Money Wisdom: Simple Truths For Financial Wellness

by Christopher Tan

Financial wellness invariably ranks among an individual’s top life pursuits. After all, with wealth (and health), we have the options to do what we really want to do with the people most significant to us. Nonetheless, considering the unceasing economic and market uncertainties that plague the world today, it is crucial, now more than ever, that people acquire money wisdom—clear, unvarnished and simple financial truths—to navigate through the minefields of misinformation and false promises in order to achieve financial security. In Money Wisdom, author and veteran financial adviser Christoper Tan distils his over 20 years of broad and penetrating insights—penned painstakingly in a series of articles and commentaries—to equip ordinary, working individuals and families with financial truths and tools. These include risk mitigation, insurance planning, retirement planning and personal finance, all of which are aimed at guiding readers to make purposeful life and financial decisions. Genuine, personal and comprehensive, Money Wisdom serves as a roadmap to inspire readers and even sophisticated investors to build meaningful and enduring financial wellness. The insightful counsel that peppers the pages of this book, oftentimes made only accessible to mainly institutional and affluent individuals, is now brought to the man in the street.

Genres: Personal Finance

Kindle Edition

Published December 15, 2019

About the author

Christopher Tan is an award-winning writer, cooking instructor and photographer. His articles, columns, recipes and photographs have appeared in many international publications, including Singapore's Sunday Times and Straits Times, The Peak Selections: Gourmet & Travel magazine, and America’s Saveur magazine.

A regular cooking and baking teacher at Shermay's Cooking School, Christopher has also presented talks, demos and tasting sessions revolving around cuisine and culture at many venues, among them Singapore's National Museum and Peranakan Museum, the Culinary Institute of America’s Napa Valley campus, Le Musee Quai Branly in Paris and The Sydney International Food Festival. He has authored and co-authored many cookbooks, including: Singapore Cooking, a compendium of local favourites; Inside the Southeast Asian Kitchen: Foodlores and Flavours, an ASEAN-commissioned volume on the foodways of its constituent nations; Ask The Foodie: Kitchen Knowhow Explained, a collection of his newspaper columns; and Chinese Heritage Cooking, a celebration of traditional Singaporean Chinese recipes. NerdBaker is his 10th cookbook.

Reviews

[Tim Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good first book for anyone wanting to consolidate their personal finance knowledge in the Singapore context.

I was introduced this book by a friend who had rave reviews about the author's financial planning knowledge. My expectations were met as I found the content easy to digest. I especially liked the thorough explanations on how the commission-based model creates unavoidable conflicts of interest.

Favourite quote - "I had lunch with a CEO of a large fund management company. While we were eating, he shared with me that after decades of trying to guess where the markets were going and trying to beat it, he had come to the realisation that it was better to let 'dead dogs lie' — i.e., do nothing."

[Y T · Rating 4 out of 5]

A refreshing read to go back to the basics, e.g. paying off credit card debt, etc.

The author also shares his honest feedback on the limitations of the current financial advisory model which we see in Singapore, where there is a conflict of interest when advisors are paid commissions on the products they sell.

I find it enlightening on how he also writes about what happens when we need to draw down on our retirement funds. Most literature today only deal with accumulation but little is mentioned about drawing them down, until I read this book.

Overall an interesting read with insightful sharing from the author.