Looking at all the happenings to the MiniBonds and what-have-you, it seems to me that many people do not have a basic foundation in financial planning. While it is impossible to eliminate such “bombs,” I am surprised that there are many people who claim that they invested huge amount of their life saving into such product. I think this is the tip of the ice-berg. I have often seen people buying into useless insurance products, underperforming investments and having clueless what they really need. It does not help that there are many “free” seminars floating in the market of which often have some underlying vested interest. The most common vested interest is to get audience to buy some products, buy some software or to sign up for a trading account to trade securities.

Not too long ago I come across a group of individuals who attended CFP lectures so as to educate themselves in financial planning. I also come across another person I met in a separate occasion who also attended such a course to be educated in financial planning. Yesterday I checked the price of such course – a whopping S$4000! I don’t think it is necessary to pay so much to get educated and it is an “overkill” to attend such course because such course is meant to help an individual achieve a professional status. The man-in-the-street does not need to attend such an expensive course just to get educated. However, the fact there are people who is willing to pay such high fee to educate themselves does indicate that there is potentially a demand. So in view of this, I am thinking of conducting classes to help the man-in-the-street to be educated in financial matters. There is an old saying – “Give a man a fish and he will be hungry the next day; teach him how to fish and he will never be hungry.” I hope through such a course, the man-in-the-street will be taught “how to fish” and does not need to rely on others again. For this to be successful, my opinion is that such a course should be:

• Conducted during non-working hours like weekday evenings
• Located in easy-to-access location
• Affordable. Should not cost $4000. Perhaps 5%-10% of that figure.
• Does not seek to “cram” everything into one session. Perhaps 4 sessions or 8 sessions depending on the depth of the lessons;
• Academically stimulating (must have “ingredient”)
• Practically beneficial (must be applicable to real life situation)
• No product selling (students who after attending such a course should be able to do basic DIY themselves)
• Broad in scope e.g. Cash flow, Budgeting, Balance Sheet, Ratios,  Risk Management, Wealth Management, Retirement Planning, Estate Planning, Legacy Planning, etc.
• For those keen in greater depth for the respective topics, it can be a separate course;
• Independence – the course itself should be reasonably profitable to the organizer so that there is no underlying “vested” interest.

Possibility I might be the first person in Singapore to think of this idea of organizing such courses for the man-in-the-street. The most important differentiating factor will be that it will not be like those “free seminars” with underlying vested interest.

I am thinking of setting up like a private school to conduct such lessons with myself initially as the lecturer and eventually of this is successful, to include other lecturers. However, when I check the process of setting up a private school, I almost fainted with the paper work required. So I think I’ll do it on a smaller scale basis. I aim to have 25 to 50 people per class. I am most worried about rental and having it in condos etc is either not convenient nor professional. I will work on it slowly but surely and aim to get it up and running next year.