This is a sponsored post by DBS and the views expressed in this article belong to the author.
There are certain things in life that are immensely hard to talk about.
That atrocious armani or centre-parting hairstyle you spotted as a teenager.
How the last time Liverpool won the BPL was over 30 years ago.
And of course, the state of your finances.
This is probably why a visit to the dentist is often more appealing than talking to a financial advisor. Both are for your own good, but nobody will put off going to the dentist for years – or decades even – or blue tick them for eternity.
Not to mention there’s also that nagging suspicion that your financial advisor doesn’t always have your best interest at heart (often unwarranted, but you kena one time is enough).
In response to all of this, Singaporeans do the one thing they do best. Keep quiet and don’t ask anyone. Not your financial advisor, not your parents and sometimes, not even your spouse.
That’s terrible because there might be stuff you’re doing wrong – and the longer you wait to seek treatment and advice, the worse it gets. (Kinda like any disease, really.)
Which brings us to DBS NAV Planner – it’s a nifty little function for DBS customers (which let’s face it, is A LOT OF Singaporeans) to get a good overview of their finances.
Without. Talking. To. Anyone.
Here are some key metrics you need to be looking at.
The Broad Picture: Your Net Worth
Why it’s a big deal: Your net worth is one of the most important numbers you need to know about your finances. It affects how you invest, save and spend. It also tells you how far you are off your goals. All it is basically, is your total assets minus your total liabilities.
Now, the first time you find out your net worth is either a shocking realisation you haven’t done enough, or a moment of sweet vindication for all the times you’ve been called a cheapskate.
It’s often scary, which is why people put this off again and again and again.
How DBS NAV Planner helps:
With DBS NAV Planner, you get to experience that moment alone instead of feeling exposed and vulnerable. All of your DBS accounts, including savings, credit cards, and investments, are automatically logged into DBS NAV Planner.
The rest, such as insurance coverage, CPF balance and property holdings, all will need manual input.
DBS NAV Planner then charts changes to your assets and liabilities across the last six months, providing a snapshot of your net worth.
Your Burn Rate: Monthly Spending
Why it’s a big deal: For most people, the journey towards wealth often begins by spending less than you earn. Knowing that you don’t save enough every month is one thing. Knowing how much and exactly what you spend it is another.
How DBS NAV Planner Helps:
If you, like me, hate explaining your spending habits to someone else like it’s audit season, this helps a lot.
Money going out of your DBS accounts and spending on DBS cards is automatically categorised into buckets such as shopping, entertainment & leisure, and fees & charges.
You can also key in spending done in cash and through cards from other banks to get as accurate an account of your spending as possible, because this is crucial for the next step.
This way, you can find out if you’re spending too much on bubble tea, or ordering GrabFood because you were too lazy to cook.
There’s even an option to set a budget so you get some help keeping an eye on whether that Italian restaurant visit you have planned will put you in the red.
Your Safety Net: Emergency Savings
Why it’s a big deal: It is often said that when it comes to being a successful investment, it’s more a matter of temperament, not intelligence.
Of course, this ‘great temperament’ isn’t going to come out of nowhere.
I’ll make the argument you can ‘buy’ great temperament – after all, if you’ve enough cash to last two years sitting in your bank account, you’re less likely to obsess over the market fluctuations and make hasty decisions.
How DBS NAV Planner helps: Using your spending as a baseline, it calculates how many months of emergency savings you have.
This is done by dividing your total cash savings (usually what you have in saving accounts) with the average money outflow over six months. This also means that the longer you record your spending, the more accurate the estimate of how long your emergency savings can last.
As DBS NAV Planner points out, the general guideline is three to six months’ emergency savings to tide over unexpected changes to your circumstances such as sudden loss of income.
(Of course, more conservative individuals will opt for more, but too much funds kept in savings will mean you’re actually losing money due to inflation. )
Your risk profile: Are you investing enough
Why it’s a big deal: In case you missed it, Singaporeans are underinvested.
This makes them sit out on plenty of opportunities in the stock market. Especially true if you’re someone in their 20s and 30s and less than 50% of your net worth invested!
How DBS NAV Planner helps: It lets you know immediately how much of your net worth is in investments. DBS’s RoboAdvisor, DigiPortfolio and InvestSaver, are automatically synced. In addition, it’ll suggest some simple investment ideas you can explore, as well provide a handy database of info to tap on.
Can it replace a financial advisor?
Automation is the big word in the labour force these days, and we’ve already seen RoboAdvisors become wildly popular amongst millennials.
Certainly, after reading this article, you might think that you’d never need to visit a human financial advisor ever again. Well, our opinion is that when it comes to stuff like life insurance, you’ll still need to talk to a financial advisor (DBS also has their own tele-advisory service. Yes, you can get financial advice from the comfort of your home! You can reach out to them through DBS TeleAdvisory or by clicking “Speak to an Expert” in DBS NAV Planner).
That said, what DBS NAV Planner can do is to bring you to a basic level of competency so you can engage a financial advisor without being ‘smoked’ by the ones who don’t have your interests at heart.
Or even better, it can help motivate and start you on a journey of financial discovery.
If you ask us, that’s great news.