joining the community. Photography being a favorite hobby for most retirees in Singapore, we are also aware that photography equipment does not comes cheap. While many are pretty much well to do, especially those with good pension plans or CPF payouts, we know that many are struggling to stay afloat at the same time. Personally, I will think that these are the same group of individuals that had survived many financial crisis to get to where they are today. This is probably also the same group of folks who had paid hundreds of thousands for their house, and maybe the same group that might have lost their jobs along the timeline.

As much as people are trying to save up for a decent retirement, life’s commitments are very real and costly. While many of us who are still working are living from pay cheque to pay cheque and unfortunately there are those who are living from credit card bills to yet another bill. This is like a never-ending cycle, while money can be made, we can never recover the years and the time loss in living out such a lifestyle.

So how do plan for a retirement that enables us to retire comfortably and have the extra cash for hobbies like photography? We will say – professional financial planning. A lot of people told us that a fixed deposit, some investments will see them through, though makes sense, but many had mis-managed their funds and in a worse scenario, many are left high & dry and penniless after a failed investment, or the world just surprise everyone with yet another financial crisis. Our question is, can you handle another punch on your finance? At the age of 60? Think again.

To be honest, we had seen many seniors parting their precious photography equipment in exchange for cash due to emergency needs or for any other reasons. This is sad. They had worked all their life to retire and enjoy photography and never expected to have their equipment sold due to urgent need for cash. To rub more salt, photography equipment depreciates in value once it left the store as new and with time and model replacements, the losses just doubles up.

Image: Patsy Khoo

Recently we caught up with Patsy Khoo, who had been a marketer for more than 15 years. Patsy shared with us on why she had made the career switch to be an independent financial advisor leaving a stable payroll. Patsy shared that she would like to bring (the much needed) clarity and fresh insights to a highly-misunderstood life conversation – Money.

Focusing on investments and retirement planning, Patsy aims to help our members and the photography community supercharge their bank balance through a non-obligational conversation with you! If you found the name to be familiar, that’s because she is a regular contributor to the financial site bankbazaar.sg. So, if you are keen & intends to meet up with Patsy, this is our warning – Don’t expect textbook answers and mainstream advice.

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About Shi Qing

A firm believer of Self-Sufficient living and gives no f**k to anyone getting in her way to reaching her goals in life. Kind in nature & Dangerous when provoked. Loves Mcdonald’s Fries and hates all the burgers there. Currently serving as an Online Administrator for Ourshutterjourney.com Facebook Groups and Online Shop. 

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