Keep Learning To Achieve Your Goals

Syaida is the latest addition to Wealth Vantage Advisory (WVA) team as Advisors Development Manager

Syaida in the City of Adelaide, Australia during her visit on 27th October 2019

Nur Syaida Hamdan or better known as Syaida was born and bred in Subang Jaya. After receiving her education in various schools in Selangor and Pahang, Syaida as a JPA (Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam) scholar, graduated with a degree in Business Economics and Finances from the University of Nottingham.

During her studies, Syaida develops a love for financial planning and decided to pursue a career in the financial industry. After completing her studies, she landed a job in a Australia financial consulting firm based in Mont Kiara, Kuala Lumpur. There, she assisted in managing the team of advisors while studying financial planning and eventually became a senior paraplanner.

Her experience introduced her to the world of professional financial planning and allowed her to gain familiarity with the process of helping clients plan their financial future and achieve their financial goals.

Experience in the financial advisory industry.

As a paraplanner, Syaida spent time communicating with advisors, constructing financial modelling, preparing cash flow projections as well as discussing possible financial solutions for clients.

One of her memorable experiences from those days was when she went through a financial report with Sentry (the Australian equivalent to Securities Commissions in Malaysia) without any changes and comments from them. It was an outstanding accomplishment at that time as a junior paraplanner new to the whole process. This experience made her feel motivated to learn more and to become better in her career.

Armed with over 2 years of experience in Australia’s financial planning in her resume, Syaida took a big step and decided to work in Malaysia financial planning industry to gain more knowledge and experience.

She now resides in Bandar Sunway, Petaling Jaya with her husband.

Travel for a new experience

Syaida (third from right) with her siblings at Hahndorf, German Town, Adelaide, Australia.

When she is not busy working with advisors, Syaida loves spending some of her time traveling to cities around the world, such as to London, Paris, Singapore, and Dubai.

Syaida and her husband enjoy taking coffee in a cute little café for every city they go and people-watching from there. Other than that, they also enjoy visiting local attractions and playing tourist. Spending time in any city for hours so that they can enjoy more of what the city offers brings great pleasure to them.

Once she even met world-famous footballer, Christiano Ronaldo while cruising down a river in Venice, Italy.

Aside overseas travel, Syaida and her husband also enjoy vacationing locally. To her, even familiar Kuala Lumpur has attractions that are not to be missed.

Travelling opened Syaida’s eyes to new cultures and appreciating the beauty of nature in other countries. She dreams of exploring more of the world with her husband by her side.

Why Wealth Vantage Advisory (WVA)

Having a fair share of knowledge and experience in Australia’s financial planning industry, Syaida is motivated to share her knowledge in the local industry.

She believes that in this way, she can contribute back to her country through the right platform while practicing her financial knowledge. After doing her own research, she concluded that WVA shares the same vision and mission with her which is to focus on holistic planning instead of product pushing.

To give a piece of better financial planning advice, an advisor should present his or her client with thorough financial health checks and plans that benefit them in the long run.

Based on this principle, she believes that WVA will be the best platform to provide her with a good working environment and exposure in the industry while optimizing her financial knowledge.

The importance of engaging with licenced financial planners

As a paraplanner and someone who works in the financial industry, Syaida stresses on the importance of meeting with a licenced financial planner who has the right qualifications to give you advice. Plus, they should know the financial industry better than anyone.

With their right knowledge and sets of skills, they can help one to achieve his or her goals and objectives. Seeking help from someone who isn’t qualified might just make one’s financial position worse and every decision that you make can bring you to the brink of destruction.

“I feel that we need to create awareness, especially in Malaysia, to educate people on the importance of financial planning as I highly believe that the right planning will make it easy to achieve one’s goals and objectives in both short and long terms,” said Syaida to MyPF recently.

Future plan in WVA

Syaida is optimistic than she can contribute to the systematic flow of working in this company. With her experience, she wants to help the company improves its operations and become the frontrunner of the financial planning field in Malaysia.

Last but not least, her main aim is to learn as much as possible about the financial industry in Malaysia. She is also willing to work together in achieving WVA objectives, vision and mission.

She believes in teamwork and to achieve the company’s mission, it is essential to contribute to each other’s ideas and striving to excellence and success.

Interested in exploring career opportunities with Wealth Vantage Advisory Sdn. Bhd. ? Learn about our career application

5 Steps On How Women Can Achieve Financial Stability

By Nuraishah Hanani

Achieving financial stability sounds like a lot of work. But, with good planning and the right mindset, you are set to go!

Today’s women are juggling between high-pressure work environments, a fast-paced social life, and simultaneously managing the family, which can sometimes makes money management take a back seat.

