Ms Catherine Wong, chief distribution officer at French life insurer AXA, used to dread her school holidays as she never had a chance to do the things she liked.
The second child in a family of eight, she was 10 when her father roped her in to help out at his two bookshops in Victoria Street and Geylang Serai which specialised in selling secondary school textbooks.
'I didn't get the chance to play during my school holidays. I would be at the bookshops, taking inventory and learning how to balance and order stock,' Ms Wong, 55, recalled.
But it also meant that when it came to money management skills, she had a head start over her peers. When she was in secondary school, she took over the stock control at both bookshops.
Ironically, she decided against the entrepreneurial route because she saw how hard her father worked at his business, sacrificing his evenings and weekends.
But her early work experience did not go to waste. Knowing that she had a good head for figures, she decided to specialise in accountancy.
Prior to joining AXA in 2003, Ms Wong was with British life insurer Prudential for about 32 years.
She joined the insurer in 1971 as an accounts clerk and worked her way up to be its finance head and later, head of distribution, where she was responsible for the insurer's overall sales and agency force.
She is married to Mr Wong Fook Seng, 56, who is general manager of planning at Keppel Fels. They have a daughter, Lynette, 29, a manager at Barclays Bank.
Q: What are your money habits?
My personal money habits can be summed up in one equation: income minus savings equals expenses. I've stuck to this simple money management philosophy for many years as it ensures that I'm able to live within my means without having to worry about being in debt.
I tend to withdraw $500 every Friday night so that I can keep track of my expenditure easily. If my allowance runs low by mid-week, it's a signal to reduce spending on non-essential items.
The savings that I set aside each month go towards building funds for emergency situations and investment opportunities. I save the bulk of my salary because my husband and I pool together and jointly manage our financial resources.
Our living expenses are capped by one person's salary so that if either spouse is retrenched or decides to retire early, our lifestyle will not be significantly affected.
I don't use my credit cards often except to pay for petrol and for big- ticket items, and I pay my credit card bills in full monthly.
Q: What financial planning have you done for yourself?
My investment portfolio comprises a mix of about 55 per cent corporate bonds, 40 per cent equities and 5 per cent cash. I tend to have a heavier proportion of bonds, which are safer, due to my risk preference and shorter time horizon. After I hit 50, I shifted more of my investments to bonds for interest income and capital preservation.
My bonds have tenors of between five and 15 years and they generate an income flow of about 5 to 8 per cent per annum.
My equities are mostly unit trusts and investment-linked insurance policies. Out of my equities, I have $400,000 invested in AXA funds, such as the Pacific Equity Fund and Singapore Equity Fund, since I joined the firm in 2003.
Over the past five boom years, I've achieved average returns of between 8 and 10 per cent on my portfolio.
Q: What about insurance planning?
I'm in favour of quality financial advice. Even though I'm finance- trained and have been working in insurance companies, my husband and I have an AXA financial planner who helps us with our protection and wealth management needs.
I'm covered for about $3 million in various whole life, term and critical illness plans, and pay about $22,000 in annual premiums.
Q: What's your investment philosophy?
Since I was 20, I've had one guiding principle - net assets must grow every month. For my mid- to long-term investment portfolio, I'm inclined towards reviewing my entire investment portfolio rather than cherry-picking specific funds that are flavours of the month or year.
Having this perspective on investing helped especially in March and June this year when markets were depressed and the value of equities started to drop.
So far this year, I have invested about $1 million to rebalance my equity/bond holdings, to dollar cost average (invest regularly with small amounts).
In the short term, I practise the buy low, sell high principle. In the last month or so, I went into the stock market, something that I hadn't done for 12 years as I didn't have time to monitor market movement.
However, the lure of companies with strong underlying fundamentals but priced at the current rates was hard to resist. I made about 25 per cent gains when there was a brief market rally, in the period between Oct 25 and end-November, by investing in three counters.
Q: Please elaborate on your property investments.
Up to August last year, I had four properties, including one bought in my daughter's name. We sold three last year.
In 1986, my husband and I bought a 1,800 sq ft terrace house in Ellington Square for $440,000 to live in. We sold it last year for $1.15 million.
In 2003, I bought a freehold 1,100 sq ft three-bedroom condo apartment in River Valley for $900,000 with the intention of enjoying a constant stream of rental income. However, when the property market was hot last year, I decided to sell it with tenancy for $1.35 million around September.
I also helped my daughter buy a 764 sq ft condo in Holland Village in September 2006 for $730,000. Lynette came up with $120,000 and I paid the balance in cash. It was sold for $1.2 million in December last year. With the gains in sales proceeds, she gave me back the cash I had put in, plus $20,000.
Q: Moneywise, what were your growing-up years like?
I come from a middle-income family. My dad was a businessman who owned two bookshops and my mum was a homemaker. We led a prudent lifestyle and many of my money management principles were greatly influenced by my parents.
When we were young, my dad had a simple rule for all of us - we must have savings at the end of every month. And this has carried through even into my adult life.
Q: What has been a bad investment?
I haven't really had any bad investment since I'm usually quite careful about where my money goes.
Given the current market situation, the value of my equity holdings has dropped by about 30 to 40 per cent but it doesn't affect me because my aim is to hold and wait for the market to recover. It would be a poor investment decision if I were to liquidate my investments now.
Q: Your best investment to date?
My best investment would be the first property that my husband and I owned - the terrace house in Ellington Square.
Prior to that, we lived with my mum and later rented an HDB flat when our daughter was born.
We took a 30-year loan on this property but made a commitment to use our annual increments and bonuses to pay off whatever we could in order to save on interest payment.
It was challenging but the approach helped us to settle the mortgage within seven years. As I've said, we sold this home last year for $1.15 million.
Q: What's your retirement plan?
I'm still very passionate about work and I will continue to work as long as I can add value to my role. I have no plans to retire yet.
But when I do, I will be relying on my cash and CPF (Central Provident Fund) savings, insurance plans and investments to see me through my golden years.
I've accumulated about $1 million in CPF savings, because I've deliberately kept it for retirement purpose. The cash that I have is then allocated to investing in funds, stocks, bonds, property and so on, to offer the potential upside and grow my wealth.
Q: And your home now is...?
A three-storey corner terrace house off Ang Mo Kio. We bought it in January last year for $1.1 million and it is two houses away from my previous matrimonial home.
The land area is 2,800 sq ft with a built-up area of 3,700 sq ft. We moved in in December last year after tearing it down and rebuilding it. I spent $700,000 on construction, renovation and fixtures.
Q: And your car is...?
My only vice is my love for cars. I drive a dark grey BMW 5 series. My husband has a black BMW 5 series.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on December 21, 2008.
