Helping My Mum Manage A Part Of Her Savings

-

This is going to be a relatively short post, to share how I help my mum to manage a part of her cash savings.  My mum is a typical saver, and not interested in any form of investments as she feels insecure with the possibility of losing a part of the capital.  Thus, her cash is usually stashed away in the various fixed deposits, especially those offering promotional rates by the different banks.

For regular readers of this blog, you will know that I am a Malaysian, Singapore Permanent Residence.  Thus my mum stays in Malaysia and she manages her Malaysia accounts herself and also with my brother.  For part of her Singapore savings, I help her to manage.  My mum has Singapore savings because she prefers that I give her the allowance in Singapore Dollars, which she believes retain value much better than the Malaysian Ringgit.

For now, I have helped her to save a portion of her monies in Maybank fixed deposits and Singapore Savings Bonds, all yielding above 3%.  

Although it may seem that investing the sum into equities will yield higher returns, but I think it is much more important to respect my mum's wishes in this aspect on how the sum should be saved, as it is her money and it's her call how it should be stashed away.  If stashing all into fixed deposit gives her the peace of mind, I think that is all that matters.  I think it is sometimes important to put yourself into your elderly parents' shoes and consider their perspectives.  Following their instructions on how to allocate their personal belongings will show them that they are still being respected and not over-rided on every decision-making process.  I believe this is something important for elderly parents' mental health in their golden years.

Nonetheless, my brother and I will continue to give her a monthly allowance and subsidize part of her holiday trips whenever we can.  I suppose the best way that I can help to complement her lifestyle, is I am self-sufficient and have the means and excess to set aside for rainy days.  Barista FIRE, here I come...!

Comments

  1. Anonymous9 November 2023 at 15:18

    Hi there,

    What you are doing for your mum is the right thing to do. At that age they want safety and peace of mind.

    Besides, why would she need to take on additional risk as her assets are pretty diversified already. She has:

    a. Her home
    b. Her savings
    c. Her grown children providing her regular allowance!

    On the other hand, for ourselves, we should strive to be the last sanwiched generation, ie not to be financially dependent on our children.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BFIRE9 November 2023 at 16:49

      Hi Anonymous,
      Thank you for your feedback. Indeed, the last thing I want my mum to be concerned about is whether her retirement capital is safe. Basically, following her wishes is the best thing I can do for her currently in my personal opinion.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My First Trip To Japan Together With My Mum!

-
Image
This is my first trip travelling out of ASEAN region, where I have to plan every bit of the itinerary myself.  For previous family trips to Sydney and Perth, I am generally tagging along, being a follower.  However this time, it is going to be a duo trip with just my mum and myself, which I am both looking forward to, while at the same time worried about how things will turn out there and then.  Nonetheless, the decision has been made by late last year, and I booked the flights for 2, flying with Scoot to Kansai Airport for our 9 days 8 nights trip.  Feels good that a goal set early this year is materialized! Without further ado, I will share the travel journey below: Day 1 Arrived at Kansai Airport in the afternoon, and we grabbed a quick snack at the famous 551 Horai outlet.  Then after much complications with the Haruka Limited Express, we are finally able to board the Hello Kitty's train direct to Kyoto!   Haruka Limited Express We reached Hearton Hot...
Read more

Incorporating The Idea of Safe Withdrawal Rate to Living Off Dividend Income

-
Image
Recently in a Telegram group, I come across a debate between Kyith from Investment Moats and a reader, where the reader claims that as long as his portfolio is made up dividend stocks with good dividend growth through the years, he can just live off the dividends with the total capital left intact, while Kyith on the other hand, supports the idea of Safe Withdrawal Rate (SWR).  The reader claims that he would not want to sell any part of his portfolio, and just having to live off the dividends makes dividend investing superior to the withdrawal method, while Kyith explains that the reader's perspectives show a lack of understanding of how the SWR method actually works. After reading the long string of exchanges in the telegram group, I decided to pen this post.  Personally, I am definitely a supporter of the dividend investing group, and I also believe, and strives towards just living off dividend income upon FIRE.  From a dividend income investor perspective, the idealis...
Read more

Coping With The 32% Decline In Dividends

-
Image
As a dividend investor, I have been slowly accumulating shares in REITs and dividend shares to grow the annual dividend income since late 2017.  I am blessed and contented with the performance thus far, as the total dividends received annually continues to grow, despite hiccups along the way.  First major hiccup along the way is in 2020, where the strike of the pandemic and the circuit breaker hit businesses and some REITs in a huge way, resulting in cuts in dividends.  The second major hiccup recently will be in 2022 where the FED suddenly hike interest rates at rocket speed, and that created financial stress on REITs, which inevitably resulted in the drop in distributions by most REITs to varying degree.  Thankfully, with the slight diversification into other dividend-paying shares, they helped to mitigate the decline, and allowed my portfolio to experience dividend growth year-on-year. This year, on 23rd February 2024, Hong Leong Finance (HLF) reported their earni...
Read more