One study shows that only 20% of women take lead themselves when it comes to financial decision while the rest let their spouses take the lead. While another study also shows women vs financial planning that only 42% have set investments goals either it is for retirement, family, travel, emergency funding, or other prioritize.

All this studies shows that women invest too conservatively, don’t save enough for retirement, whereas nearly 1 in 5 working women have nothing saved for retirement other than their EPF contributions, lack confidence, and are less knowledgeable than men when it comes in financial life goals.

Financial planning is an integral part of achieving our financial goals. We don’t assume that what is safe now would be safe in the future. It also creates ways for us to protect our wealth now and in the future through a process of financial planning that takes into account all aspect of our life.

Step 1: Educate yourself about complex financial decisions

Today, being financially literate is not a choice but a necessity. You can start by understanding and look into your personal or your family financial management.

Look into your monthly cash flow which it should be consist of personal saving, family saving, personal expenses, and family expenses. Once all figures have been segregated to different categories it’s easier for you to control, budget, and make any decision when it comes to financial needs or opportunities.

As women always tend to mixed up their personal needs and putting family first in life decision; with a few money management exercises, a financial mistakes can be avoided thus help women more hand carve and secure a financial future for themselves and their family.

Generally, women tend to lack confidence around money and that stems from a lack of knowledge surrounding their finances, even though they are “super smart” with great careers.

To be clear, to be financial independence is not about how much money someone has. It’s about making good decisions with the money they do have.

You can read Financial Knowledge You Need To Know before starting with your personal finances planning.

Step 2: Having a MUST contingency reserve of six months expenses

Having a sufficient emergency fund is a must in the financial planning. Have a liquid fund of at least six months of living expenses for any unexpected financial bump can help you achieve peace of mind.

One of the reason why you should build your emergency fund as a part of your financial plan, as that will be a prevention or stop adding to your debt in every financial bump in the road.

That fund can cover the unexpected things you don’t budget for, like car repairs, medical cost of you or your family.

Facing those crucial times with sufficient emergency funds will help you to handle those stressful events and make it easier for you to stay focused on getting out of debt and have better control on your financial outflow.

It is common that people without an emergency fund for any unexpected financial blow will end up racking up more debt – obtaining new bank loans, borrowing from family or friends, or even using a credit card – to cover the financial demands of an unexpected emergency. All these options only bring them new debt or unplanned future financial commitments.

Step 3: Believe in your unique characteristics

We as women are seen as more compassionate, thoughtful, and open-minded.

While managing money in the midst of life’s other priorities is no easy task, with women of all ages and backgrounds trying to balance our role between the pressure of working and taking care of a family and at the same time needing to plan for our own retirement. Even though some of us may not directly participate in generating family income, however we can’t deny that indirectly,women are backbone of family financial decisions and management.

These factors can be used as our advantage in making financial decisions that don’t allow us to lose sight of the things we most value. For most women, investing isn’t just about making money. Women tend to do more for the people they care about so this is a major consideration in making their financial decisions. That is why in every informed financial decision you make should take you closer to your personal goals IF they are aligned.

The keys is to believe and understand your true self and know what are your financial goals, when and how much you need to achieve your financial life goals.

Step 4: Figure out your end goal

One of the crucial part in constructing a holistic financial plan is, to know what your financial life goals are. For that, the most fundamental building block begins with knowing your current financial status. Only then can you proceed with figuring out how, where,  when, and what needs to be done to achieve your financial life goals.

We women have a lot on our plate and sometimes, the goals would be mixed up between our personal dreams or a dream for our kids or even family. It is important to take one step back and think what is our end goal in our lives.

This is because, without knowing our  financial destination and with a lack of financial knowledge may cause women to be very conservative when they invest. We tend to fear that we’ll lose money if we become aggressive. Yet, women need to be more forceful because of the wage gap in the market and because we are generally are facing a longer lifespan than men. When it comes to investment, the best advise will be, the earlier you start, the less you need to save, because compounding does a lot of the work for you.

With that fact, we should be more aggressive and be more open for any financial discussion and talk about financial with our spouse, family and friends regularly on  how to achieve your financial dream life and how you can make it turn to be a reality.

Step 5: Start the financial planning journey with the help of an advisor

Last but not least, with all above steps, the most important one is looking for a right financial planner or advisor who will take the time to understand their clients’ goals, passions and concerns.

Today, while everyone can claim as an expert and giving an advise, however when it comes to financial, you must ensure that the one whom giving an advise is a really certified and licenced by the regulators in financial aspect . For example, a licence financial planner or advisor must have several qualification and certification by regulator such as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Securities Commission (SC) before they can give their advice with holistic views and advice in term of financial aspects.

A good advisor is proactive, will invoke confidence and motivate while keeping their clients calm through the market’s ups and downs . He or she will shape a financial plan that will take into consideration and meets their client’s unique needs and goals.

You may differentiate one financial planner with an agent from any company by how the financial planner will take a look at your current financial situation – your assets, liabilities, cash flow as well as take into account your financial goals, risk exposure and the return on investments (ROI) for your investments. Then, we will take a look at your future financial expectations such as your future cash flow and income growth potential to managing your financial gaps while an agent have limited expertise in what they are doing.

A single qualified financial planner should be able to develop your holistic financial plan which consist of all aspect in financial areas such as investments, risk management & insurance, goals planning (retirement, education funding etc), estate planning, debt management, tax planning, and Zakat payment. Then only can your holistic financial plan be built based on your personalized financial navigator that tells you where you are today and how to get to your intended financial destination.

Women  generally are more open looking for help when in need and in any areas that they lack know-how in.

Studies have also shown that women are more prone to follow any advice that are given to them. The best part why women need to seek the right advice from a certified financial planner is to ensure that whatever advise given are the best for their situation.

When you have your own financial planner, they will also build your financial plan based on your needs based analysis. Such as to determine the right amount of coverage that you and your family needs and to identify the right type of product to manage that need. A financial planner also ensure that you will only be paying for what you need, nothing more and nothing less. This will ensure that if anything were to happen to you and your family, we can minimize the financial related stress with effective wealth transfer.

That will differentiate them from most sales people and agents that only interested to sell you a product without even knowing your financial situation or aspirations.

So what stop you from makes an appointment with a financial planner today?

Interested to engage with a financial planner for better financial planning?

Go to Contact Us for enquiry.

What action have you taken towards achieving financial stability? Share with us in the comment section below.

12 Tip Kewangan Setiap Wanita Perlu Tahu Sebelum Umur 30 Tahun

Oleh Nurul Khairiah Mohamed Yusof

Pengurusan kewangan yang berkesan daripada usia muda mampu menjamin masa depan yang lebih stabil.

Kita menggunakan wang ringgit dan kad kredit hampir setiap hari untuk sebarang urusniaga tetapi mengapa apabila bercakap tentang pengurusan kewangan, ia menjadi satu topik yang tidak suka dibincangkan?

Pendidikan pengurusan kewangan peribadi juga tidak diajar di sekolah atau institusi pendidikan lalu tiada pendedahan yang menyeluruh tentangnya.

Bagi seorang wanita yang berusia lingkungan umur 20-an, mempunyai kerjaya sendiri dan dengan pelbagai komitmen serta kehendak yang ingin dipenuhi, ia menjadi satu cabaran yang perlu ditangani dengan sebaiknya supaya tidak menyesal di kemudian hari.

Berikut merupakan 12 tip kewangan berkesan untuk wanita sebelum berusia 30 tahun:

1. Aplikasi mengurus kewangan

Gunakan aplikasi mengurus kewangan seperti Spendee (Google Play) yang membantu mengesan dan mengira setiap transaksi dan perbelanjaan. Ia juga boleh disambungkan dengan akaun bank peribadi dengan hanya membayar RM50 untuk setahun bagi mendapatkan laporan menyeluruh tentang perbelanjaan peribadi untuk setiap bulan. Kamu juga boleh merangka bajet dan melihat bagaimana perbelanjaan yang dilihat kecil mampu memberikan impak yang besar.

2. Ikuti Peraturan 50-20-30

Bahagikan wang gaji (yang sudah dipotong cukai) kepada tiga kategori iaitu keperluan, gaya hidup dan masa depan. 50 peratus adalah untuk keperluan seperti barangan dapur, utiliti dan kenderaan. Ketepikan 20 peratus untuk simpanan atau tabung persaraan dan selebihnya adalah untuk gaya hidup seperti membeli-belah, melancong, keahlian gim dan lain-lain.

3. Menikmati perkara yang memberi kepuasan diri

Jangan menyeksa diri dengan mengorbankan perkara yang menggembirakan anda seperti membeli buku penulis kegemaran atau makanan yang menyelerakan tetapi berbelanjalah dengan berhemah. Senaraikan barangan atau aktiviti yang dibuat dan kurangkan belanja pada yang paling kurang digemari. Misalnya, jika anda pergi ke gim seminggu sekali sahaja dan lebih suka berlari di luar, mungkin keahlian gim itu bukanlah sesuatu yang begitu penting untuk dibelanjakan.

4. Beri perhatian pada rancangan masa depan

Mungkin kamu merasakan terlalu awal untuk memikirkan tentang rancangan pada umur 60 tahun, tetapi ia adalah satu perancangan yang perlu dibuat seawal mungkin. Menyimpan seawal umur 20-an merupakan satu keputusan yang bijak bagi memastikan masa tua yang lebih selesa. Pastikan anda mempunyai tabung persaraan dan juga aset yang mencukupi.

5. Simpan wang lebihan belanja anda setiap hari

Jadikan satu tabiat untuk menyimpan baki wang belanja setiap hari di dalam tabung fizikal yang boleh diletakkan di dalam bilik, kereta atau di sebelah mesin basuh (ketika mengosongkan wang daripada poket seluar) .

Walaupun ia mungkin hanya sekadar wang bernilai RM1, tetapi ia mampu menjadi dana kecemasan terutamanya apabila menjelang hujung bulan sebelum menerima gaji bulanan. Misalnya, jika anda menyimpan RM5 setiap hari selama setahun, anda mampu memperoleh RM1,825.

6. Buat simpanan secara automatik

Mengaktifkan simpanan secara automatik sebanyak 15 hingga 20 peratus sebulan mampu memberikan anda lebih kawalan terhadap perbelanjaan diri. Jika ada mempunyai akaun simpanan ASB, aplikasi simpanan secara automatik boleh diaktifkan tanpa perlu risau jika terlupa untuk memindahkan wang.

7. Berbincang dengan pasangan tentang wang

Jika anda berada di dalam perhubungan, amat penting untuk berbincang dengan jujur mengenai kedudukan kewangan isi rumah daripada menyembunyikannya. Sebaiknya, tahu tentang skor kredit, gaji dan juga hutang masing-masing. Jika terdapat masalah kewangan, berusaha untuk mencari penyelesaian yang sebaiknya dengan berbincang secara baik.

8. Sediakan RM1,000 dana kecemasan

Dalam satu artikel yang dipetik dari The Star baru-baru ini telah mengeluarkan satu statistik yang mengejutkan apabila sebahagian daripada rakyat Malaysia atau 52 peratus daripadanya tidak mampu untuk mengeluarkan RM1,000 bagi hal kecemasan.

Dana kecemasan ini amat penting bagi memastikan jika berlaku sebarang perkara yang tidak diingini, kamu sudah mempunyai sekurang-kurang 3 hingga 6 bulan wang simpanan.

9. Tahu skor kredit kamu

Skor kredit memberikan anda penarafan berdasarkan bilangan pinjaman dan kad kredit yang telah diambil dan samada anda membayarnya semula secara konsisten. Ia juga memberikan analisis mendalam tentang semua hutang dan tabiat pembayaran semula serta menyemak jika terlepas sebarang bayaran penting.

Sejarah kredit anda disimpan dan dijejak oleh pangkalan data milik Bank Negara Malaysia, dikenali sebagai Sistem Maklumat Rujukan Kredit Pusat (CCRIS). Rekod ini juga akan menjadi rujukan pihak bank samada anda layak atau tidak untuk mendapatkan pinjaman daripada mereka.

10. Miliki hanya satu kad kredit

Jika perlu, miliki hanya satu kad kredit sahaja yang digunakan untuk urusan kecemasan semasa anda tidak mempunyai sebarang wang tunai di tangan. Jika perlu, batalkan kad-kad lain dan pilih kad kredit yang mempunyai sejarah skor kredit yang paling lama.

11. Sediakan senarai perbelanjaan sebelum meninggalkan rumah atau melayari laman web beli-belah

Buat satu senarai yang mempunyai barangan yang harus dibeli sebelum keluar membeli-belah supaya anda tidak tersasar daripada yang sepatutnya. Jangan mudah terpedaya dengan emel atau tawaran murah dan fikir jika anda benar-benar memerlukannya. Catatkan juga barangan yang perlu dibeli dalam masa terdekat untuk digunakan dan juga barangan yang diinginkan sekian lama.

12.  Jangan takut untuk meminta kenaikan gaji

Mengikut kajian, 20 peratus wanita dewasa mendedahkan mereka tidak pernah berbincang berkenaan kenaikan gaji walaupun ia merupakan perkara yang relevan. Jika mereka meminta kenaikan, ia juga tidak banyak dan 30 peratus lebih rendah daripada rakan sekerja lelaki.

Jangan takut untuk berbincang dengan majikan anda tentangnya, terutama jika anda bekerja dalam tempoh lebih 3 tahun di syarikat yang sama. Terangkan sumbangan dan juga komitmen yang telah anda berikan kepada syarikat selama ini.

Sebagai seorang wanita yang bekerjaya, tidak mudah untuk merancang kewangan dengan berkesan terutamanya apabila sudah mempunyai komitmen dan juga tanggungjawab yang perlu dilaksanakan. Namun, dengan perancangan yang rapi dan awal, ia mampu menjamin masa depan yang lebih cerah dan stabil.

Adakah anda mempunyai kaedah tersendiri untuk mengurus kewangan secara berkesan? Kongsi dengan kami dalam ruangan komen di bawah.